SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The pop fly began its descent. The Giants’ catcher and first baseman converged underneath it. Neither one called for it. Neither one caught it.An inning later, another I-got-it-you-take-it moment: A fly ball dropped between two hesitant Giants outfielders.The San Francisco Giants have made far too many mistakes this season, except this time, there weren’t any groans from the stands or admonishments from the broadcast booth. That’s because neither exists at the club’s Papago Park minor-league complex. For the youngest players in the Giants’ farm system, who play games in front of a smattering of scouts and coaches in the Arizona Complex League, mistakes are to be expected. They’re a part of the learning process, not a sign of dysfunction.Papago is also the place to be if you’re seeking positive energy around the Giants organization right now. And a lot of that has to do with two teenage infield prospects, Josuar Gonzalez and Luis Hernández, who are doing something on the field to turn heads almost every day.Which teams fared well during MLB Draft Day 1?Keith Law“It’s been a joy as a coach to experience two players of that caliber,” said former Giants postseason hero Travis Ishikawa, who transitioned from hitting coach at Low-A San Jose to a complex hitting coordinator role this year. “Being back at this level after a handful of years, instead of (coaching) college kids, I’m with teenage guys who were my age when I was drafted. And I can honestly say these two are tooled out better than I was. They’ve got a lot of ability. They’re young and they’ve got a long way to go from a development standpoint. But they’re on the right path for sure.”Gonzalez, 18, was considered the top player in his international class when the Giants signed him for just under $3 million in 2025. Hernández, 17, also topped most industry prospect lists when the Giants traded for additional pool funds to sign him for a $5 million bonus this past January. It’s almost unheard of for an organization to sign the top player in consecutive years, but Giants international scouting director Joe Salermo pulled it off. If both young shortstops reach their full potential, then the biggest problem might not be how to position them on the infield. It’ll be where to put Salermo’s statue.Shortstop is the primary position for both players, but there aren’t too many similarities beyond that.Gonzalez is a switch hitter from the Dominican Republic, and his fast-twitch athleticism is the first attribute you notice. His speed and range at shortstop draw comparisons to former New York Mets star José Reyes. He has an outgoing personality, and if there’s music in the clubhouse, he’s probably dancing to it.Hernández is a right-handed hitter from Venezuela and displays remarkable polish at the plate, especially considering he’s facing pitchers who are several years older. He’s a fundamentally sound product of the Carlos Guillen academy, and his experience playing in men’s leagues was among the reasons the Giants aggressively started his pro career in Arizona instead of the Dominican Summer League.“They definitely complement each other,” said Quinton McCracken, the former major-league outfielder who is in his first season as the complex coordinator of instruction. “They get along. They push each other. I recall my time with the Diamondbacks and how Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson pushed each other. They know they have game. They recognize it in each other. So they push each other to be the best versions of themselves.“Josuar has an electrifying skill set. As most scouts say, it’s very sexy. Power, speed, athleticism. He’s definitely box-office. He’s a very exciting player. Luis is as cool as they come. Cool, calm, collected. Very mature for their age. The world is their oyster. As long as they keep progressing. They’ll have long big-league careers, in my humble opinion.”They aren’t doing interviews yet. Giants vice president of player development Randy Winn doesn’t want them to be distracted by media attention.“Oh, don’t worry,” Giants special assistant Shawon Dunston said. “You’ll be talking to them soon. Everybody will.”For the time being, it seems as if everyone in player development is offering a helping hand. Dunston, who played shortstop for 18 major-league seasons, is among the coaches who work with the infielders every day at the complex. Former Giants second baseman and World Series champion Joe Panik, now a roving infield coach, has spent a lot of time at the complex this season. Mike Sarbaugh, who has served as a major-league base coach with the Cleveland Indians/Guardians and New York Mets, is the newly hired minor-league infield coordinator whose experience includes coaching players like José Ramírez and Francisco Lindor when they were rising prospects.In a game earlier this month, Hernández was playing third base when he reacted to field a hard grounder to his left. He improvised by making a sliding stop, spinning around on his knee and throwing on target to first base.“Alex, you see that?” said Dunston, shouting to Alexandria Rigoli, the Giants’ coordinator of minor-league operations. “Panik taught him that.”“He’s gonna be smiling when he sees that,” Rigoli replied.Luis Hernández has split time between shortstop and third base in the Arizona Complex League. (Brad Martens / San Francisco Giants)That’s how personally invested the Giants’ player development staff is in this pair of infield prospects. Panik could be roving to Double-A Richmond or High-A Eugene. He’ll still make time after the workday is over to pull up his laptop in his hotel room and watch the feed from the complex.