GIO GONZALEZ
With the team still in need of one more starting pitcher, could a
veteran lefty fill that void for the Pittsburgh Pirates?
In less than two weeks, pitchers and catchers will report to
Bradenton and Spring Training 2019 will be underway for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
As of now, the Pirates have one of the strongest 1 – 4 of any rotation in the
National League. However, the team could still use an upgrade for their final
rotation spot.
As Neal Huntington discussed last weekend at Pirate Fest, as
of now Jordan Lyles is ‘plan A’ for the final
rotation spot. Lyles, as he proved last season, however, is better suited for
the bullpen. While he is the clubhouse leader to be the fifth starting pitcher,
Huntington’s comments last weekend certainly left the door open for the Pirates
to add another starter.
On Friday, I wrote about how the Pirates should make a splash in
free agency by signing 2015 American League Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel. While signing Keuchel seems
unlikely due to the Pirates’ tight budget, there is another veteran lefty on
the free agent market that could improve the Pirate rotation at a much cheaper
price. That lefty is Gio Gonzalez.
The 33-year-old Gonzalez is an 11-year MLB veteran. In 2018
Gonzalez split the season between the Washington Nationals and Milwaukee
Brewers. With these two clubs, Gonzalez posted a 4.21 ERA, 4.16 FIP, and a 2.0
fWAR. While this was his ninth consecutive season with a fWAR of at least 2.0,
it broke a streak of eight consecutive seasons with a fWAR of at least 3.0.
11 seasons and 1,184 innings into his MLB career Gonzalez
has proven to be a solid, reliable starting pitcher. While he is no longer the
top of the rotation arm he once was in the early and middle parts of the
decade, he is still a strong middle of the rotation arm. He presents a major
upgrade over Lyles, or any of the other internal options, for the final spot in
the Pirate starting rotation.
Gonzalez could also benefit from pitching his home games at
PNC Park. Being a lefty at PNC Park would be beneficial to Gonzalez, and his
47.2% career groundball rate would work in his favor as well. His lifetime
22.6% strikeout rate has to entice the Bucs, too.
Also, odds are, Gonzalez would not come with a high price
tag. He is now 33 and coming off his worst season since 2009. These two factors
combined with him still being unsigned on February 2nd would indicate that some
teams may be leery of giving Gonzalez a big contract.
It would not be unreasonable to expect a one or two year
deal worth $8-10 million per season to be enough to land Gonzalez. This is
something that the Pirates could easily afford, too. Adding Gonzalez on such a
deal would only raise the Pirate payroll to somewhere in the $80-82 million
range. This would remain well below the MLB average, as well as being below
last season’s payroll.
There is also reason to believe the Pirates could be
interested in Gonzalez as he is a pitcher the team has been tied to in the
past. During the 2016 MLB Winter Meetings, the team discussed a potential Andrew McCutchen trade at length with
the Washington Nationals. Who was one of the names that constantly came up in
talks? None other than Gonzalez.
Adding Gio Gonzalez to a starting rotation that
includes Jameson Taillon, Chris Archer, Trevor Williams, and Joe Musgrove would give the Pittsburgh
Pirates one of the deepest starting rotations in the NL. It would also add to
the rotation’s depth by allowing Lyles to move to the bullpen, and it could
help to ease the feeling to rush top prospect Mitch Keller to the MLB level. An
addition of Gonzalez would make the Pirate rotation formidable enough to make
the team a legitimate postseason contender in 2019.
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