‘They want me to start’: Former Gonzaga standout pitcher Marco Gonzales provides Pirates rotation depth

When the Seattle Mariners sent Marco Gonzales to the Atlanta Braves as part of a trade package, the timing took him by surprise. After a couple of days in limbo, the 31-year-old left-hander was pleased that he wound up with the pitching-needy Pittsburgh Pirates.

With All-Star right-hander Mitch Keller the only traditional starter returning to their rotation, the Pirates pounced and acquired Gonzales on Dec. 5 for a player to be named later or cash considerations.

“They want me to start, first and foremost. They’ve made that very clear to me,” Gonzales said Monday in a video conference call with Pittsburgh reporters. “That’s what I intend to do as well. I’ve been a starter pretty much my entire career, and that’s where I think I fit best.

Before last season, when he was shut down after 10 starts with a left forearm strain, Gonzales had a reputation as a workhorse. He has made 155 career starts over nine seasons in the majors, including a 61-47 record, 4.08 ERA and 1.27 WHIP over seven seasons with the Mariners. After pitching 183 innings in 32 starts in 2022, he made only 10 starts last season before undergoing surgery in August to decompress the anterior interosseous nerve in his left forearm.

After his rehabilitation, Gonzales spent the offseason training at T-Mobile Park with the Mariners’ staff until the Dec. 3 trade to Atlanta. Since then, Gonzales has worked with Driveline – the renowned data-driven baseball performance training center – and a physical therapy clinic in Bellevue.

“I’ve been really fortunate after the season was over, I was pretty much cleared to do more baseball activities, so I’ve had a relatively normal offseason, which has been really good,” Gonzales said. “It’s been a busy offseason but very, very normal health wise. Looking forward to a normal season, for sure.”

The Pirates are hoping Gonzales can have a resurgent season, much the way that left-handers Tyler Anderson, Jose Quintana and Rich Hill did the past three years.

Gonzales had a sub-4.00 ERA through 765⅔ innings before his arm issues. Signs of trouble emerged in 2021, when he allowed 29 home runs, and his strikeouts per nine innings dipped from 8.3 to 6.8. Gonzales was 10-15 with a 4.13 ERA and allowed 30 home runs in 2022.

Gonzales went 4-1 with a 5.22 ERA in 50 innings last season, giving up eight runs in two outings and ranking in the bottom 10th of MLB in fastball velocity (89 mph), whiff percentage (19.8%), strikeout rate (15.8%) and expected batting average (.288). His focus at Driveline is working on throwing his four-seam fastball for strikes.

“Fastball command is everything for me,” Gonzales said. “That’s first and foremost. I’m not going to Driveline to chase velo. I’m going to Driveline to create a new routine for myself and learn new perspectives on pitching and gathering strength. If I do end up throwing a little bit harder, that would be great. But I’m looking for endurance, sustainability and health, first and foremost.”

The Pirates saw firsthand last season the importance of fastball command from a soft-tossing lefty, as the 43-year-old Hill averaged 88.4 mph on his four-seamer but navigated through 119 innings over 22 starts before being traded to San Diego at the deadline. Gonzales is confident he can have success, despite not blowing anyone away with his heater.

“With my fastball, I believe in it like it’s 95,” Gonzales said. “It might not be 95, but it has taken me a long ways. I’ve proven a lot of doubters wrong saying that I can’t be a guy who throws 90 in this league. I love being that guy. I think it’s a lost art in this game. I love being the guy who’s not 95 coming out and getting guys out. That’s what I plan to do. If I can gain 1-2 mph at Driveline, great. But really I know that I can get just about anybody out with the stuff I have.”

The Pirates are counting on as much from Gonzales, who also is dealing with being uprooted from his comfort zone. He was a 2013 first-round pick (No. 19 overall) out of Gonzaga, married a Seattle native and has two daughters under the age of 3, so Gonzales is adjusting to the idea of playing the final season of his contract in the National League and on the East Coast.

“We do have a solid community of people here that we’re going to miss,” Gonzales said. “But this is a new chapter, and I think the timing took us a little bit by surprise, but that being said, we’re going to be ready to go for this new chapter. Get to know a new part of the country, get to know new families on the team, and I think it can be really good for my career.”