Andy González

Angel Manuel González

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 190-205 lb.
• High School Florida Air Academy
• Debut April 25, 2007
• Final Game October 3, 2009
• Born December 15, 1981 in Rio Piedras, P.R.

BR page

Biographical Information

Infielder Andy González made his major league debut in 2007, in his 7th year in professional baseball.

In high school, González had helped his team win a state title in basketball. He was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the fifth round of the 2001 amateur draft. He made his pro debut that year with the AZL White Sox, hitting .323/.382/.508 and swiping 13 bases in 15 attempts. He showed good power potential, with 18 doubles in 189 AB. He was 9th in the Arizona League in batting average. He tied Ronny Cedeno for the AZL lead for errors by a shortstop (22) but was chosen as the league All-Star SS.

He spent 2002 with the Bristol White Sox, hitting .280/.358/.358 with 17 doubles in 254 AB. He led the Appalachian League with 7 sacrifice flies and paced Appy League shortstops with 105 putouts. In 2003, he was with the Kannapolis Intimidators and slipped to .231/.347/.282 in his first full-season playing time. He stole 22 bases in 32 tries and led South Atlantic League shortstops with 236 putouts.

He returned to Kannapolis to begin the 2004 campaign and even made two starts as a pitcher for the club before being promoted, first to the Winston-Salem Warthogs and later to the Birmingham Barons. He hit .271/.333/.354 in 12 games for Kannapolis, .255/.369/.396 in 83 games with Winston-Salem and .170/.262/.277 in 36 games for Birmingham. He began seeing significant time at third base as well.

He spent the next season back at Birmingham in a utility infielder role, hitting .274/.364/.355 with 4 homers and 63 RBIs for the club. Moving up to AAA in 2006, González did not face the transition problems he had faced when he first made it to full-season ball or to AA. He hit .271/.354/.383 for the Charlotte Knights with 6 home runs, 51 RBI and 16 steals in 24 tries. He played second base primarily, but with Tadahito Iguchi manning the position in Chicago, his future was not promising.

González returned to Charlotte to begin 2007 but earned a brief call-up to the White Sox in April when Alex Cintron was placed on the bereavement list. After entering the game as a pinch hitter, he played right field for the remainder of the contest. In two big league plate appearances, he walked and struck out. Gonzalez was sent back to AAA when Cintron returned to the Sox, but was called back to Chicago to stay shortly thereafter. He was used as a utility player throughout the year, getting playing time as both an infielder and outfielder, playing every spot except catcher and pitcher. He only hit .185/.280/.249 in 67 games for Chicago and struck out in almost a third of his at-bats. With Charlotte, he batted .242/.358/.387 in 35 games.

Andy moved to the Cleveland Indians chain in 2008. He hit .242/.340/.360 in 83 games for the Buffalo Bisons in '08 and was 5 for 24 with 6 walks and a homer for the 2008 Indians. In the 2008 Americas Baseball Cup, he batted .379/.455/.517 for the victorious Puerto Rican national team and won All-Star honors at shortstop. He tied for the lead with 4 doubles and scored 8 runs in 7 games to tie for second, one behind co-leaders Gabriel Martinez and José Hernández.

Gonzalez retired as a player from the US after the 2013 season but continued to represent Puerto Rico (in the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games) and played in the Puerto Rican League in 2014-2015. In 2015, he was named hitting coach of the Boise Hawks in the Colorado Rockies organization. Gonzalez moved to the manager's role for the Hawks in 2016. He was the "development supervisor" coach for the Grand Junction Rockies in 2017-2019. For the 2020 season, Gonzalez was named the organization's Minor League Camps and Fundamentals Coordinator. In 2022, he was named assistant hitting coach with the major league Colorado Rockies.

During his playing career, Gonzalez had played winter ball for the Criollos de Caguas of the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League. After firing manager Luis Matos on 12/14/2019, the Criolles hired Gonzalez to manage the team for the remainder of the 2019/2020 season.