The Padres and left-hander Marco Gonzales have agreed to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The CAA Sports client will make a salary of $1.5MM if he makes the team with an extra $1MM available via incentives.
Gonzales, 34 in February, spent many years as a solid mid-rotation starter in the majors but is coming off a few injury-marred seasons. From 2018 to 2022, he gave the Mariners 765 2/3 innings, allowing 3.94 earned runs per nine. His 17.7% strikeout rate was subpar but he also only gave out walks at a 5.8% clip.
In 2023, nerve issues in his forearm limited him to just ten starts. He required surgery in August of that year. Going into 2024, he was included in the Jarred Kelenic trade with Atlanta, seemingly as financial ballast. He was traded to Pittsburgh a few days later. Due to further forearm strains, he went on and off the injured list and only made seven starts for the Bucs that year. He underwent flexor tendon surgery that August.
The Pirates made the easy decision to turn down his $15MM club option for 2025 since he was looking at a lengthy surgery recovery. He didn’t sign anywhere else and didn’t pitch in any official capacity last year.
It’s anyone’s guess what he can provide after three straight issues more or less tanked by forearm problems. For the Padres, he’s a sensible flier to take as they certainly need pitching. Right now, their on-paper rotation is fronted by Michael King, Nick Pivetta and Joe Musgrove. There’s not a ton of certainty in there. King was injured for a lot of 2025. Pivetta has been in trade rumors. Musgrove missed all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Behind those top three, there are guys like Randy Vásquez, JP Sears, Kyle Hurt and Matt Waldron. Vásquez had a 3.84 ERA last year but that seems unsustainable since he only struck out 13.7% of batters faced. The other three all posted ERAs above 5.00 in 2025.
It’s unclear how much spending capacity the Padres have at this stage of the winter. RosterResource currently projects them for a $220MM payroll and $262MM competitive balance tax figure. At the end of 2025, those numbers were $214MM and $266MM.
If the budget is tight, that could explain why the Friars are open to moving Pivetta and his backloaded contract. He made a $3MM signing bonus and $1MM salary last year but his salary jumps to $19MM, $14MM and $18MM in the next three seasons, with an opt-out after 2026. Flipping him would save some money but further thin out the rotation.
Gonzales is hard to bank on after his injury odyssey but he would be nice value for money if he can return to something resembling his prior form. He will join Triston McKenzie as non-roster arms pushing for big league jobs with the Padres this year.
Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images
What??
I was just surprised to see he was only out of baseball for a year. I feel like he hadn’t pitched since ages ago.
Rehabbing from arm injuries, I reckon. He had Tommy John fairly early in his career and then started dealing with forearm strains and nerve issues in the last few seasons. He had a very solid run and he’s an easy guy to root for.
I really liked the competitor Marco was when he was with the Mariners. Liked his fight. His stuff is a little Jamie Moyerish….
What happened to this dude? Wishing him well.
Injury I believe
Vision quest
Nice if depth, not so nice if the fifth starter
He would certainly be better than Kyle Hurt, whoever that is. Might be as good or better than Kyle HART if he is healthy.
He’s been hurt (no pun intended) for awhile but Kyle Hurt of the DODGERS is actually a pretty solid arm with good upside. Prob won’t get more than a couple looks with their depth next year, though.
Probably a wise move. He could be decent if the need arises.
Go get ’em Marco!!
I kept wondering if he would sign somewhere this offseason glad to see he did.
I remember when this guy beat Kershaw twice in the 2014 NLDS as a middle-relief guy… not that beating Kershaw in the playoffs is that difficult.
Loved him in seattle, held it down why they waited for all the talent to come up. 6 walks the whole covid season. But retire dude. Not getting any outs with that 85
Raised in Ft. Collins Co. and drafted by the Rockies in 2010. Wonder if the Rockies were interested in having him come home?
Padres need depth! They got some.
Congrats to Marco. Glad to see him back with an organization. Would have loved to see a reunion with the M’s on a minor league deal but understand why Dipoto and Hollander didn’t go there.
Was good 5th starter with Pirates until he got hurt and that’s what it comes down to. No harm in having him as depth if your AAA has the spot available.
A+ move on the Padres part
He was a good 5th starter for two or three starts, but yeah, ok
Interesting depth option. Would probably shock the world if he broke camp with the Padres
Kyle Hart, not Hurt
One of my favorite pitchers of the 2010s.
When ”Last Game:” appears within the player caption, as here with Marco Gonzalez, the page has converted to his career’s FindAGrave listing.
Uh, guys? It’s Kyle Hart, not Kyle Hurt.
