Former MLB Slugger Adrián González Talks Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani, All-Star Career

Former MLB Slugger Adrián González Talks Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani, All-Star Career originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

Adrián González hung his cleats up a few years ago, but he’s still very involved in baseball. The former No. 1 overall draft pick, MLB All-Star, Silver Slugger and Gold Glove winner is now a broadcaster for the Dodgers, with whom he spent six seasons.

González was well-traveled in his 15-year MLB career, also spending time with the Rangers, Mets, Red Sox and Padres. His last MLB season was 2018, though he briefly resumed his playing career in Mexico before retiring for good in 2022.

González recently spoke with Athlon Sports to promote the WSS "Best Value Always" back-to-school campaign. He shared insights on playing and broadcasting, Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and much more.

(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.)

Athlon Sports:Adrián, thank you for joining me today. Let's start with the Dodgers, the reigning World Series champs. They're gearing up for a repeat run, something we haven't seen in almost a quarter of a century. What would you say stands between them and kind of ending this drought?

Adrián González: I would say the only thing that potentially could stand in between them and being able to repeat is a team that gets really, really hot and makes all the plays and all the pitches in the playoffs, a team that they end up facing.

I think if a team just kind of plays perfect baseball against them, executes all their pitches, gets all those key hits… obviously any team can beat any team in baseball. But just when you line up the rosters, when you line up the teams and the talent, there is no team that matches up with them.

Being around the team on a day-to-day basis, you get to see greatness in Shohei Ohtani at the plate and now back on the mound. What's it like to be there for it, to see what he's doing that we have really never seen done on the diamond?

AG: I think he's an incredible talent. We're starting to see him pitch again for the first time as a Dodger, and it's a lot of fun to see. It's just great. I mean, the things that he can do offensively, we saw him last year, saw him just do incredible things, both hitting home runs, driving in runs, batting for average, stealing bases, all the things that he does.

And then pitching-wise, we're starting to see what he can do on the mound on the Dodgers side. Obviously, we've seen it as an Angel, and we know he's one of the best pitchers in the game when he's out there every fifth day. But obviously, the Dodgers are taking him slow because they don't want any more injuries from that arm. So they're taking care of him, and they'll ramp him up as they get ready for the playoffs.

I’m curious what was the transition like for you from your playing days to being on the air, if there were any mishaps early on, or if you just kind of were able to seamlessly put the mic in front of you?

AG: I would say I'm very comfortable talking about baseball. Obviously, that's what I've done, it's what I know. I always say I have a master's degree in baseball, right? I mean, everybody goes to school, to college for something. My school was baseball, so I'm very comfortable talking about it. 

Things that I had to learn in the transition was to keep talking when somebody's talking in your ear. I think that that's a tough one because you're trying to say something, just specify something, talk about somebody's mechanics, and then somebody goes in your ear and says five seconds, cut it off, and you got to keep talking instead of going like, ‘Huh, what did you say?’” So you just got to talk right through, listen and keep going and know how to cut off a thought when you're not done finishing your thought because you gotta go to commercial break. You can't just sit there and keep going until you prove your point. So, that was a tough adjustment at first. I got used to it.

The other thing was to give more energy. I think I'm a very low-key person when it comes to things, but I've learned over time to kind of just kind of step up the energy when you're talking in front of a camera.

Having played for both the Dodgers and the Padres, I'm curious if you could kind of compare and contrast the environments, the fan bases, your time playing for these two rivals?

AG: I mean, two teams that their cities are devoted to them, dedicated, great fan bases, passionate. These last few years have been a great competition for the two of them and there's always gonna be teams in the National League West that are in competition with each other that season or multiple seasons because of the talent of the team.

I remember when I played for the Padres, it was the Giants, that was the team we were battling with. The Diamondbacks was also another team we were battling with that was going to the playoffs, the Rockies — we played Game 163.

The National League West has this — it's not like, like the traditional AL East, where it's like the Yankees and the Red Sox are always in it, right? You have teams that are in it, then you have teams that are not. Then you have the Dodgers, who obviously have taken another step and have been at the top of the division for the last 10 years with new ownership. But prior to that, it was a coin flip to see what two teams were going to be battling it out.

But it's been a lot of fun to see the Padres' ownership do what they've done and really invest in the players, and then the fan base really get behind them and get excited about that. So when they do play each other, it's a lot of fun.

Looking back on your career, is there a pitcher that you would say you felt like you always got the best of in a matchup? And kind of the inverse — is there a pitcher that you just always kind of struggled to hit?

AG: I always tell people the hardest pitcher to face in his prime was Tim Lincecum. He had like a three-to-four-year span when I was with the Padres. He was healthy. He was in his prime. He won back-to-back Cy Youngs. He was the hardest pitcher to hit for me at that time. The way he threw it, the way his ball moved, the velocity at which he threw it, all that was pretty special.

I had success against a couple of pitchers, so it's one of those things where as a hitter you don't like to call out the pitcher you had success against, just because you don't want to rub it in their face. But I did have quite a bit of success against two pitchers in particular.

You're also working on a campaign with WSS. Can you tell me a little bit about what you're doing?

AG: Yeah, back to school campaign with WSS. Everybody needs to be able to get ready for back to school and just really be able to do it in an affordable way in a place where they can do nonstop shopping all at once. WSS gives everybody that opportunity to get ready to go back to school, get your shoes, get your clothes, get everything that the family needs, and do it in a place where you can get it all and do it in an affordable way.

I saw your recent social media post in the wake of the protests in Los Angeles amid ICE raids. You said that you normally would not be speaking out, but this was something that you felt the need to speak on. I'm curious what prompted you to speak out even though it's not traditionally something that you would do.

AG: As an athlete or somebody that's working in broadcast and things like that, you don't want to get into politics too much. But when you see the people, you see videos of somebody in their car, the window gets smashed, then they show their passport, right? They show that they're a U.S. citizen.

I mean, you’re like why are they breaking somebody's car window when they're a U.S. citizen? Wouldn't you want to make sure that a person is a U.S. citizen before you do something that drastic? Things like that, that I would see, going into a high school graduation.

It's like things that you see and from what you see, it's all profiling. It's if you look a certain way, they're going to go and grab you, do all these things that they shouldn't be doing, and then they'll check who you are and it's like, no, that's wrong. And so when I saw that, I was like, "No, that's just wrong." I can't stay quiet with that.

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared.