The Pittsburgh Pirates added a starting pitcher to their rotation Tuesday night by acquiring left-hander Marco Gonzales and cash from the Atlanta Braves for a player to be named later or cash.
Gonzales spent the past seven seasons with the Seattle Mariners before being dealt to Atlanta in a five-player trade on Sunday, along with outfielder Jarred Kelenic and first baseman Evan White, for right-handed pitchers Jackson Kowar and Cole Phillips.
The 31-year-old Gonzales has a career 65-49 record with a 4.14 ERA and 1.29 WHIP, averaging 6.7 strikeouts and 2.4 walks per nine innings in 163 games over nine seasons with the Mariners and St. Louis Cardinals, who drafted him in the first round in 2013.
A soft-throwing lefty, Gonzales was 61-47 with a 4.08 ERA and 1.27 WHIP over 151 games with Seattle, though he had a sub-4.00 ERA through 765⅔ innings before arm issues. He was 10-15 with a 4.13 ERA and allowed 30 home runs in 2022, then went 4-1 with a 5.22 ERA in 50 innings over 10 starts last season before being shut down with a left forearm strain.
Although Gonzales had a solid chase rate (31.8%) and barrel percentage (6.7%), he ranked in the bottom 10th in fastball velocity (89 mph), whiff percentage (19.8%), strikeout rate (15.8%) and expected batting average (.288), and he gave up eight runs twice last season.
Gonzales enters the final season of a four-year, $30 million contract, and is scheduled to make $12.25 million this season.
The Pirates are desperate for starting pitching, as All-Star Mitch Keller is their only healthy traditional starter returning. JT Brubaker and top-10 prospect Mike Burrows both had Tommy John surgery last spring, and Johan Oviedo is expected to undergo the procedure this month.
