Milwaukee Brewers: 4 Potential Starting Pitcher Trade Targets
By Kenny Jilek
Marco Gonzales
Ok, so you’re probably done hearing about guys with control issues. Let me introduce you to the MLB leader in walks per nine with just 0.8, Marco Gonzales. Gonzales’ strikeout to walk ratio of 10.3 to 1 is also tops in all of Major League Baseball.
Gonzales is a poor man’s Greg Maddux here in the modern-day. His sinker, which he uses in place of a fastball and throws 44 percent of the time, averages just 88.4 miles per hour. He also throws a cutter, curveball, and changeup – none of which routinely top 85 miles per hour. He has low spin rates, 29th percentile in fastball spin, and 17th in curveball spin, which translates to very few swings and misses as he’s in the seventh percentile in whiff percentage.
So how does he still manage a solid strikeout rate, 44th percentile, and a 3.63 ERA this season? Deception and control. He simply locates pitches where they need to be to miss opponents barrels and that’s shown in his exit velocity and hard-hit percentage that are both in the 73rd percentile.
Gonzales is similar to a guy like Zach Davies or Kyle Hendricks in that when he’s got his command, hitters will struggle to square anything up and he’ll pound the zone all game long, but when he doesn’t have his good control, it’s going to be a long day because he can’t rely on getting swings and misses to bail him out.
Contract-wise, the 28-year-old Gonzales just signed a four-year, $30 million extension that will keep him under contract until at least 2024 with a club option for 2025. That’s not ideal for the Brewers who simply can’t afford to be paying five or six million dollars per year for a guy if he doesn’t perform, but they will have the security that he will be here multiple years and they’ll know exactly what they’d be paying him.
As a guy that the Mariners just gave an extension to, he’s an unlikely trade candidate, but with the Mariners at 12-19, they’re essentially out of it and one would question how much a 28-year-old could be part of their future plans.