The Pirates announced this morning that they’ve placed left-hander Marco Gonzales on the 15-day injured list with a forearm strain. Right-hander Ryder Ryan was recalled in the corresponding move.
It’s an unfortunate turn of events for Pittsburgh, as the club has gotten off to a hot start this season with a 10-5 record that puts them just one game back of the Brewers in the NL Central. Much of that success has been attributable to Gonzales, who has posted a sterling 2.65 ERA and 3.60 FIP through three starts this season, including quality starts against tough offenses in Baltimore and Philadelphia. Gonzales’s success has helped to mask the struggles of staff ace Mitch Keller, who has allowed 12 runs (ten earned) in his 17 innings of work to this point in the season.
Gonzales’s strong start to the 2024 season comes as something of a surprise. While he posted three consecutive seasons with a sub-4.00 ERA from 2019 to 2021 with the Mariners, he’s struggled badly with injuries and ineffectiveness in recent years with a 4.36 ERA and 4.89 FIP across 42 starts from 2022-23 before his 2023 campaign was halted by surgery to repair a nerve issue in his forearm. This offseason, Gonzales was traded twice in the span of two days, first being shipped from Seattle to Atlanta in the deal that brought Jarred Kelenic to the Braves before immediately being flipped to the Pirates in exchange for a player to be named later or cash.
Given the minimal acquisition cost for the Pittsburgh, the trade was already looking like a clear success just three starts into Gonzales’s tenure as a Pirate. That could certainly still be the case, but without many details regarding the specifics of Gonzales’s injury or his timeline for return, it’s impossible to know just how long the Pirates will be without the lefty. Any forearm issues are always concerning for a pitcher, though that’s perhaps especially true of Gonzales given the forearm problem that ended his 2023 season and ultimately required surgery.
With Johan Oviedo set to miss the 2024 campaign and Gonzales now potentially facing a significant absence of his own, the Pirates will have to look to their pitching depth to fill out the club’s rotation behind Keller, Martin Perez, Jared Jones, and Bailey Falter. The obvious choice for that role would be 2023 first overall pick Paul Skenes, though the league’s consensus top pitching prospect has recorded just one out in the fourth inning and maxed out at 64 pitches to this point in the season, suggesting he made need time to build up to five-plus innings of work before joining the big league club even if Pittsburgh decides to promote their flamethrowing phenom.
Barring the club deciding to promote Skenes, they have plenty of other options at the Triple-A level to replace Gonzales. Perhaps the cleanest choice would be right-hander Quinn Priester, who is already on the club’s 40-man roster and and made eight starts for the club last year. Another option would be veteran righty Domingo German, who signed a minor league deal with the club this winter after many years as a quality back-of-the-rotation arm with the Yankees.
In the meantime, the Pirates have called up Ryan, who turns 29 next month. The right-hander signed with the club on a minor league deal this past winter after making a one-inning cameo with the Mariners last year for his big league debut. Ryan ultimately made the club’s Opening Day roster but struggled in his first extended look at the major league level, surrendering four runs on six hits and two walks despite a solid 26.1% strikeout rate across his four appearances. Ryan will now get another look with the big league club, adding depth to the club’s bullpen alongside the likes of Colin Holderman and Hunter Stratton.
That’s a shame, Gonzo has been really looking great.
Shiver me timbers. Time to walk the plank, Marco Polo.
When did said injury happen? He seemed fine yesterday.
Probably felt something after the game or early this morning and got himself checked out as soon as he could. MLB team doctor’s offices aren’t like our local clinics. They work faster because there aren’t like 20 other patients with toothaches and coughs in line ahead of a player.
Throwing too many sinkers & cutters compared to last year. Plus, his spin rate is lower compared to last year. Needs more spin to be less injury prone.
/s
Marco must cut back on the number of 98 mph fastballs he hurls.
There have been numerous junk ball pitchers in baseball history who didn’t have 98 mph fastballs and were very successful
You think Warren Spahn who won 363 games had one or Cy Young who won 511 games?
Ever heard of Greg Maddox? He didn’t either
How has German done in minors so far?
German hasn’t thrown a single pitch in the minor leagues yet. Idk where he’s been.
Drinking?
They should put Shelton on the plank with his eyes covered, he’s undoubtedly the worst manager in baseball and take Haines with him
Yesterday he allowed Suwinski and Tallez to bat against left handed pitchers with the game on the line and with 4 right handed hitters on the bench
Both Rowdy and Jack struck out twice against the lefties
Lastly, these hitters still don’t know how to protect the plate and consistently get called third strikes against them
Wondered that myself!? Terrible.
Jack .357 ba vs lhp. I know how you love sss so there ya go.
