Needless to say, it was a surreal scene a couple of weeks back when Ortiz found himself looking up at a 19-year-old teenager who managed to make even Big Papi look small.<\/p>\n\nStanding at 6-foot-6, 277 pounds, Justin Gonzales is a mammoth Red Sox minor leaguer who has emerged as one of the club\u2019s breakout prospects this spring. The outfielder is currently ranked as the organization\u2019s No. 6 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, and during his limited opportunities filling in with the big league club, he\u2019s already posted some shocking exit velocities that rank among the hardest hit balls by anyone in the game.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s certainly caught Ortiz\u2019s attention, who said he believes Gonzales has the makings of a star.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my god, he\u2019s a big kid man,\u201d Ortiz told the Herald in Fort Myers. \u201cI hope he stays healthy and continues working extremely hard, I mean, he\u2019s got so many tools to begin to be a superstar.\u201d<\/p>\n Originally signed for $250,000 out of the Dominican Republic as an international free agent ahead of the 2024 season, Gonzales made an immediate impression in his first year with the organization, earning the club\u2019s Latin Program Player of the Year. He made his debut stateside in 2025, batting .281 with four home runs, 23 doubles, 12 stolen bases and a .753 OPS in 93 games, most of those coming at Low-A Salem.<\/p>\n Gonzales also participated in the 2025 Futures at Fenway South showcase, hitting a towering home run over JetBlue Park\u2019s Green Monster, and he is expected to play in next week\u2019s Spring Breakout showcase as well.<\/p>\n But lately Gonzales has really made his mark with the big league club.<\/p>\n Every game throughout the spring the Red Sox bring up a handful of minor leaguers to serve as backups and fill-ins, and with virtually the entire big league outfield group away for the World Baseball Classic, most of the club\u2019s top outfield prospects have received even more opportunities than usual.<\/p>\n But none have made an impact like Gonzales, who shocked the baseball world on March 2 in Dunedin when he hit a single that was measured at 117.3 mph off the bat. According to Statcast, it was the second-hardest hit ball by any player in MLB this spring up to that point, and according to MLB.com\u2019s Ian Browne<\/a>, it would\u2019ve ranked as the 31st hardest-hit ball in the majors throughout the 2025 season. For perspective, that\u2019s on par with superstars like Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/p>\n Speaking to the Herald by phone earlier this week, Gonzales acknowledged he didn\u2019t expect that to happen, at least not so soon.<\/p>\n \u201cVery surprised,\u201d Gonzales said, with Red Sox player development manager Justin Frometa assisting with the interpretation. \u201cObviously (I\u2019m going to) keep working hard and hopefully God willing I know there\u2019s more in the tank because I\u2019m trying to get to 120-plus.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond that scorched single, Gonzales also hit a lineout 110 mph to the shortstop in his first game with the big league club on Feb. 26. Most recently he had an RBI single in the club\u2019s rain-shortened 2-0 win over the Rays on March 7.<\/p>\n \u201cI learn a lot being up there,\u201d Gonzales said of his time with the major league team. \u201cYou kind of see the way big leaguers go about their business, how they act and the way they handle themselves so it\u2019s a big learning experience for me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe more we see him the better it\u2019s going to be for him,\u201d Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. \u201cGood kid too, he enjoys playing the game, so we\u2019ll see him around.\u201d<\/p>\n Though no one would dispute Gonzales\u2019 monster potential, he still has a long way to go before he can fully harness his natural abilities. One area of focus has been cutting down his ground ball percentage, which was an eye-watering 57.4% last year according to FanGraphs, and driving the ball in the air more.<\/p>\n Besides the Red Sox\u2019s hitting coaches, that message has also been sent by Ortiz, who took his fellow Dominican Republic countryman under his wing.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s like a father to me,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cTalking to David, he\u2019s a very humble legend, right? You open (your) ears and you listen to him because you know what he\u2019s done in this game. Ultimately when I have these conversations with David he reminds me, big guys like me and him, we don\u2019t need to try to hit the ball hard, that happens naturally, we just need to find the barrel and hit the ball in the air. If we\u2019re able to do both of those things all other things will take care of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Ortiz said he sees a lot of himself in the young slugger.