Although now those two should take a picture together, just for fun.
Such non-news. Not worth reporting.
Marco Gonzalez, Aaron Sanchez, I wish I could stop getting these two mixed up.
Watched him many times. No specific strengths but… somehow he can be VERY useful. Needs good D and don’t let him go too long.
Seriously, is there a requirement with mlbtr writers to link every Padres news, no matter how small, to the “budget is tight” narrative?
Every team (except maybe one) has limits on their budget, but in all the other articles about other teams’ extremely inexpensive depth signings I rarely see mention about budget limitations.
I know, they never say that about the Dodgers. #bias
They don’t say that about the 23 teams with lower payrolls than the Padres either. Many minor league signings were reported today and tomorrow, Brewers, Nats, Cardinals, etc… none discussed the repercussions on payroll for those teams.
Well, to be honest, none of those teams also have the unlimited L.A. checkbook within their division. The better comp might be what they say when AZ or SF makes a signing. But, they aren’t at the Padres level, either in salary or current talent.
Writers expect that (1) the Pads are screwed for 2026 if they don’t land a few important pieces, because of the LAD, (2) the Pads are already pretty well maxed out on salary (i.e. now $100M+ signings possible, and $50M are improbable), and (3) there aren’t many pieces yet on the board at this point, to move the needle. What they omit, of course, is that AJP has been in this position over and over again, and has never ONCE failed to bring on significant additions. (He’s not a wizard, i.e. there are no guarantees that the retreads he takes a flier on, will work out. But he makes stuff happen.)
All of that, plus the natural bias in favor of the LA big guns, mean that they’ll ALWAYS consider SD the needy underdogs, no matter how much is spent on salary, nor if SD piles up multiple W.S. wins. The LAD would have to go broke and self-destruct to create any other Padres storyline, and that ain’t happening.
But given all that you have written so eloquently, is it bias or just that the Dodgers seem to do something every single day, warranting a write-up? Please note, I’m a Pirates fan, where my franchise seems to do things in reverse
@Brew’88 they can sign Framber for a massive contract and these “writers” would include padres have a small budget in the article. Ken Rosenthal says some made up nonsense every year and everyone just copy pastes it.
Darragh, your website posted the official CBT payroll fines paid.
Nine Teams Exceeded Luxury Tax Threshold In 2025
By Anthony Franco | December 19, 2025 at 11:54pm CDT
The Roster Resource numbers don’t correlate with the fines that were paid. .
Well, this is the kind of signing I expected out of AJP, at this point in the season. However, it’s not exactly like Tower’s “dumpster diving”. I have to figure that (1) this guy has rehabbed successfully and (2) pitched some where to someone, and (3) Niebla has seen him pitch. If the Padres have signed him after these three qualifiers, then it’s probably not a bad signing. Will he be a 5th starter, or a bullpen swingman? Or, go home at the end of Spring training. No one knows for sure, but I’m glad AJP signed him.
After all, AJ didn’t do too badly with the Pivetta signing. Just … ah … find another Pivetta, AJ. Just one signing. How hard could it be? (Padres fans don’t expect much …)
Edit: Also, I’m sure Stammen voted “yes” on this guy. He’s a pitcher after his own heart, i.e. crafty, low velo guy.
Last season Preller signed Pivetta after camp opened. The year before he made major moves after camp opened and even into May when he traded for Arraez. He is not done.
This minor league signing was not to find a #5 starter, it was to add another depth piece to tuck away in El Paso until injuries force call ups.
Stammen sat 93 most of his career or about MLB average. Gonzalez sits 89.
1st let me say that I am disappointed that on a MINOR LEAGUE signing this website continues to push a garbage position about the Padres having payroll limitations. Year after year and article after article you spout that BS when the reality of their actions shows that the Padres have just kept spending. When are you going to choose journalistic integrity over clickbait? Only Tim, Steve and Anthony are even worth reading anymore.
2nd, Gonzales is a soft tossing lefty that has almost zero shot at making the roster out of camp. He is a veteran depth piece that will go to El Paso and be called up to eat some innings only if there are injuries and if he can stay healthy himself.
They’re simply parroting the company line. We get this with almost every Pirates article. Maybe if MLBTR was able to hire investigative reporters to do deep dives on franchises like these and somehow get MLB to pry open its books, we’ll know for sure. But alas, I’m sure MLBTR has limited resources, too
Preller outright said yesterday that the Padres are not cutting payroll and are looking to add. Will the “writers” on this site still say they need to cut payroll?
The Padres could add an assistant to the bench coach and mlbtr will alert us to the budget ramifications of such a move.