The Pirates announced the acquisition of left-hander Marco Gonzales and cash considerations from the Braves. Atlanta receives a player to be named later or cash in return. The move comes just two days after Atlanta landed Gonzales as part of a five-player trade with the Mariners, yet it was already expected that Gonzales would be quickly flipped to another team.
Pittsburgh will presumably now be Gonzales’ final landing spot of the offseason, as the southpaw brings some experience to a Pirates team sorely in need of rotation help. Beyond ace Mitch Keller, the Bucs’ projected starting staff is thin on MLB service time and lacking in quality results at the big league level. Roansy Contreras, Bailey Falter, Luis Ortiz, and Quinn Priester were lined up as the next four in the rotation, as Johan Oviedo will miss all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery, and JT Brubaker and Mike Burrows won’t be options until closer to midseason due to TJ procedures of their own from last April. 2023 first overall draft pick Paul Skenes is expected to be on a fast track to the big leagues as early as next season, yet with only 6 2/3 pro innings on his resume, it is too early to assume Skenes is a lock for his MLB debut in 2024.
This isn’t to say that Gonzales (who turns 32 in February) is necessarily a clear-cut upgrade for the Buccos, as he is trying to bounce back from essentially a lost season. Gonzales’ 2023 campaign was cut short by a forearm strain in May, and he had struggled to a 5.22 ERA over 50 innings and 10 starts for Seattle before going on the injured list. While the forearm problem was a painful new wrinkle to the proceedings, the overall dip in form wasn’t a total surprise, given how Gonzales has been outperforming his peripheral numbers for years.
Gonzales posted a 3.94 ERA over 765 2/3 innings for the Mariners from 2018-22, with a more unflattering 4.64 SIERA reflecting his lack of strikeouts. Though Gonzales isn’t a hard thrower and he doesn’t miss many bats, he still achieved success with a recipe of solid control and limiting hard contact. Despite the lack of velocity, Gonzales’ four-seamer was quietly one of the more effective pitches in baseball before 2022, when it suddenly dropped into being a below-average offering.
If Gonzales can stay healthy and get back to his pre-2023 results, that alone represents a nice boost for the Pirates’ staff. It might help that the lefty is leaving Seattle for another pretty pitcher-friendly locale in PNC Park, as home runs also became an increasing problem for Gonzales in 2021-22.
2024 is the last guaranteed season of the four-year, $30MM extension that Gonzales signed with the Mariners prior to the 2020 campaign, and the deal also contains a $15MM club option for 2025 with no buyout. Since Gonzales received a $250K assignment bonus for being traded from the Mariners, the $4.5MM Seattle included in the trade package to Atlanta left $7.75MM remaining in owed salary to the left-hander. The Braves have eaten part of that portion to facilitate this next deal with Pittsburgh, only increasing Gonzales’ affordable nature — no small matter for a Pirates team that is always looking to keep its spending in check.
Though the Bucs are intending to raise their modest payroll by some extent, obtaining Gonzales for less than $7.75MM allows the club to fill one rotation hole without taking up much of whatever spending capacity GM Ben Cherington has been allotted this winter. Since Jack Flaherty is another name on the Pirates’ radar, it could be that Pittsburgh will address its rotation with veterans on short-term deals, hoping that at least one reclamation project like Gonzales or Flaherty can bounce back to become solid starter.
From Atlanta’s perspective, taking on the contracts of Gonzales and Evan White was the price necessary to obtain Jarred Kelenic from the Mariners. White’s injury history makes him more or less immovable outside of a total salary dump, yet Gonzales’ history as a decently effective and durable starter prior to 2022 made him a better candidate to be flipped, considering the league-wide need for pitching depth. The Braves are known to be looking for higher-tier pitching upgrades themselves, after missing out on Aaron Nola earlier in the offseason.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Pirates were acquiring Gonzales and cash for a player to be named later.
First one?
He’s got a 75 mile per hour fastball.
So did Rich Hill.
