BRANDON, Fla. — Zavi Gonzalez, 15, is an avid baseball player, but he’s far from your typical teenager. The Newsome High School student has proven that determination and passion can overcome any obstacle.
When you watch Gonzalez swing a baseball bat or field a ground ball, you’d have no idea that he has only one leg.
Watch full report from Kyle Burger
“I’m definitely a contact hitter,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t hit bombs. I’m a little guy.”
“I love watching him play because he’s good. At second base, he rocks it,” his mother, Aleisha Mullinax, added.
Gonzalez is certainly taking the right steps, despite what is underneath his knee-high baseball socks.
“This right here,” he showed. “This is the carbon part. This is the button right there.”
He was born with fibular hemimelia.
“When I was born, I didn’t have my fibula an,d I only had half of my tibia,” Gonzalez said.
At eight months old, he had his foot and ankle amputated. At 12 months, he got his first prosthetic.
“This is all I know,” he said. “I don’t know what it’s like to have two legs.”
Gonzalez doesn’t know life without baseball, either. He began playing at the age of four.
But due to recent issues related to growth, his prosthetic was causing discomfort and kept him off the field. He would require another surgery.
“It was probably harder than his first amputation just because he was aware of what was going on,” Mullinax said. “He was so active in baseball at that time. The revision surgery, we knew it could be a long recovery process. We didn’t expect a year.”
“They made this brand new for me. This carbon ball. Whenever I step down, it relieves some of the pressure that I have,” Gonzalez said.
The doctors shaved three centimeters off of his stump, which caused him to learn to walk again.
“I was in a wheelchair during the 2024 summer,” he said. “I was on crutches after I got my leg for the first time. I did some physical therapy, I kept it natural. I waited for my body to tell me I was ready to play baseball again.”
“Mentally, he was drained,” Mullinax added. “He wanted to give up a few times. I had to talk to him to tell him not to.”
He had to miss his freshman season of baseball, but now he’s back on the diamond with his teammates.
“It’s super-inspiring, honestly,” teammate Caden Delorenzo said. “I’ve only played for a couple of years, and there is so much to learn from him about hard work, dedication, what it takes to not say ‘no’ for an answer. He works hard. No way around it.”
Gonzalez is back on track to achieving his goal:
“To be the first player in the MLB with a prosthetic,” he said.
“I know there’s been a baseball player with no arm,” Mullinax said. “But there’s never been a baseball player with a prosthetic leg. Zavi doesn’t want to play in the Paralympics. He wants to play with the big boys, and hang with the big boys in the MLB.”
Even at 15 years old, Gonzalez is currently playing on an 18U Bay Area Pro team.
