Nationals lefty Gio Gonzalez has moved to the Boras Corporation, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com reports on Twitter. Gonzalez joins a host of other high-profile Nationals players with the organization of agent Scott Boras, as Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post tweets.
While the 29-year-old lefty has now surpassed six years of service, he won’t be hitting free agency any time soon. Gonzalez has one guaranteed season left (for $12MM) on the extension he signed shortly after coming to D.C. The team holds $12MM options for 2017 and 2018. The former comes with a $500K buyout, while the latter would vest if Gonzalez throws 180 innings in the preceding campaign. That contract, negotiated by his former reps, set a new high water mark for first-time arb-eligible pitchers.
While Gonzalez owns an earned run average of more than four per nine for the first time since way back in 2009, he’s been much the same pitcher over his four campaigns with the Nats. Though his ERA has risen in each successive season, he’s worked between a 3.56 and a 3.79 SIERA in every season of that span, averaging 8.9 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9.
While Gonzalez’s strikeouts are very slightly down this year (8.2 per nine), his swinging strike rate remains steady and he has put up a career-best 54.1% groundball rate. He has also largely maintained his average fastball velocity. Gonzalez’s innings tallies are down somewhat — he missed some starts last year and currently sits at 135 2/3 frames, after consistently hitting at or near 200 innings per season between 2010 and 2013 — but all said he still looks like a high-quality rotation piece going forward.
Gonzalez could hit the open market before his age-31 season if the first option is declined, though that seems unlikely barring a particularly rough 2016.
Does a player benefit from switching agents while they are still atleast 2 years from FA (possibly 3)?
And for the last paragraph, I’m pretty sure 2018 is a vesting option, not a player option.
Hmm … Cot’s has it as a vesting/player option, though that doesn’t necessarily make sense. And Rizzo said at the time that “the two option years … were imperative” to the deal, which seems to imply it is a club option in the second year.
I’m going to change it to that and look into it further, thanks for raising.
Baseball reference has 2017 as a team option, and 2018 as a vesting option based on 2017 IP.
Yeah, and that’s how we had it at the time the deal was made. Cot’s is generally the standard on contract details, which is why I referenced it when originally writing the post. Anyway, we are working to confirm.
It is a vesting/club option. We were able to confirm through a source.
There’s a lot of things an agent does besides negotiate your contract. You have appearances you get paid for, advertising contracts. Boras also has some of the best facilities to workout/practice in all of baseball. Players that have Boras as an agent really really like him and it’s not just because he gets them huge contracts (though that certainly plays a role)
Doesn’t their agent also get them equipment, free gloves and such. If so Boras would likely have the better deals to get those items from companies given the mass amount of elite talent he represents.
Equipment is more for minor leaguers, once they get to the Majors and established, they get all they need for free from the major manufacturers. Not all will sponsor players with free gear but the big ones do.
Still drives me crazy that the White Sox did not just trade him once, but twice. Once for Jim Thome, and once for Swisher.
The Jim Thome trade was a good one for the White Sox. The Swisher trade might have also worked out but for personality conflict Swisher had with manager Ozzie Guillen at the time. The White Sox have had a chronic issue with lack of power production from left-handed hitters since the switch-hitting Swisher departed which hasn’t been rectified with the subsequent signings of free agents Adam Dunn and Adam LaRoche.
As far as Gio Gonzales with the White Sox, sure he has been a quality left-handed starting pitcher for many years in MLB but it’s not like the team isn’t and hasn’t been flush with southpaws in their rotation at any point in recent memory.
You know, Gio Gonzalez has not been the same pitcher in my opinion since he was linked to Bio-Genesis. He was cleared and all, but his numbers have not been the same since his lights out 2012 season.
More like his season was an outlier that year. he has pretty much been the same his whole career except for that season. But good try trying get that discussion started
It’s not even like it’s that much of an outlier either. His ERA was much better that year, but his FIP wasn’t all that different nor were a lot of his stats.
I still don’t think he is the same pitcher regardless.
His underlying numbers are pretty darned consistent, really. He had better bottom-line results in his first year with the Nats, and did have his best season in terms of FIP (and most other ERA estimators) that year, but he also benefitted from career-lows in BABIP and HR/FB rate.
One thing is pretty much certain with Gonzales switching to Scott Boras as his agent. He will not be signing an extension any time soon with the Nationals and will likely be traded well in advance of his opportunity for free agency.
He already reached financial security under his current extension, why exactly would he be in a rush to sign another? And at his age, why would the Nats even want to explore one when they have him at a great value for the next 3 years. Doubt he’ll be traded anytime soon with Zim and Fister’s pending FA and Strasburg after that, unless they decide to take their rotation in a different direction.
Mark my word…Gio Gonzales will not be a member of the Washington Nationals for anywhere near the duration of his current contract.