Perseverance key for this Giants Minor Leaguer

This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado's Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Ismael Munguia began his baseball career at the tender age of 2 back home in Chinandega, Nicaragua.

His father helped guide him on a path that led Munguia to sign with the Giants in 2015.

Nine years later, the left fielder is having the Spring Training of his dreams and is one step closer to realizing his lifelong goal: Playing in the big leagues.

“That’s my mentality right now: to make Opening Day,” Munguia said in Spanish. “If I don’t make Opening Day, then I’ll go to Triple-A and have a great season this year.”

Munguia’s production over the course of this spring has put him on the Giants' radar as a guy who could be called up at any time. The 25-year-old entered Saturday batting .526 with two home runs and four RBIs in 12 Cactus League appearances.

“He’s worked himself into a guy that we really want to get into games because he’s performing well and he’s a lot of fun to [watch] play baseball,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said.

Munguia overcame many challenges in the last two years prior to receiving his non-roster invite to Major League camp. He was on an upward trajectory in 2021, hitting .336 with nine home runs and 53 RBIs at High-A Eugene. But his development stalled in 2022, when a broken wrist sidelined Munguia for the entire season.

The injury motivated him as he entered Minor League Spring Training last year, but it wasn’t his only inspiration.

“Starting off the year last year, my brother passed away and it was motivational for me,” Munguia said. “It helped me to keep going.”

Turning hardship into fuel, Munguia spent the entirety of the 2023 season working hard in memory of his younger brother, Francisco Antonio, who died in a motorcycle accident. Ready to return home upon news of his brother’s death, Munguia was persuaded to stay at camp by his father.

A week after the accident, Munguia was called up to the Giants for a split-squad game against the Rockies on March 3, 2023. In his first at-bat, Munguia went yard.

It was his first game -- his first at-bat -- since Sept. 18, 2021.

Munguia went 3-for-11 with a home run in Major League camp that spring (a .273 average), getting into nine games.

His performance carried into the regular season. Munguia played 75 games with the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels, slashing .282/.356/.391 with six home runs, 32 RBIs and 16 stolen bases. With those numbers, Munguia earned Richmond's "Dirty Squirrel of the Year" award, despite a knee injury that kept him out of games for part of May and almost all of June, then required a nine-game rehab stint with the Rookie-level ACL Giants.

“I think that in the middle of failure comes success,” Munguia said. “Everything is based on mentality, on what someone can take out of the negative and turn into positive.”

But his hardships are not Munguia’s only motivator.

Working alongside more veteran players like Pablo Sandoval, Jorge Soler, Wilmer Flores and Thairo Estrada this spring, as well as with his younger teammates such as Luis Matos, Marco Luciano and Camilo Doval, has inspired Munguia to become a better player.

“I talk to the younger players a lot, and we talk to each other, we help each other, and support each other,” he said. “With the veterans I ask for advice, tips on playing, things that I can implement in the game”

As the beginning of the regular season rapidly approaches, Munguia is excited most of all to share his love for the game with the Giants fan base.

“It’s something that also motivates me more to keep playing and to continue playing with happiness and it’s something that is natural for me, something that I can control, something that I can do where my heart shows,” Munguia said. “I feel a lot of satisfaction, and now the time has come for me to show Giants fans my game.”