I had him confused with Martin Perez..
but turns out they’re the same guy anyways.
@Goku This comment got funnier with age.
Tough break. He went from the hotel suite to the penthouse to the gutter in a matter of hours.
Pittsburgh is a beautiful city and PNC is a beautiful park. Los Angeles, on the other hand, is one massive homeless encampment.
Do you guys really want a troll like al conin in your town?
I was talking about the teams and not the towns. Been to the Pirates stadium several times and loved it.
AL- still a harsh statement to Pirate fans.
We are used to being trolled relentlessly from 2022 by out of town posters.
Why not for the pirates
Pittsburgh fans gonna be happy.
Actually I’m good with him considering the in house options.
Traded for nothing
Dumped a bulk of the salary
Taking on his salary probably sealed the Kelenic acquisition. Now to dump a majority of it (I’m assuming), even for nothing or next-to-nothing, is a good overall set of transactions.
Marco was the smaller salary dump out of the two the Mariners traded.
Marco – $12.5 mill
White – $17 mill
Right. I think AA plays this year-by-year, though, and we’ll see what happens with White. In any case, even moving SOME of Marco’s salary makes the overall deal set better for the Braves.
I wasn’t knocking it, just pointing it out cause there were a few others thinkin Marco’s salary was the worst in the equation an it is actually White’s but his is 2 years.
Someone before expected a decent prospect while dumping Marco, I assume it is ptbnl due to Marco’s injury and what kind of timeline he can return on.
And White’s CBT hit (relevant for the Braves) is ‘only’ $4M for 2024; $8M total thru 2025.
Sheesh. Didn’tevenrealizethat…crazy contract for a kid who hadn’t played in the majors (at that point).
White’s CBT hit is $8.5M in both 2024 and 2025. When a player gets traded, his CBT gets recalculated using just the remaining dollars.
Wrong, he’s only owed $15mil over the next 2 years.
There’s also the 4 million dollars of buyouts for the three option years on Evan White’s deal that both of you are overlooking too.
You don’t pay all of those, you only pay the option on that year if you turn that year down. So you will never pay more than $2mil if you turn down an option year.
I believe SeaIndy was saying 15 mil, plus the 2 million dollar buyout for that first option equals 17 mil.
@Slugger: Correct. $7M for ’24 plus $8M for ’25 plus the $2M buyout for ’26 = $17M guaranteed over the next two years. $17M/2 = $8.5M per year of CBT hit.
Incorrect, because you can’t imply they ever would pay that buyout over just taking his option. That’s all a 2026 deal which has nothing to do with 24/25.
Incorrect. You pay CBT on guaranteed income, so the $2M counts, and it counts toward 2025. You can’t assume the 26 option will be picked up. Check out Cot’s Contracts. Every team option is handled that way.
So you’re saying that they overpay should they pick up those options, that makes no sense.
I don’t know what happens if/when they pick up the option, but until they do, the buyout is included in their CBT computation.
That buyout has nothing to do with 24 or 25, thus what I’m saying is true, as that buyout if for 26, thus it’s 26 salary. When you look at “retained salary” players like Yates ($1,25mil) and McHugh ($1mil) are on the retained salary for 2024 since their option was for this year.
I’m sorry, Big John, but you’re wrong. the buyout is included in the CBT calculation.
The buyout is treated as a signing bonus if it isn’t exercised, is part of the guaranteed contract, and is included in the AAV calculation vis a vis the CBT. From the Collective Bargaining Agreement on the MLBPA website:
(b) Option Buyouts
(i) General Rule
(A) If a Uniform Player’s Contract contains a Club Option
Year or a Player Option Year that is not deemed a Guaranteed
Year pursuant to subparagraph (a)(ii) above and the Player is
to receive consideration upon the non-exercise of that option
or the nullification of a championship season (“Option Buy-
out”), then such Option Buyout shall be deemed a Signing
Bonus. If a Uniform Player’s Contract contains an Option
Buyout for a Club decision not to exercise a Club Option Year
and an Option Buyout for a Player decision not to exercise a
Player Option Year (or to nullify a championship season) that
is deemed a Signing Bonus pursuant to this subparagraph
(b)(i), then the higher Option Buyout payment shall be deemed
the Signing Bonus
Oh snap…
All who vote to change his name to BigDipshitJohn say I
You’d be surprised what you can get with a player to named later.
