The Pirates declined their option on starter Marco Gonzales. There’s no buyout and it would have cost $15MM to keep him around. He’ll miss most or all of next season after undergoing flexor surgery in his throwing elbow. The Bucs also outrighted Ben Heller, Isaac Mattson and Daulton Jefferies off the 40-man roster.
Pittsburgh acquired Gonzales from the Braves in a move that amounted to a small salary dump for Atlanta. The southpaw made three decent starts to begin the year before it was tanked by injury. A forearm strain shelved him between mid-April and the All-Star Break. Gonzales only made four starts to close the month before going back on the injured list — this time with the injury that required surgery.
Gonzales closed the season with a 4.54 earned run average through 33 2/3 innings. He was limited to 10 starts and 50 innings by a forearm strain in 2023 as well. He’s probably looking at minor league offers this winter. The hope is that he’ll be able to recapture the solid back-of-the-rotation form he showed with the Mariners between 2018-22.
Heller, Mattson and Jefferies each made a handful of appearances for the Bucs this year. They all worked in low-leverage relief. None of them found much success in small samples. All three pitchers can elect free agency.
Marco…..!?
Polo Grounds!
Total waste. Having him around made them believe they had a 5th starter but he was never healthy. I still think they should get a cheap vet starter/swingman because it’s hard to count on all your starters being healthy.
Maybe not cheap, but Miles Mikolas would look good in a Pirates uniform. Actually, any uniform other than the Cardinals..
Bring back having pitchers hi – Marco would jump in value. The guy could rake! (For a pitcher)
It’s ok. The Pirates wrote the book on signing fringe players. They will lose some of course, but they’ll bring in a haul of guys who’ll do nothing in the next couple months
Not worth 15M but we know Cherington and Co. love them lefties. Rum Bunter will put out an article soon that they are gonna sign Max Fried or Blake Snell. Maybe even Kershaw.