Yankees Release Victor Gonzalez

The Yankees have released left-hander Victor Gonzalez, as noted by MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. Gonzalez has been pitching for the club’s Triple-A affiliate since he was outrighted to the minor leagues back in June.

The 28-year-old southpaw made his pro debut with the Dodgers back in 2013 but didn’t make it to the majors until the shortened 2020 season. He excelled for the club in 20 1/3 innings of work across 15 games that year, posting an excellent 1.33 ERA and 1.67 FIP while striking out 28.8% of his opponents. That small-sample performance, along with a 2.70 ERA during the club’s World Series run that October, earned Gonzalez a spot in the club’s bullpen headed into the 2021 season. While the lefty’s first full 162-game season in the big leagues didn’t go quite as well as his rookie year during the shortened season, he still held his own with a solid 3.57 ERA and a 4.27 FIP in 44 games with L.A.

Unfortunately, injury would stop Gonzalez from attempting to repeat that success in 2022, as he was shelved by elbow debridement surgery early in the year and wound up missing the entire big league season. He returned to the majors in 2023 with the Dodgers but posted somewhat middling results, with a 4.01 ERA in 33 2/3 innings of work despite a solid 3.40 FIP and a 22.2% strikeout rate. That mediocre season left the southpaw overtaken on the club’s depth chart by Alex Vesia, opening the door for the Dodgers to deal Gonzalez over the offseason. They did just that come December, when he was shipped from L.A. to the Bronx alongside Jorbit Vivas for Trey Sweeney, the latter of whom would go on to be dealt to Detroit in exchange for Jack Flaherty over the summer.

Now outside of the Dodgers organization for the first time in his career, Gonzalez made the Opening Day roster with the Yankees a member of their bullpen. While he put up solid results for the club across 27 games with a 3.86 ERA in 23 1/3 frames, Gonzalez’s peripherals were quite concerning during his time in New York. After posting a solid 23.2% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate in his three years with the Dodgers, Gonzalez actually walked more batters (13.4%) than he struck out (11.3%) in New York. While the grounder specialist continued to keep the ball on the ground at a 55.1% clip, his .149 BABIP in the Bronx was obviously unsustainable and left him with ghastly peripherals including a 5.96 FIP and 5.74 SIERA.

Those peripheral numbers clearly concerned the Yankees enough to designate him for assignment, and other clubs enough that he ultimately went unclaimed on waivers. Since then, Gonzalez has been pitching for the club’s Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliate, but his time in Triple-A has not gone especially well with a 4.50 ERA in 22 innings of work. Now headed for the open market for the first time in his career, Gonzalez will look ahead to the 2025 season in hopes of finding a club who can help him get his career back on track.