Mike Gonzalez didn't find a home for 2012 until May, but interest in the left-hander is plentiful this offseason. He told James Wagner of The Washington Post that about ten teams have already expressed interest in his services, but his top priority is staying with the Nationals.
“They’ve had a couple conversations,” said Gonzalez. “[My agent] told me that [the Nationals] are definitely interested and I’m definitely interested. It’s going to be good. We haven’t started throwing money there. But there’s interest on every side.”
Gonzalez, 34, pitched to a 3.03 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 in 35 2/3 innings for Washington this season, holding lefties to a .179/.257/.269 batting line with 23 strikeouts in 75 plate appearances. He recently left Scott Boras for Dan Lozano and said that while he's hoping for a two-year deal, comfort will be a big factor with his decision this offseason.
With both Gonzalez and Sean Burnett becoming free agents, Tom Gorzelanny is currently the only left-hander in the Nationals' bullpen. He's more of a longman than a matchup specialist.
I am going to go out on a limb and say he is a liar.
2 major league contracts, 4 minor league deals, 2 deals from Japan, 2 deals from the independent league. There’s your ten
Replace 1 major league and 2 Japanese league teams with 3 beer league teams and you’d have had me convinced.
Pretty surprising given him, Burnett, Choate, and Affeldt are all available, dominate lefties. I would have rationed that someone like J.P. Howell might have gotten big interest, given he appears to be the only “B type” lefty reliever, which more teams probably need more than a lefty setup guy worth 20 mill. A good number of teams would prefer to have a righty set-up guy, and save their lefties as specialists, so this is a tad surprising for 10 teams to want Gonzalez
Obviously due for a nice raise given his dominant 2012, but I consider him among the top tier in lefty relievers
seems legit…