Next you’ll be defending Cruz’ 25 strikeouts in 15 games, 4 alone just today, because he hit a home run yesterday, Dream
Complete baloney. Glad Jack homered today but after you post a stat like this I have to wonder if you even watch the games
I do. Jack looks good and the results should keep coming. Probably hopefully in reverse.
Yeah, he looked so good on Saturday, with 2 players in scoring position, he struck out looking
Granted that was only one game, but prior to his grand slam yesterday, Jack only had 3 runs batted in
Pathetic for a clean up hitter
I don’t expect him to hit home runs every game but putting the ball in play is essential in scoring runs
Dream, always appreciate your insights but here, I don’t agree. Looks like he made no adaptations in the off season whatsoever
He was good platoon last year. If that’s all he ever is then that’s fine. SSS but he is improved in some areas. Crushing lefties when he hits the ball. Drastically cut down on k’s vs rhp. If he keeps it up and finds a happy medium between the 2 Jacks he will move good everyday player.
The man…..Shelton is in over his head in managing. He’s a blight on a possible great season by the buccos. His managing is winning games, his mis managing is losing games. He doesn’t pick his lineup out of a hat, he picks it out of his behind.
Hard to believe that there isn’t a better pitcher available to bring up than this never has been
He was scored on in every game he played in prior to his recent demotion
For all those who say that the arm injuries for pitchers are the result of throwing max-effort 95+ mph fastballs, here’s an example of the opposite. The premier deceptive low-velocity and speed-changing pitcher in the game, Marco Gonzales, is now injured too.
Pitching in general gets to you over time, no matter if your fastball is 88MPH or 98 MPH. Gonzales also had Tommy John surgery very early in his career, a minor forearm strain about 6 years after that, and then a nerve issue last year that required surgery.
Takes him max effort to throw 90
If you actually think that no low velo pitcher can ever get injured that’s on you. Throwing max effort, high spin rate, high velocity increases the likelihood of injuries. It doesn’t mean guys like Jamie Moyer never had injuries in their career.
Also, comparing a guy going in the DL for 15 days vs a guy throwing so hard his tendon tears and is out 18 months as the same thing is silly.
Love Marco as an M’s fan, hope he’s back on the mound soon.
Well, that’s really unfortunate. Skenes still needs stretched out. He threw 55 pitches the other day, the most he’s thrown in a pro game yet. At least Priester has looked pretty good at Triple-A so far. Honestly thought he’d get the final rotation spot out of Spring Training over Falter at the time.
Falter is pitching like a man who does not want to go back to Indianapolis
Personally, I was against keeping Falter as a starter but I have to admit, he’s changed my perspective on his potential
Pirates can’t demote him without exposing him to waivers. No way Pirates can get away with that after Falter’s start to the season.
Fleming probably gets a start.
Shelton said that he would use the same approach as last year when they were short a starter so yes it’s likely Fleming will make a start
Nice comeback today considering as a team they struck out 13 times in 7 innings
Cruz alone with 4. I repeatedly beat the strike out issue because that doesn’t put runners on base or score very often
Problem is that it’s like crickets here until the wheels come off a bit
Like last year, they’re off to a nice start and truthfully it’s because of quality starts
But now you have Gonzalez out for at least a couple starts. You wonder if we’re not heading down the same road and if so, the strikeouts and poor at bats will bite them. Like it all did last year
They have a couple guys who are consistent hitters and a couple guys with power that hit bombs every so often
But Suwinski and now Cruz continue to be worrisome, despite the upside
I’m contradicting my thoughts in a previous post but I often wonder if Davis knows where the strikezone is
But at this time of year, pitchers still have some advantage.
Would be nice to see a few guys get hot
During yesterday game, 7 hitters were called out on strikes, so my question is,! why aren’t they taught to protect the plate and foul off a pitch that isn’t thrown in their wheelhouse?
Taylor also struck out 4 times yesterday, 2 were called third strikes
I agree with @tiredolderdude that Davis appears lost st the plate so far
He had 57 games under his belt from last year and has regressed so far this year offensively
They picked up Dave Fleming from the Mariners in that deal?
Domingo German doesn’t show on Indianapolis Indians roster
If gone for an extended time it’s a huge loss. Gonzales was a A+ addition and looked absolutely fantastic. Last years team was a low 80s win team until they lost 3 of their 6 best starters and Contreras Ortiz fell off a cliff. Hopefully the same thing doesn’t happen this year. Depth is better this year. Lauer looks good. Fleming can go multiple innings. Ortiz looks better. Priester looks better. These will be the options until Summer and then the 2 tj guys and Solo will be options.
