Cherington talks Gonzales trade
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A day after the Pirates acquired left-handed starting pitcher Marco Gonzales from the Atlanta Braves for essentially peanuts, general manager Ben Cherington was all smiles.
For good reason.
Due to the Mariners and Braves paying sizable chunks of Gonzales’ 2023 salary, the Pirates will get the nine-year veteran for just $3 million, a bargain for someone who’s just two years removed from making his third consecutive opening day start.
“As we’ve talked about before, a left-handed starter at PNC Park is always desirable for us,” Cherington said Wednesday at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. “This was an opportunity to add someone to our rotation who has filled that role really, really well in the past. He feels good about where he is physically. And we can do it in a way that also allows us to pursue other options.”
Those final two thoughts were seemingly key in this deal, which came together in fewer than 48 hours after Atlanta got Gonzales from Seattle in the Jarred Kelenic trade.
The Pirates have done a deep dive into the medical information on Gonzales, vetting the left forearm injury that cut short his 2023 season and ultimately required surgery to decompress a nerve. Gonzales also isn’t the last pitcher they intend to acquire.
“We continue to have different kinds of hooks in the water,” Cherington said. “It’s hard to predict when these things go, but we’ll certainly work to add more to the rotation.”
It’s not expected that Gonzales will come to Pittsburgh and shove aside Mitch Keller atop the rotation. But he does give them reliable depth. After all, we’re talking about a guy who has gone 65-49 in 162 MLB games (155 of them starts), with a 4.14 ERA and an average of 2.4 walks per nine innings.
Since the start of 2018, only nine left-handed pitchers have produced a better walks per nine (2.26) than Gonzales. If you look at Gonzales’ velocity, pitch mix and style, he’s very similar to Tyler Anderson and Jose Quintana — soft-tossing veteran lefties who rely on fastball command, possess above-average changeups and can spin the ball.
They also struggled at various times, in part due to a lack of fastball command that may have been related to poor health, with allowing a bunch of home runs.
Cherington feels the Pirates will be able to help Gonzales turn things around in that department after allowing 64 homers in 67 starts over the past three seasons.
“In all three of those cases, there’s a common trait in that they’re really elite competitors,” Cherington said. “They also thrive on good execution, fastball execution, good changeups, use the breaking ball and know how to pitch.
“When that kind of pitcher is feeling good physically and is healthy, which was the case with Tyler and Jose, and gets in our environment, things have gone well.”
Gonzales lives in the Seattle area and has been working out at Driveline, which one of the two most popular pitching labs in the country. He also has a history with Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin, as the two worked together in Seattle.
Marin was the Mariners’ minor league pitching coordinator in 2017 and 2018 before leaving to become the Rangers’ bullpen coach in 2019.
“Marco has pitched at the same level in the past and is still relatively young in his career,” Cherington said. “We’re looking forward to working with him and seeing what he can do.”
In the meantime, as the Pirates exit Nashville, Cherington feels like they did gain a few important things. A reliable starter in Gonzales and also information that should inform the rest of their offseason.
“We got more clarity both on the trade and free agent markets, what the prices are and where the trade opportunities might be,” Cherington said. “Sometimes these things can come together quickly and sometimes they take longer.
“I don’t know how to predict the timing of it, but we’re focused on and optimistic that we’ll add more quality to our rotation in the next several weeks.”