I still cringe when I think of Shane Baz being the PTBNL in the Archer deal.
.. as if Meadows and Glasnow wasn’t enough.
Huntington cringed too as he said when the trade was made that the ptbnl was going to hurt.
I still think that Baz was not necessary to be added but the Rays knew how bad the Pirates wanted a #2 pitcher in order to try for the playoffs.
As fate would have it, injuries have derailed all 4 players in that trade.
Although injuries to non pitchers are now somewhat common,it is rare indeed when a pitcher does not get a serious injury periodically throughout his career.
I know. the trade first reported I was okay since Glasnow and Meadows didn’t do much for us but still had good upside.. then later Baz, I was jacked.
Atlanta kicking in money probably got them a better prospect as the PTBNL, but I suspect that main reason the player wasn’t named is that Atlanta wants to see how Rule 5 shakes out first. If they nab whoever they want there, the PTBNL will be a guy who doesn’t have to be rostered, if they don’t make a pick, they take an upper-level mid-range guy, like Tahnaj Thomas – he has good stuff but can’t always find the strike zone.
For non-roster guys, I’d say someone of the ilk of Derek Diamond, who’s in High A. Produced some reasonable results in a hitter-friendly league. He would hurt a little more than Thomas in terms of the future, but still outside the Pirates’ top arms in the system (but working his way up).
@PiratesPundit51 A prospect wasn’t named because the Braves have a choice of either a player to be named later or cash considerations. This was said by the Pirates last night.
I stand corrected, looks like the Braves are just taking the money. Seems like they might have been looking at a potential Rule 5 guy, but since none of the Pirates’ guys were picked before the Braves picked, I’m not sure who they would have wanted.
The only prospect of note to get picked on the Pirates’ side was Dariel Lopez, and I honestly don’t think the Braves were looking at him, otherwise they could have gotten him for free with their pick in the minor league phase.
I hope he does well and even this year I was hoping for a full circle Gonzales for Oneill 2.0 trade
We hardly knew ye marco
Mitch Keller coming back
Nah, I wish
Goodbye Marco. We hardly knew ye
That guy named “cash considerations” gets traded an awful lot.
So does PTBNL.
The most overhyped, yet disappointing on field results prospect of all time. Yet every GM/POBO swears his coaches can fix him. What a shame. He was Ohtani, Harper, Griffey, Clemons, Randy Johnson, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Mo Rivera all in 1.
I know! You’d figure after all these years that teams would give up on Cash, yet every season we see him passed along from team to team.
Love the Al Bundy reference though!
In Cherington we trust
I wish I could agree Cora, BC’s hands are tied due to the lack of financial resources that Nutting provides.
I know BC does his best to put a competitive team on the field but it’s difficult when he has an owner whose profit margin is more important than winning
I don’t deprive an owner of making money, and support capitalism but Cherington can only do so much given his limitations financially
It isn’t BC that I distrust, it’s Nutting
I get it
yep. it’s the payrolls fault that they haven’t developed a single pitcher
When you don’t pay for good coaches to develop players, yes, payroll is a contributing factor
I like this for both teams, assuming the ptbnl quality is based on the quality of Marco’s performance.
I could see him pitching well in Pittsburgh.
Prob like the archer trade- going back to Atlanta: Priester, Jared Jones, and Nick Gonzalez
Jones would be the only loss. Priester has potential still but for a good pitcher see ya later. I hope some team wants Gonzales for a pitcher. Gonzales will be the Andujar Frazier for Pirates fans.
so much for the theory that the Bucs will increase payroll to $100 million
Not a player to be named!Has he been born yet, or is it going to be Willie Stargell’s offspring from the furture?