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll tell you what, I was a kid just like that,\u201d Ortiz said. \u201cWhen I was that age I don\u2019t see myself being what I am today, or what I was when I played. You worked at it, you were disciplined, and it\u2019ll take you there. So once you put that together, plus the God-given talent that you get, you can begin to be anything you want, you\u2019ve just got to keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n Though it will probably be a couple of years before Gonzales is ready for primetime, the young slugger has visited Fenway Park once before as part of the club\u2019s minor league awards presentation toward the end of 2024. He described that as a \u201cbeautiful and wonderful experience\u201d that he\u2019ll never forget, and he often thinks about one day making it back and taking the field in a Red Sox uniform.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always thinking about how exciting that will be,\u201d Gonzales said. \u201cMy goal is to get there and hit a lot of home runs when I\u2019m there.\u201d<\/p>\n It was more of a grind than anyone would have hoped, but Team USA survived pool play and beat Canada in the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals Friday, setting up a titanic showdown with the Dominican Republic in the semifinals Sunday night.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not an exaggeration to say this game could feature the greatest collection of baseball talent ever assembled for a meaningful game.<\/p>\n The star power that\u2019ll be on display Sunday at loanDepot Park in Miami will be nothing short of breathtaking. Paul Skenes, the game\u2019s top young arm and the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, will face a Dominican Republic lineup that should include superstars like Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado and Junior Caminero, among others. Meanwhile the Dominican Republic will try to contend with an American lineup led by Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper, Bobby Witt Jr. and a whole bunch more.<\/p>\n Given how young some of the teams\u2019 stars are \u2014 Roman Anthony and Caminero could still have 20 years of big league baseball in front of them \u2014 it will be decades before the full extent of these rosters\u2019 greatness is known. But would anyone be surprised if the two teams wound up combining for 10 or more Hall of Famers? Wouldn\u2019t shock me, and it\u2019s even possible this game could challenge the 1932 World Series between the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs, whose rosters featured 13 future Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n It will be one for the ages, and no matter the outcome, baseball fans everywhere should appreciate the spectacle the World Baseball Classic has become.<\/p>\n What a journey it has been for Shane Smith, the Danvers native and former Governor\u2019s Academy star who has emerged as one of baseball\u2019s most unlikely success stories in recent years.<\/p>\n Having overcome a litany of injuries that limited him to a handful of innings at Wake Forest, Smith went undrafted in 2021 but surged through the minor league ranks, eventually going to the Chicago White Sox as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 Rule 5 Draft. Smith made the most of his big league opportunity once with the White Sox, establishing himself as Chicago\u2019s best starter and earning All-Star honors as a rookie.<\/p>\n Now, Smith has been announced as the White Sox\u2019s Opening Day starter. He will take the mound against the Brewers when Chicago kicks off the regular season on March 26.<\/p><\/div>\n When David Ortiz walks into Red Sox camp, he\u2019s impossible to miss. Even in retirement, the Hall of Fame slugger remains a larger-than-life figure who towers over the active players who flock to him for advice. Needless to say, it was a surreal scene a couple of weeks back when Ortiz found himself looking up … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Massive-Red-Sox-prospect-mentored-by-David-Ortiz-turning-heads.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24152,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24150\/revisions\/24152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"FORT](\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260307_MM_ST_TAM_006.jpg\")
![\"FORT](\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260307_RO_ST_TAM_016.jpg\")
![\"United](\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26069119850053.jpg\")
USA-DR showdown for the ages<\/h4>\n
![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP25109751560111.jpg\")
Smith named Opening Day starter<\/h4>\n
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