Skenes could pitch good in mlb right now. They been keeping him at around 50 pitches 3 or 4 innings getting him used to going every 5 days. When you have a arm like Skenes you want to do everything you can do to protect it. You also want to get that 7th season. They want and get ready to laugh to have Skenes for stretch run and playoffs. That’s why so little spring training work and minors work. Jones if healthy all year will likely be shut down. I can’t see them letting him approach 200 innings.
They’ll most likely shut down Jones during All star break to save the innings if they’re still in contention. Building him back up for late in the season
They already traded one of the two TJ guys, so he won’t be helping the Pirates
Are you Buccos fans starting to get a strange feeling of deja vu coming up here soon? (When compared to how well the team started last year).
speaking strictly for myself, no I am not getting any feelings whatsoever of another season crash like we saw after such a terrific start to last season
The lineup is different, good mixture of youth and veteran. Starting pitching is much better and we have a solid relief corp
Injuries are unavoidable, every team has them, how they overcome injuries is what matters
That all said, there’s still problems with the offense. I make a big deal out of strikeouts, because striking out doesn’t put runners on base. The team is winning despite the inept manager and his hitting coach
Not at all. After 16 games last year the team was 9-7.
The midseason swoon last year was caused by an absolute fluky amount of pitching woes (Three Tommy John surgeries and guys losing velocity out of nowhere). The next waive of prospects weren’t ready yet when the injuries started. The Pirates played above .500 ball over the last month and a half last year once that next waive arrived and got their feet wet.
The Pirates did a great job making sure they wouldn’t have the pitching depth issues again by bringing in Marco, Perez, German, and Lauer to combine with the prospects being closer to arriving (with Jones already arriving). That’s the major difference between this years team and last years, it’s the depth. Which makes sense since this was the first year the rebuild was suppose to come to fruition.
If by “fluky” you mean the pitcher injuries, sure, your point is well taken. But the fly in your ointment comes when you realize that pitching got them to 20-8 without a whole lot of hit and runs support. When the pitching went south, well, the lack of offense really showed
You make note of how they did post-break and yes, it’s true that they put together a nice half. But Shelton pulled a rabbit out of his hat with having 1-2 “reliever starts” over the last month or more. And he’s planning this idea again, with Gonzo hurt, it appears
I hope the pitching holds up. You’re right. They have depth. I’m just not sold on their hitters beyond Reynolds and Hayes. I think Cruz will be fine but he K’s too much. And Suwinski? Even more than him
I’m still going with 79-82 wins. I’m still thinking ‘25 is the year they emerge, with Skenes and Jones on the staff
Where did I say anything that disagreed with you? Had their pitching stayed healthy and/or Contreras/Ortiz not inexplicably lose a significant amount of velocity, they would have competed throughout the entire year. That’s all I said. They were still rebuilding last year, they didn’t have the depth needed to sustain lots of injuries in any one area, and that’s exactly what happened with the pitching.
Shelton is only planning that again if Marco is not out long-term. If he’s out long-term they’ll call up Priester or Lauer and stick with a five man rotation.
Suwinski has done everything you and the other posters on here asked him to do, and he doesn’t K nearly as much as Cruz. He’s cut his K-rate in half (It’s only 17% this year), makes contact 20% more, and takes almost 20% less pitches. What is your issue with him now?
I predicted 83-86 wins before the season, and that still seems accurate to me.
Wasn’t debating you, Buc. Sorry if it sounded that way
I keep reading fans who say Suwinski has turned it around. I guess I’ll have to look a little harder. Mechanically, there hasn’t been much of a change.
Your percentages don’t mean a whole lot 17 games in. Let’s revisit at mid season. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that knowing what I do about mechanics and plate discipline, he’s going to be in the same range as last year at that time
And comparing him to Cruz only points to how worrisome things are. You’re talking about two guys who simply *must* improve greatly and perform for this team as currently built to contend
Lastly, I’m not sure what you’re referring to where depth is concerned. The starting pitching has been a pleasant surprise but in terms of depth, you’re pointing to Priester or Ortiz? By all accounts, Skenes won’t be here for awhile. Burrows is out until late summer at best. Solometo and Ashcroft haven’t been having a great deal of fun so far this season on the farm
Look, I’m a fan like you, but my “issue” seems to be stuck more in the reality of things than the dreamland that aptly named DreamGM espouses. In his thinking, the rebuild is over
Hardly.
I’ll get back to you at mid season
I said Priester or Eric Lauer when it comes to starting pitching depth. Lauer was my favorite addition of the offseason. As soon as he’s stretched out I think he’ll be in the rotation for good through the end of 2025.
It’s only 17 games, but Suwinski’s contact numbers are drastically different. I think he’ll strikeout a little more than 17% when it’s all said and done because it’s hard to imagine a player cutting their K-rate in half in one offseason, but his approach has been noticeably different this season. He’s also doing a heck of a job staying alive with two strikes.
