A Walk in the Park: Asbel González Cuts His Caught Stealing in Half
By Jess Henderson ·
In the third inning on June 10 at ABC Supply Stadium in Beloit, Wis., Asbel González was standing on third after a walk and a Blake Mitchell single. While Ramon Ramirez batted, Mitchell broke for second and González broke for home on a double steal, which cut Beloit's lead to 2-1, according to the River Bandits' recap on MiLB.com. It was his third steal of the night and his 32nd of the season. He had already taken second and third in the first inning, per the MiLB.com box score. Quad Cities came back to win a rain-shortened game 16-10.
He finished his High-A season with 67 steals, and the Royals named him the winner of the Willie Wilson Award, which goes to the top baserunner in their system, for the second year in a row. That was 11 fewer steals than his 78 at Single-A Columbia in 2025. The better number fell further: he was caught stealing 26 times in 2025 and 13 times in 2026, half as often, while moving up a level.
The question that follows him is the bat. González hit .262/.358/.314 at Quad Cities, and 80Grade's report projects him as a reserve center fielder and pinch-running option unless the bat develops further.
Asbel González, Center Field: 67 Steals in 80 Attempts
The Royals announced the award on Sept. 21. González, 20, stole his 67 bases in 110 games at Quad Cities, the most in the organization, and the club said that ranked second in the minors behind the Cubs' Kane Kepley, who had 70. Kansas City signed him out of Maracay, Venezuela, as an international free agent in January 2023. Joelvis Gonzalez, one of the three scouts the Royals credit with signing him, won the club's Art Stewart Scout of the Year award in the same announcement. González played in the Dominican Summer League in 2023, moved to the Arizona Complex League in 2024 and finished that year with four games at Double-A Northwest Arkansas at 18.
His first full season, at Columbia in 2025, was about volume. Royals On SI, citing MiLB, reported that he was the first minor leaguer since at least 2005 to steal 30 bases before May 1. On Aug. 23 at SRP Park he stole his 69th base of the year, which broke the Fireflies' career record of 68 that Jean Ramirez set over the 2021 through 2023 seasons, according to the Fireflies' recap on MiLB.com. He finished with 78 steals in 104 attempts, a 75 percent success rate.
That spring, Mitch Maier, the Royals' director of player development, described him to MLB.com's Anne Rogers. "He's a really instinctual baserunner," Maier said. "He has a good feel and understanding for when he can go, when he can't go. He's not just running to run." I copied the last sentence into my journal, and under it I wrote a question I didn't answer: what would it look like if the runner who stole 78 bases started believing that line himself?
I haven't found a published coach's or broadcaster's description of what changed in his jumps this year, so the numbers have to do the explaining. At Quad Cities he attempted 80 steals, 24 fewer than in 2025, and stole 67, only 11 fewer. I'm usually a little skeptical when "instincts" gets used to explain a player, because the word can cover for almost anything, but that trade shows up in a column anyone can check.
The Beloit night showed both sides of it. Two innings after stealing home, González singled in a run in the fifth and was picked off first base by Peyton Fosher right after it, per the MiLB.com box score. Three steals and a pickoff in one game is a fair picture of a 20-year-old still finding where the edges are. Three weeks later, on June 30 at home against Cedar Rapids, he singled to start the third, stole second and scored on a Luke Pelzer double to tie the game. In the eighth he walked, stole second again, took third when the catcher's throw got away and scored on a Pelzer single in an 8-3 win, according to the River Bandits' recap on MiLB.com.
When I hike, I set a turnaround time before the summit, because I'd rather walk back down than make a bad call just because the top was the plan. González ran less this year, gave up very little for it, and was thrown out half as often. Maier described that judgment in 2025, and the 2026 caught-stealing total is the measurable version of it.
What 80Grade Sees Next
None of it works unless he reaches first, and González gets there in ways that don't show up in a slugging percentage. He drew 52 walks in 510 plate appearances at Quad Cities and was hit by 14 pitches, after 29 hit-by-pitches at Columbia, per Baseball-Reference. He stands in, takes the pitch and goes to first, where his legs take over. The River Bandits also used him the way a lineup uses a table-setter: he put down 13 sacrifice bunts.
The hits are the open question. His .314 slugging percentage was 52 points above his .262 average, and he hit three home runs. 80Grade ranks him No. 550 overall and No. 17 in the Royals system, and his 80Grade report, dated Aug. 8, grades his speed a 70, his center-field defense a 60, his hit tool a 45 and his power a 30. It calls speed the best tool in his profile and describes him as "a legitimate pressure runner," and it projects a reserve role unless the bat comes along.
The award is named for Willie Wilson, who stole 612 bases in 731 attempts for Kansas City from 1976 through 1990, per Baseball-Reference, an 83.7 percent success rate. González went 67 for 80 at Quad Cities, 83.8 percent, at 20 and at High-A, over one season rather than 15 in the majors.
Quad Cities finished the year with a Midwest League title, won 2-1 at Dayton on Sept. 15. González was hit by a pitch in the eighth inning of that game, then was forced out at second on Zion Rose's double play before Mitchell's two-run home run won it, per the MiLB.com play-by-play.
González turns 21 on Jan. 2. Over the last two seasons he has stolen 145 bases in 225 games and won the Royals' baserunning award twice. He was caught stealing 26 times at Single-A in 2025 and 13 times at High-A in 2026. He already knows when not to run, and in 2027 he needs the bat to put him on base more often so he can choose when to go.