A player to be named later, not born later.
That didn’t take long. How much of his salary did the Braves eat?
Pirates are frugal so it had to have been, Mariners are paying 4.5 out of the 7.5 I think, so Braves probably ate another 3 or 4 million.
Ahh thank you for the clarification.
The Pirates still need another SP and a 1B and more depth in the OF. Atlanta also probably had to kick in some of the salary to get a better prospect than a straight-up Gonzales swap would have gotten them.
It was a win for both teams: Atlanta gets to pawn off Marco, while the Pirates got a guy who is reasonably cheap to chew up a few innings while some of the younger arms figure things out, and still have the budget to continue to address the rotation.
If you need a 1B, Atlanta has a slick-fielding guy in AAA you can have in return for a PTBNL. His name is Evan White and he only costs $17M.
🙂
AA working that Magic!
He will go into the hall as a Brave
Should work out for both parties, Kelenic is obviously the piece the braves wanted and they get the pirates to pay for part of Marcos salary. The pirates get reliable back of the rotation innings for little risk.
MARCO? POLO 2 Days a Brave!
Now that’s adding payroll
Braves said they’d deal him. They didn’t take long.
Hopefully he rebounds as others have done In Pittsburgh I’ve always liked the Pirates.
Pittsburgh is a very good landing spot for Marco. PNC Park is generally more forgiving to lefties with homer issues due to the deep notch in left-center which suppresses homers in a right handed batters power alley. Not expecting a top 10 Cy Young season out of Gonzalez or anything but definitely a good place for him to reestablish his career.
I really want to visit that ballpark. Looks gorgeous.
It is and if you ever do visit make sure you gets seats either on the third base side or all the way up top behind home plate so you can enjoy the view of the city.
Thanks for the tip.
When I go to SF games I get tickets on an upper level so I can watch the Bay between innings.
PNC Park is one of my faves. The park, the city backdrop, Clemente bridge, the home runs in the river. A great baseball experience. Rooting for Marco.
And make sure that you tell your family where you will be sitting as they can easily spot you due to the lack of fans.
FWIW, Victor Rojas loves the ballpark and the walk across the bridge. He’s seen them all and ranks PNC as a favorite.
The best ballpark taxpayer money can buy
this is a good move for Pittsburgh. Marco will battle through innings and ease the burden on guys like Skenes and Priester when they are figuring MLB out.
Marco Gonzalez will provide innings, but I’d imagine that his experience with dealing both with the successes AND failures of a major league pitcher will be his most important contribution to the pirates.
Absolutely. If being a good person made you a good pitcher, he’d be a perennial all star.
Great teammate. Good guy.
I still hope the mets dump quittania back to us and we
They can’t. Quintana is currently their #2 starter.
DONT BE NAMED ENDY RODRIGUEZ.
Braves are set for catchers.
Yep. Pirates probably offered Endy and Braves were like nah we’re good at catcher.
It won’t.
Alright! Some action! Finally!
Smart. he will be traded at the deadline at the very least
Pirates shouldn’t have that big of a lead in the division and they could always use him out of the pen in the playoffs.
Awesome! Gets us a durable starter who isn’t bad either.
He had season ending surgery at the end of August, after not pitching since May.
Perfect fit for the Pirates style of pitching.
Add a lefty off the trash pile and hope PNC giant left field keeps the ball in the park?
Welp, good to know ya. Curious how much cash we got back
Never heard of Bob Nutting? Braves will be sending the cash to Pittsburgh. But Pittsburgh should be paying him something so you won’t be paying him as much as you would by keeping him.
I mean, that’s kind of the assumption under “cash considerations” lol
I was poking a lil fun at Bob. Since I posted it’s reported Braves could get ptbnl or cash. So maybe everyone gets cash!
Wears a Braves hat on his hall of fame plaque.
Second solid move of the day from Cherrington.
One down, two more to go. Let’s get a high upside guy like Montas or Manea next.
