In his career as a whole, González averaged 42 home runs, 135 RBI, 81 extra-base hits, and 353 total bases per 162 games, placing him well within the top ten all-time in these season-adjusted statistics.
González grew up in a rough area of Puerto Rico, where as a young boy he learned to hit bottlecaps and corks with a broomstick handle in the Alto de Cuba barrio.
González has always wanted to serve as a role model for the kids of Puerto Rico, as they are faced with the downfalls of drugs and prostitution frequently.
His father, a math teacher, and mother, a housewife, made sure González and his two sisters behaved properly and stayed away from negative influences.
He paid utility bills for down-on-their-luck friends and plans on working to construct recreation facilities and a baseball diamond in his home town.
In 1987, González showed some improvement with the Gastonia Rangers, though Mark Whiten and Junior Felix were deemed better outfield prospects in the South Atlantic League.
The next year, he showed more improvement with the Tulsa Drillers hitting .293/~.322/.506 with 21 home runs and led the Texas League with 254 total bases.
He was the American League home run champion (one more than Mark McGwire) while also ranking 3rd in TB (309), 4th in extra-base hits (69), 5th in slugging percentage (.529), 7th in RBIs (109) while winning his first Silver Slugger Award.
He led the AL for the second consecutive year with 46 bombs, while raising his batting average an impressive 50 points to .310, all this to go along with a league-leading slugging percentage of .632.
The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract listed him as the player who had the highest ratio of slugging percentage to on-base percentage in baseball history at that time, ahead of Dave Kingman and Tony Armas and 4th in RBI per game by an outfielder (behind Sam Thompson, Joe DiMaggio and Babe Ruth).
He received the honorable selection of American League Player of the Month in July, leading the majors in batting (.407), homers (15), RBI (38), slugging (.917) and total bases (99).
[8] That year, the Texas Rangers made the playoffs, and in the 1996 American League Division Series, González homered five times in four games and batted .438/.526/1.375 with 9 RBI.
The Rangers offense was miserable in the Division Series, scoring just one run on a Pudge Rodriguez single after doubling to lead off the inning.
A few weeks later González didn't dress for the Hall of Fame exhibition game because (according to the media) the uniform pants the Rangers brought for him were too large.
"[9] Following the 1999 season, with one year left on his contract, the slugger was traded by the Texas Rangers along with Danny Patterson and Gregg Zaun in a blockbuster nine-player deal with the Detroit Tigers for Frank Catalanotto, Francisco Cordero, Bill Haselman, Gabe Kapler, Justin Thompson, and Alan Webb.
The Puerto Rico native stumbled through the rest of the season and saw his production dip to an all-time low (22 home runs, 67 RBI in 115 games).
He was sixth in the 2001 AL in batting average, 5th in slugging, 6th in OPS, 9th in home runs (35), second in RBI (140, (in 140 games) one behind leader Bret Boone), 8th in OPS+, tied for third in double plays grounded into (18) and led the league with 16 sacrifice flies.
Although González finished the regular season rather slowly, he showed up in a big way in the playoffs where he hit .348/.348/.739 for Cleveland in the Division Series with 3 doubles, 2 homers and 5 RBI in 5 games.
In 1995, González joined the San Juan Senators for the 1995 Caribbean Series and hit .375 with 6 RBI as the Puerto Rican "Dream Team" won the title.
[21] González was also briefly mentioned in the Mitchell Report regarding a 2001 incident in which an unmarked bag in the Indians' team luggage was detained by customs in Toronto, Canada.
He stated that the bag contained Soladek (a painkiller), Dolo-neurobion (a vitamin B complex used in fighting the flu), and Clenbuterol (a stimulant similar to ephedrine, which is believed by some to promote muscle tone and weight loss).
In 2007, ESPN published an article about Presinal on its website, describing him as "fitness guru, massage therapist and personal trainer to baseball's Latino elite."
"[17] Hicks later acknowledged that his statement was not based on personal knowledge, only a suspicion that steroids were the cause of injuries: "The way his body broke down at a young age and his early retirement makes me suspicious.
[24] In Rodriguez's case, similar unproven allegations from baseball's "steroid era" did not prevent him from being elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
This marriage broke down when a local newspaper released a cover photo of singer Olga Tañón kissing González during a concert in San Juan.
His daughter later became one of only 50 people in the world (and the first Puerto Rican) ever to have been diagnosed with Sebastian syndrome, a mild blood clotting disorder.
[30] The discussion lasted 35 minutes and involved González's future in the Major Leagues and other baseball related topics, as well as the happenings of their respective careers.
[33] Unable to request athletes contracted to MLB (or active in MiLB), González assembled a team consisting of players active in foreign independent leagues, the local Double A amateur league, and veteran free agents with previous professional experience, making the final cut following a preparatory tournament.
[37] González closed his first participation as manager by leading Puerto Rico to the CACG gold medal, defeating second-place Colombia 2-1.
[38] In 2019, González found continued success by guiding Puerto Rico to win gold at the 2019 Lima Pan American Games, going undefeated and besting Canada 6-1 in the final.