“This is kind of the Giants way now,” Panik said. “It’s been so positive on our end. And the players are the ones buying into everything we’re preaching. Even when I’m not out and about, I catch all the games on milb.tv, reviewing film. That’s what I love.“They both have body awareness and move well in space. Right now it’s making sure you get consistent with the boring stuff and the routine stuff — backhand, forehand, glove hand. And there’s the internal clock all infielders have to get. That comes with repetitions. Both of them are ahead of schedule in that sense.“Honestly, when you talk about Luis and Josuar, I don’t know where to start. They’re both similar in that they can change the game offensively or defensively. Josuar is more electric but both guys are ahead of their time. When you look at Luis, you don’t see a 17-year-old ballplayer. You’d think from a maturity standpoint that he’s years older.”When they’ve been on the field at the same time, they’ll alternate to other infield positions. Rodriguez has played some second base. Hernández has played a fair amount of third base. The only bummer is that they haven’t gotten as much time together as the Giants had hoped because Rodriguez has dealt with a balky hamstring since spring training.If Rodriguez can stay on the field, there’s an excellent chance that both young players will finish their season with a promotion to Low-A San Jose, where they are sure to be box-office draws as well as assets on the field for an affiliate that already clinched a postseason berth by winning the first-half title in the California League.Giants farm director Kyle Haines said he is satisfied with the progress both players have made thus far.“Josuar’s injuries have been a little disappointing, just because it’s limited his exposure to situations and game awareness training, but when he’s in the game, he’s played as well as we could have expected,” Haines said. “He’s growing every time he takes the field. It gets a little better, learning something new, showing the world what he can do.“And then Luis, considering the guy skipped the DSL in his first professional action here, I couldn’t have asked for more from him — not just in the games, but also the training sessions from both guys. They take their training seriously. Our training environments are pretty intense inside the cages and the ground balls. They’ve embraced it all and taken it in and challenged each other. All of these infielders have embraced a culture of hard work before the game, and then that’s reflected well during the game.”The most encouraging part for complex fundamentals coach Joel Johnson is that he never has to spend a minute motivating either young player.“The other day I was feeding the machine for some ground balls and talking to someone at the same time, and Louie kind of looked at me, like, ‘You need to focus right now,'” Johnson said. “But he’s laughing, right? It’s like, ‘Hey, let’s go.’“Luis is just very disciplined and dedicated. He’s had some really good people in his corner to explain what this process looks like and how you pave your way. He’s extremely professional. He knows how to talk to people already. He’s working through some English, and he’s learning very fast. He’s got confidence, but there’s also a lot of humility.“They do play off each other well. Josuar’s got nothing but energy and fast twitch. He’s bouncing all over the place, and if you put the right song on, he’s dancing. If you put the wrong song on, he’ll tell you to skip it. What’s cool is they’re both very confident in themselves and confident in their ability to communicate with their teammates.“We’ll work on double plays, and I hate to say this because they’re so young, but it ends up coaching itself a little bit. They start talking through what they’re seeing. So I end up being just a sounding board as they work through it. They see the game very well.”It’s a long day at the complex. International teenagers like Gonzalez and Hernández are in class three to four days a week learning everything from English to life skills to earning credits toward a high school equivalency degree. After lunch, there’s early work in cages or defensive work in the Giants’ climate-controlled indoor facility. There’s a different defensive focus for each player every day. Then they’re on the field for team defensive work. If it’s a home game, they’ll hit on the field. Then it’s time for the game, with meal breaks before and after, including all the snacks they want. Maybe there’s a postgame lift session in the gym. Then they’re shuttled to their hotel rooms where they are paired up with a roommate — Josuar and Luis are close but not inseparable and have different roommates — and the evening is usually all about talking to their families back home and playing video games.“Then we wake up the next day and do it all over again,” Haines said.Ishikawa is among the hitting instructors helping ACL players through what, for many, is their first competitive experience, sometimes against rehabbing pitchers several years older who are coming from the upper minors.“Luis is hunting pitches and locations a little more,” Ishikawa said of Hernández. “He goes up with a plan, he’s patient at the plate, he works counts. I think a strength is hitting the other way, but he also pulls the hands inside. It’s more of a polished approach.