Being a realistic Pirates fan, Manaea was the guy I hoped they would sign as a free agent. My initial reaction to this Marco Gonzalez trade is that he fills the role of the Bucco’s annual one year deal back end of the rotation veteran to flip at the deadline quota so now I have a very faint hope that Cherington aims a bit higher in free agency to provide some longer-term stability to the rotation. Nothing crazy or anything but a three year deal to someone in the Stroman/Giolito/Wacha tier of free agent pitcher would be a great addition while guys like Roansy, Priester, Luis Ortiz, Mike Burrows, etc work towards establishing themselves in the big leagues.
“three year deal to someone in the Stroman/Giolito/Wacha”
“Being a realistic Pirates fan”
Haha you got me. It’s just really hard sometimes to think about entirely reasonable moves that fill roster needs and are theoretically possibly for any team, including the Pirates, to make and then willingly take it down three or four notches to the level where the Pirates actually operate and handle business.
The stove is officially, lukewarm.
Hey, the stove is as hot as a dwarf star, at least for the Pirates, if they’re acquiring a pitcher with multiple years of control remaining.
Very solid for everyone involved. The Braves are playing chess. Hats off to a man with a plan, AA.
Not much worse than Lance Lynn will be so there’s also that.
I wonder if Gonzales can become effective again like he was prior to 2022? I wasn’t sure because the article only mentioned it 4 times…left me wondering.
lol
Now the Pirates will bring in Flaherty and get him to pitch aggressive & attack the zone like he did his rookie year.
Bring back Cutch
Sign Rowdy
Sign Manaea
Sign Andrus
All guys that are cheap & can be flipped at the deadline & also provide leadership to a young core.
Didn’t Manaea opt out? If so he thinks he is getting paid more than Pirates would like. Rowdy defense good? I can’t remember. Alika Peguero may be ss if Cruz can’t go. Not bad options though. Will likely be in that price range whoever they get.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. When do the Pirates actually field a competitive team?
They won 14 more games from the year before so they’re improving, Holden. After having 2 consecutive 100 loss seasons, a 14 game improvement is substantial
Hold-They will be competitive when they start developing their young players like any team but especially small market teams need to do.The previous GM was fired because he stopped doing that and the jury is still out on this one.
I get it, but revenue sharing means they can acquire players that aren’t just meant to be flipped if the team isn’t in contention. I’m glad to see the improvement. 2015 just feels like a very long time ago.
Hold- That is because 2015 is. long time ago.
Many if not most Pirate fans are frustrated at the lack of rebuilding to a good team.
Rowdy makes sense cuz Ben was in Toronto when he played and may have been there when he was drafted
Personally rooting against Flaherty coming to Pittsburgh. He’s got a streak of entitlement that isn’t going to endear him to the city. Being good can gloss over those things, but there’s no indication that Flaherty is going to be good again (or all that cheap for that matter). He’s not quite to Colin Kaepernick levels, but he’s not far behind either.
If you could spend the same money and get Frankie Montas, he’s a much better fit in terms of a guy who’s more likely to bounce back and be a better clubhouse guy. Manaea opting out means he thinks he’s going to earn more than $12.5 million as a free agent and honestly he’s not taking a one-year deal unless it’s the only thing left or the only option to be a starter again. By the look of the current SP market, he may get what he wants. Pitching poor teams with deeper pockets (like Boston) probably have the inside track on a guy like him.
Good move for both teams. Marco is a vet and will be a good leader addition. The Pirates’ farm system is excellent while the Braves’ is crappy. Even if they send someone from the bottom of their top 30 or below, he will still likely be a top 10 guy for the Braves.
Don’t expect anyone that’ll make the Braves top 30. Unless the Braves sent more than the $4.5M the Mariners are paying for Marco
My most likely destination for Marco. It’s a Pirate’s move. He should be able to pitch to a 4 something era.
Pirates going for it!
