The Yankees announced that veteran left-hander Gio Gonzalez was not added to the team’s 40-man roster after exercising his opt-out clause over the weekend. The team had 48 hours to add Gonzalez to the roster once he triggered that clause, but he was instead allowed to become a free agent and is now able to sign with any club.
Bringing Gonzalez to the Majors would’ve been a fairly expensive bit of speculation for the Yankees, as the southpaw’s contract contained a $3MM base salary and called for him to earn an additional $300K per start made. With the decision to move on from Gonzalez, the Yankees will rely on James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ, CC Sabathia and Domingo German while awaiting the return of top starter Luis Severino, who is recovering from a lat strain.
Gonzalez, 33, made three starts with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton before opting out of his contract. Although he was shelled in the season opener (eight runs in four innings), the veteran rebounded with a pair of excellent outings, yielding a combined two runs with an 18-to-2 K/BB ratio in 11 innings. He threw 93 pitches in the most recent of those outings (April 14), so Gonzalez is plenty stretched out and could even be ready to join a big league staff in short order. He was slated to make a fourth appearance over the weekend but had that start rained out.
While Gonzalez found a tepid market for much of the offseason (to put things mildly), he should have no shortage of interested clubs this time around. Many teams have seen their rotation struggle early in the season, with some losing key arms for much (or all) of the season and others having to send younger rotation hopefuls back to the minors. The Brewers, Angels, Mets, Red Sox, Cardinals, Phillies, Athletics, Indians and Twins have all endured varying levels of disappointment from their starting rotations and could conceivably look to the durable Gonzalez as an alternative option.
While the 2018 season certainly wasn’t one of Gonzalez’s best, he topped 170 innings and 30 starts for the eighth time in the past nine seasons, working to a 4.21 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 along the way. Gonzalez has averaged 31 starts per season dating back to 2010 and hasn’t made fewer than 27 appearances in a given season since that time. As recently as 2017, he notched a 2.96 ERA in 201 innings of work, though he did lead the National League in walks that season. Nevertheless, Gonzalez has regularly been an average or better starter in the Majors for the past decade; that strong track record made it nothing short of bewildering to onlookers that he faced such a seemingly minimal market, but he’ll now venture into free agency for a second time with new representation as he looks to find a quick path back to the Major Leagues.
brewers should be on line 1 asap.
Yep
mets too
Rangers… He cant be worse than Shelby Miller
White Sox
He’s probably the same as Miller.
I’m not sure he’d consider the Brewers honestly. They didn’t call him in the off-season, and in the one playoff game where they pulled him early, he looked very unpleased about it. I see him as the type to hold a grudge about it. If they give him his top offer, maybe. But if I were to guess, I’m betting he has some bitter feelings about them.
Worse than being cached in the minors by the Yanks? No
They pulled him because he injured his ankle.
Bad move Spankees.
Oh Todd, such great insight. Your wife’s orange and blue thong is three sizes too small for you so blood is not flowing to your brain. That’s why you failed the eye test reading the top row as:
M – U – T -S
where’s the wallet with stupid money in it? Sign this guy.
Milwaukee needs way more help on that brutal staff than Gio. An absolutely horrible collection of arms. Pixie dust from 2018 long gone.
He’ll get his chance. Angels jump on this!
I’d love to see the Angels sign him.
Please….. Ausmus doesn’t have the berries
With what he accepted in dollars and being that he’s in game shape there are a number of teams that should swoop him up
Red Sox need a pitcher
The Red Sox need an entire bullpen. Signing another overpriced SP4/5 is not the answer for their considerable woes
Rather have another solid starter than nothing at all. All the good relief pitchers are taken and Gio only costs money, not money + prospects.
Ahem…all the good relief pitchers are not taken…something like Greg Mimbrel or something…
How much money will the Red Sox even add? If Gio wants 6MM or so that’s probably too rich for them. They’ve got so much money sunk into that rotation and they’re on top of the tax line. I don’t see it
Sox middle relief has been awful but the high leverage guys have been rock solid. Brasier 1.59 era, 0.88 whip; Barnes 2.89 era, 0.75 whip.
Brasier looked great in the Bronx last week…
Bullpen? Have you looked at their bullpen stats?
Hello hello Mr. Van Wagenen!
Sorry-your ATM card has a ZERO balance.
Oakland please
Second
Klenak…
It’s pretty much a lock that either Paxton or Tanaka go down with a shoulder injury this week after this move.
It’s pretty much a lock that your team will sustain a terrible injury for your hate wishing on Paxton or Tanaka.
What does pretty much mean anyway?
(It’s just a limp descriptor to add to lock.)
So stupid. Thought the Yankees needed pitching help.
Not a starter. Gonzalez is not better than Paxton, Tanaka, Happ, Sabathia,or German. Even Loaisiga who is in AAA right now is better than Gonzalez. So he would have to be a long reliever, and the Yankees have Cessa at a much cheaper rate for that role.
All they had to do was put him on the Suspended Animation list and wait for another pitcher to get hurt, So stupid,
Oakland or Milwaukee.
Really the Angels should’ve signed him over the off season. If they don’t make an effort now, I’ll be disappointed as it will 100% be the sign of a budget that is maxed out due to signing Cody Allen and Matt Harvey.
Being as cheap as he is, losing out on him will be just a matter of choice. For all we know, the Angels might have offered him a minor league deal along with several other teams and he just chose to go to the Yankees. The Angels’ budget is not maxed out at all. According to Cots, Trout took a big pay cut on his 2019 salary when signing his extension. And they had money freed up to spend on mid-season acquisitions before that happened. They have about a $20 million dollar cushion between their CBT payroll and the luxury tax. They could give Gio his $3 million to go straight into their rotation, and then would still have more than enough to make additions before the trade deadline.
we have to pay zack cozart $12,666,667 in ’20 again. so far he has been worth negative war! that is epp’s biggest mistake.