The rebuild is over, this is the first year to compete. They have depth at most positions, but are still a very young team. I really like the core of this team and think they, along with the Reds, will control the division for the next four or five years after this one.
Admittedly, I don’t know much about Lauer and rely on your thoughts
I think the only point of departure between us is that I see them a year off
Thanks
I think it’s time to give the Pirates respect when it comes to working with veteran pitchers. I did not have faith in Gonzalez who had fringe stuff already and coming off an injury. Thought Perez would be okay, both have more than done their part so far, and it’s happened in the past as well.
However, the most important thing is can they ever develop young pitching? Keller took an odd road to success, Jared Jones looks like the real deal because of raw stuff alone but no one else has really worked out other than Cole.
? Is if they can develop young hitters. Pitchers they can most certainly develop.
Hitters are also a major issue as well as overall development period. Their sustained success will come from young guys working out, not just vets on one year deals every year, though they seemed to have chosen wisely. A lot of idiots also wanted Connor Joe off the team as well.
Even though they didn’t have many top pitching prospects in the past few years, I still haven’t seen them develop many aside from Cole and Taillon. And like I said, Jared Jones looks very promising, and Keller had a very odd path to success.
You’re jumping the gun here a bit, no?
Let’s hold off on calling Marin the new Ray Searage, who really was a great coach for veteran pitchers, until we see a season of growth and change. I’m hoping for a season worth of consistency from Keller, let alone new guys
While I wasn’t one of “the idiots” who wanted them to trade Joe, again, you’re jumping the gun. The guy has a great start but faded a bit recently. He’s likely what’s he’s been for his career: a spot starter and sub. Nothing wrong with that. Valuable for a team
Hitting remains the problem here and simply put, one doesn’t see a great deal of evolution as players come up through the system. DreamGM is right; scouts and development guys don’t grow on trees. But Suwinski looks as he did last year. Davis seems to be clueless where the strike zone is (he’s not alone). And that’s the thing. Plate discipline, knowledge of the strike zone, awareness of counts and pitcher strategies—does anyone really instruct the young Pirates
I’m hoping you’re right about everything. I’m just not willing to believe it until late summer
Searage was one of the most overrated coaches in the history of the franchise. Jim Benedict was the one that actually turned around those pitchers, and that’s why that trend stopped when he went to the Marlins.
You’re wrong on Suwinski. He looks nothing like he did last year. He’s improved on every contact statistic despite playing against a lot of lefties to start the year. Davis probably needs sat for a few days (same with Cruz). Young guys will have ups and down, and then all of a sudden it’ll “click”. I don’t even look at overall stats for the most part until May, it’s too small of a sample size before then.
Yeah, the list of guys like Burnett, Liriano, Volquez et al who credited Searage were just paid actors. Sure
Searage failed miserably with young pitchers in the system, no doubt
Glasnow. Morton. Others. Had to find themselves when they left Pittsburgh
Benedict was a tremendous pitching coach, as well. By the time he left here, the team was left with Taillon, for the most part, and another rebuild
I addressed your Suwinski comment above. I like the kid. I hope you’re right. And the same goes for Davis
Ray Searage is who delivered the message and protocol developed by Benedict. There is a reason the teams pitching stunk under Searage after Benedict left the Front Office.
I think Searage is a bad pitching coach, but a very likeable and personable guy. That’s why players liked him, he was a players coach.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
I look for Pirates to bring up Eric Lauer to replace Gonzales as they are both in the crafty lefty category of SP’s.
If Gonzales is out for an extended period of time I think Lauer would make a lot of sense. Lauer is a good pitcher and has actually been better than Gonzales in recent years.
Lauer was my favorite signing off the offseason actually. Once he’s stretched out I think he’ll be in the rotation to stay through 2025 (still has another year of control beyond this year).
Pirates blowing their chance at the division by not putting Paul Skenes into the rotation right now. I applaud this as a Brewers fan. Even 4 innings of Paul Skenes would really help them. It would sure help them more than it does dominating at AAA. I only assume that they are being cheap and trying to get more control over him. Or maybe they will keep him in AAA until he gets his Tommy John out of the way.
They’ve already gained the year of control and they aren’t being cheap. They’re being careful with the future of their franchise. He’s never pitched on 5 days rest before and they’re easing him into innings/pitches on 5 days rest. As soon as he’s stretched out to 5 plus innings he’ll be called up.
The Pirates currently have one of the best starting rotations in the NL statistically. Right now there isn’t a rush. Plus, they still have Eric Lauer and Quin Priester in AAA and Luis Ortiz in their bullpen for depth. They have plenty of depth to be patient with Skenes.