Other shoe just dropped on the Kelenic, Marco, and White to Braves trade. Marco is now headed to Pittsburgh, where the Braves will be getting a player to be named later… So we know the Mariners gave Kelenic (positive asset) and $4.5M to eat some of the salary of White ($7M), and Marco ($12M), but now we know Marco at $12M still had some value, even if all of that $4.5M is to offset his salary, we could’ve just sent Marco to Pittsburgh, attached the same $4.5M and kept Kelenic, Campbell, and White $2.3M ($7M-$4.7M owed Urias).
So Mariners fans, now who’s happy we got Urias for Campbell, Kelenic, White, and $2.3M in salary cap space?!
Stanton and Dipoto are gonna go down on a Rico case.
Braves are sending money to Pittsburgh in this deal so the Mariners would’ve had to send the 4.5 million plus whatever the Braves are sending to Pittsburgh in this deal. Also White has another year on his contract, not sure the exact amount but I’m pretty sure it’s over 10 million. So your math is off by about 15 million dollars.
That 4.5 million is from Seattle.
Yes but in thank God we aren’t the angel’s original post the currently unknown amount of cash the Braves are sending to Pittsburgh is neglected. That money needs to be accounted for in order for Pittsburgh to take Marco. If, as the original post suggests, the Mariners don’t make the deal with the Braves and sent Marco straight to Pittsburgh then the Mariners would’ve had to add that yet to be publicly disclosed amount of money too in addition to the fact that the final year of Evan White’s deal was omitted.
Okay, the trade was about creating salary room for 2024, this was not about trying to predict the salary needs of 2025. So forget about year two of White’s deal that wasn’t a motivating factor in this move between Seattle and Atlanta. It had to be accounted for within the context of the trade, but the move was about creating $14.5M worth of salary space for 2024.
That being said, it is now clear they could’ve sent Marco to the Pirates for a PTBNL or cash considerations, and saved $7.5M without giving up Kelenic or White. However, they determined early on that trading Campbell for Urias was a good way to allocate $5M. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Kelenic and White are Braves to offset the money owed Luis Urias. That bad process early in the offseason cost us a more valuable asset in Kelenic.
So again, it becomes, would I rather have Urias and $2M or Kelenic and White, which means we got rid of Kelenic and White to save $2M and get a far inferior talent in Urias, who realistically is unlikely to return to his previous level of success and is redundant on this roster. I firmly believe we could’ve trade Kelenic to the Brewers for 2 years of Devin Williams or to the Cubs for 3 years of Adbert Alzolay or to the White Sox for 5 years of Gregory Santos.
Then we could’ve traded Topa ($1.5M) and Thornton ($1.5M) for a PTBNL or prospects who don’t require a 40-man roster spot. That would’ve made our bullpen stronger, as any of those three would be better than Topa and Thornton, while leaving us with one less offensive hole to fill (Kelenic in a corner), and we would’ve saved $3M instead of $2M!
If this is our yearly veteran signing, there’s no point in getting Jack Flaherty
Priester is too erratic to be counted on for consistency as are Roasny and Ortiz
Without knowing if Keller will return to pre all star form, signing Flaherty should be viewed as insurance for the pitching staff
No Bido either
Maybe they get Sean Manea who knows
There was never much point in getting Flaherty to begin with, other than needing innings in the first half of the year. Marco is likable, Flaherty not so much. Hopefully the Pirates are in the same mindset, and now try to find another SP with more potential to put up numbers. At this point, Flaherty can have a minor league contract with an opt-out if he wants to pitch here, otherwise find someone better.
Cherington needs to make these moves before 8pm. My friends already had their 4pm dinner and went to bed. Not that they are going to be thrilled. But it should come as no surprise.
I hope Braves send 4.5m to Pittsburgh then Seattle turns around and sends the 4.5m Aug 1, only for the PTBNL end up being cash and Braves make money on the deal.
Mariners fan since 1977. Braves to Bucs I think Marco will be solid in the middle of most any MLB rotation this season. He is just couple years removed from being Mariners ace! He is passionate about his craft and works hard…I wouldn’t be surprised to see him being comeback player of the year. Everyone needs to look at Mariners current rotation and realize that most MLB pitchers wouldn’t be able to make M’s top 5 rotation.