I think I agree with you completely. That said, I probably would have made the same mistake. I thought Cozart figured it out. I was as wrong as Eppler. .
Yes and no. It’s easy to say the Angles should have signed him for three million, but he wasn’t three million dollars when the Angels filled their staff. He was looking for a multi-year offer when the Angels filled their staff. The Angels paid more to ensure one year deals,,,, Which was very smart.
When he finally did sign, The Angels had a staff of Heaney, Skaggs, Harvey, Cahill and Barria, and even today I’d rather have Barrria. Then for some strange reason the Angels added Stratton and sent Barria down. I can’t figure that one out,
Now Heaney and Skaggs are hurt, Stratton stinks and they need another starter. So if he wants to play for the Angels, I say he can’t be any worse than what they are now throwing… So, I agree with you, and I don’t.
Mariners should get on the Gio train. We’ll need starting pitching for our World Series run.
Stupid-Dumb-Ridiculous Move
Why? Who would the Yankees kick off the 40 man to make room for Gonzalez? All of their current starters are better anyway.
Steve, I wonder if what also didn’t plat into the Yankees thinking was, with all these players on the DL, they needed flexibility on the 40 man roster.
Angel’s need arms.
We definitely need him.
The Jays could be added to the teams in line to chat with him.
Anyone else surprised Yanks didn’t promote and stick him in the pen untll the inevitable next injury? Pretty sure the Dodgers would have done something like that. Strange to just punt away cheap depth when money really isn’t the issue..
Gio can’t pitch out of the pen. He needs at least 2 innings to get stretched out and into a groove. In his years with the Nats, he had a tendency to walk or allow hits to the first few batters and load the bases. Sometimes, he got out of it (“Giodini”) and sometimes he did not.
But in innings 3-4-5 he was golden.
Will all those IL players though…. you’d think 25 man slots wouldn’t be an issue, if anything, give him a try in the pen, option someone else down, and have depth. At least shop him during that time for some kind of infielder or even a 4th OF.
Jays should sign him to a 2 year deal… can def use a guy to eat up innings now
I expect him to go right over to Citifield from Scanton, Mets in dire need
Mets need this guy as Vargas is putrid…not that JdG, Noah, Wheeler or Matz has been any better
And what nobody here has mentioned, Friday, Gio switched agents to the CAA agency, Brodie’s former employer. Hmmmm
Come to san diego Gio!! Could use a VET in our rotation
SD needs a whole heckuva lot more than Gio
Another Yankee decision based on money. Short sighted.
It probably wasnt based on money. Not saying it didnt play a factor but his Spring and AAA numbers didnt look very good. He needed more starts to make up for the lack of a full Spring training. I think that the Yankees didnt want to shove him in the pen when he needs starts but also didnt want to start him and endure a painful couple of starts. He will be solid once he gets his feet under him though, so i do agree it was a bit short sided.
GIo struck out 18 batters in his last 2 AAA starts. He got roughed up in his first outing after signing. Which is understandable considering that was essentially ST for him. What you said about enduring a bad start isn’t true based on his minor league results whatsoever. The Yankees didn’t have room in the rotation currently. I’m guessing they didn’t want to bump German at this point. Which is fine, he doesn’t deserve to get dumped but it has nothing to do with them worrying about Gio. He looked perfectly fine
Well i guess I stand corrected. Though, there was probably still a decent chance that the Yankees would have to endure a bad start or two anyway. Like you said, they have German. No point in bumping German when you may have to endure a few bad starts with his replacement.
Smh. 3 starts and 2 of which were brilliant. He didn’t have spring training numbers btw.
Hey Chuck-time to go back to your other identity and support your real team-thenmets
Hello Padres. He’d be our ace for the time being
Orioles? He’s gotta be better than Dan Straily.
He’s better than straily but he’ll cost 6-7x as much. The orioles could certainly use him but we don’t want to pay a guy 5+MM and I’m assuming if Gio has the option to go to a competitive club he’d prefer it.
I would be very surprised if the Brewers let him go somewhere else after how bad Burns was in the rotation. They need rotation help bad.
Here are the teams that desperately need Gio:
Angels
Mets
Brewers
Athletics desperately need Gio. Moreso than the angels because I think the A’s are a better team. Not by a wide margin but they’re better.
i can’t argue your statement for now but a’s are never decent in consecutive years.
With that being said he will go to the Dodgers or the Mariners.
Seattle
Oakland
Boston
KC
Texas
Miami
Detroit
Blue Jays
there are plenty of teams that he can pitch like crap for, for millions and millions of $…pathetic, earn your way back or expect the league minimum!!
Rangers about to Pounce !!!
Nice #3 spot for him in Toronto if he wants to be a mentor and has 0 interest in playoff baseball.
He would be a good pickup for the Cardinals!!
Gomber is better than him and only makes league minimum. That wouldn’t make any sense for them.
Bo’Sox
Why wouldn’t Gio opt out. The Yankees been wastin this mans time
This is a mistake by the Yankees. They are going to regret this decision. They better be praying that Boston doesn’t go and get him because Gio will take the mound and he’ll be giving the Yankees that text nobody wants to get while texting their girl… K. And it’ll just keep being resent.
Brewers rotation needs more help then besides Gio. its going to be a long season if it doesnt improve. They definitely need keuchel
Two years ago he was still a really good pitcher, and the Padres could use an innings-eater.
The METS need to get this guy ASAP!!
Gio‘s situation will be another arrow in the PA’s quiver when it goes to battle with the owners on owner collusion to depress the market.
Expect a season long strike.