“And Josuar has a completely different approach. He is more of a free swinger. He reminds me of a Pablo (Sandoval) or even a Vlad (Guerrero) Sr. I don’t know if there’s a pitch he doesn’t like to swing at, but he also has the ability to hit all pitch types. His chase rate is probably high for this level but he puts the ball in play. He sees the ball and hits it where it’s pitched.”In a game earlier this month, Hernández drove a pitch the opposite way that soared over the right-field fence and might have been fair. It was called foul. Hernández responded by calmly taking two pitches out of the zone and flipping his bat across foul ground as he accepted his walk.“I’ve seen both of them go the opposite way with power,” Ishikawa said. “And we got to see Josuar in the Breakout Game (in March) against a guy who pitched in the big leagues. I mean, Josuar hadn’t had a professional at-bat yet and he held his own. He should be draft-eligible out of high school right now and Luis should be a high school junior. That tells you how good they can be. Not once have they looked overmatched since spring training started.“A lot of times players go up (to a full-season affiliate) and they get under the lights, they see fans for the first time and music between innings, and their eyes get bigger. That won’t be an issue for these two.”For Ishikawa, the hardest lesson has been teaching them how to count — in English or Spanish.“Batting practice is supposed to be rounds of five, but sometimes they like to take eight or 10,” Ishikawa said with a laugh. “So we’re constantly counting in English and Spanish. But that’s a good problem to have. They’re very professional around each other. They look like teammates and guys who want to win the baseball game.”Papago is about to get a lot busier as newly drafted players, including right-hander Jackson Flora, the fourth player taken in the first round, arrive at the complex in the next few days.The Giants’ Arizona Complex League squad will soon add some newly drafted players. (Brad Martens / San Francisco Giants)With that wave of talent about to arrive, talk to a range of coaches at the complex and you’re left with the sense that positive energy abounds. Everyone seems to know their roles and be pulling on the same rope. Part of the enthusiasm is undoubtedly the rising level of talent within the system. It’s all combining to create results on the field: Three of the Giants’ four full-season affiliates won first-half titles — Richmond and Eugene joined San Jose — and Triple-A Sacramento narrowly missed becoming a fourth, which would have been unprecedented.The Giants are also receiving high marks from industry experts for the hitting instruction in the minor leagues under coordinator Mike McCormack, assistant coordinator Jacob Cruz and coordinator of instruction Ed Lucas. Outfielder Dakota Jordan and infielder Gavin Kilen wrapped up strong first halves at Eugene and will be promoted to Richmond after representing the Giants in the All-Star Futures Game.For all the ways that Giants president Buster Posey has been challenged and questioned while learning how to be a major-league executive, investing more than half a billion in a veteran core that has been a colossal failure and hiring a college coach, Tony Vitello, who has appeared overwhelmed and disorganized, the development of the farm system might balance the ledger just enough to give him the time he needs to see his vision through.In a sense, the Giants demonstrated their confidence in their inventory of position players when they sought to refresh their system on the mound while taking pitchers with three of their four top picks Saturday. No matter how low the major-league club finishes in the standings this year, the Giants won’t be eligible for another top-10 lottery pick next year after they moved up to the No. 4 pick this year. So the organization’s highest-ceiling infield and outfield prospects for the foreseeable future are already in the system.Enthusiasm always warrants tempering when you’re talking about 17- and 18-year-old prospects. But with Gonzalez and Hernández, the Giants are seeing everything they hoped to see at this nascent stage.“Josuar, it was at Salt River when he entered (a major-league spring training) game, and I mean, I was nervous for him,” Haines said. “The kid never played in front of fans before in his life. It was really Buster who had the idea of, ‘Hey, let’s give him a taste of what this is like.’ And Luis, I’ve just seen him take over games. He’s the youngest guy on the field, and he’s clearly the best player in the field. He’s had a couple of those moments that stand out to me. You’re just like, ‘Wow, this guy gets it.’Johnson had that same sense about Gonzalez last year when he came over from the Dominican League and worked with newly drafted players in instructional league.“He’s hacking right away against a draft arm who’s polished — and then he’s stealing second,” Johnson said. “It’s instant energy. He can get to so many balls on the field, throws with backspin and carry. He can throw on the run with a lot of athleticism and still be accurate. That’s where he’s starting to separate himself.“Josuar learns really fast. Every time I have a question for the group, he’s on it. If I tell him something today, he’s on it tomorrow. He asks good questions. And his ability to hit … shoot, I don’t coach that side of the ball, but him and Louie both …“When they’re hitting, you just have to stop and watch. You don’t want to miss it.”