Makes the deal for Kelenic much more palatable. Still they essentially purchased him from the Ms. A win win as Seattle removes mister cranky from their clubhouse and the Braves get another swing and miss bat to plug in post Duvall-Soler-Rosario. Almost wonder why the Braves bother. It’s like rearranging deck chairs but not on the Titanic but like the Four Seasons. How much does Kelenic improve a 95+ team? Shouldn’t they expend resources locking down future FAs?
Kelenic w/5 years of control left and he’s pre arb for 2024. Much cheaper than any of Duvall/Rosario/Soler.
Is that big of a swing and miss guy if his strikeout rate was 20.6% throughout his minor league career, and only 19.8% in Triple A alone.
Maybe not a classic 3 outcomes guy but are we reading the same stat line? I see a 30% strikeout rate over his MLB career. So a .204 career batter and .300 strikeout guy who hasn’t shown much pop yet. Lot of control yes, but what are you controlling? Another Adam Haseley type? Not to mention the cranky disposition. Hope it works out for both parties but not the slam dunk many Braves fans are saying, when you factor in the salaries they assumed.
In a limited time starting out his career where he has just around 950ish plate appearances over 3 seasons. It’s like saying Acuna or Riley are strikeout prone due to them having season with less than stellar strikeout rate, until they weren’t once they figured things out. Year by year he’s always had below average strikeout rates, and either it takes a little time to figure things out while having constant at bats for once, or they need to perhaps make an adjustment with him, just like the Braves did with Harris, Acuna, Riley, even Olson this past year, to put him in a better position to hit.
Solid move for the Pirates. Sure he’s an injury risk at this point, but they’re barely giving anything up to take that risk.
Agree. At worst, we have 2024’s Rich Hill, at best another Jose Quintana. And if by some miracle the Pirates manage to compete in 2024, he’s got a pretty reasonable club option ($15 million) if he returns to form. That might be a little pricey for essentially a #4 starter when he’s at his best, but with no buyout at all, the Pirates have some leverage to negotiate with him if he wants to stay.
Pirates fans need to start a chant when Marco is on the field. One half yells Marco and the other half replies with Gonzo.
IMO, good move by Pitt. I think he will be a solid #5 for cheap money.
or number 2 in pittsburgh
Great now what do I do with my Marco Gonzales Braves jersey?
i like this as much as the idea signing farety. but they still need a more established starter
This is actually a pretty savvy acquisition from the Pirates. Not much of a salary/term obligation, didn’t give up anything, and has the upside as a rock solid back of the rotation guy.
This allows the Pirates to focus on guys that will bridge the gap between Keller and Gonzales (meaning #2 and #3 starters). Let the young guys battle it out for the 5th spot and depth, with the thought that Skenes replaces the #5 spot or Gonzales when he’s ready.
This is an underrated move that helps on the field a bit, but more so helps the rest of the offseason. They basically filled on of their four open rotation spots without giving up any prospects or adding significant salary.
I think now the focus needs to be on two additional, proven starting pitchers. I’m guessing they add one via free agency (maybe Flaherty?) and one via trade (maybe Kopech?).
Really Gonzales is number 2 as of right now. pirates need to make a ‘splash’ to make their rotation respectable compared to other teams that are thinking about winning in 2024 Still a few months away from opening day.. a lot can happen between now and then.
There isn’t a #2 right now. They acquired Gonzales to be on the back end of the rotation. Like you said, the offseason is incomplete. Excited to see what else the Pirates do.
What to do with Evan White now?
Keep him in AAA as defensive depth and see if he can rehabilitate his rep on offense.
now that Ohtani got a contract that is the largest in baseball history, BC will be searching for another pitcher who will accept one of the lowest salary in baseball because there’s no way Nutting will allow him to spend more than the pitcher is worth
It’s time for their annual dumpster diving session to begin