21:43: Pittsburgh now announced that they selected Ryan’s contract before tonight’s game. They placed Gonzales directly on the 60-day injured list to create the required 40-man roster spot. Although he would technically be eligible to play again at the end of a long playoff series, it is clear that Gonzales will not be back in the game this season.
20:21: The pirates will Marco Gonzales on the injured list with a forearm strain, manager Derek Shelton told the Pittsburgh Beat (X-Link via Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). The Bucs have not officially announced that or any related roster change, but Alex Stumpf of MLB.com tweeted tonight that the reliever Ryan Reynolds has joined the team in San Diego. Ryan is not on the 40-man roster, so the Pirates would have to make another move to get him if they place Gonzales on the 15-day IL.
It’s the second time this season that Gonzales has been sidelined with a forearm strain. He avoided surgery the first time but was still out of action between mid-April and just before the All-Star break. The left-hander returned and made four starts. Gonzales pitched just five innings in one of those appearances. In his last start in July, he gave up four runs in 2 1/3 innings before allowing five runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Padres last week.
Gonzales has made just seven total starts for the Bucs. He has a 4.54 ERA with a well-below-average 15.2% strikeout rate and a solid 7.3% walk rate in 33 2/3 innings. That’s a fairly typical performance for the soft-throwing control artist. Gonzales pitched a lot of innings at the bottom of a rotation during his prime in Seattle. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to do that over the past two seasons. A forearm strain has also robbed him of the final four months of the 2023 season.
The Bucs traded Martin Perez And Quinn Priest at the deadline. They did not sell, but the transfer of Priest allowed them to bring back a promising hitter from the upper minors (Nick Yorke), while Pérez was probably redundant while Gonzales was healthy. The two trades coupled with another injury to Gonzales expand the depth of their starting pitchers. Pittsburgh has Jake Woodford And Luis Ortiz into the rotation.
Ortiz had a brilliant three-start run in mid-July but has been hit hard in his last three appearances. Woodford signed a minor league contract in June after being released by the White Sox. At the MLB level, he has allowed 17 runs in as many innings this year. Jared Jones will soon recover from a latissimus strain, but rotation depth decreases at a time when the team is reeling.
Pittsburgh has stayed in the playoff race for most of the season. They enter tonight’s series opener in San Diego on a seven-game losing streak. They’re still only five games behind the Braves in the National League Wild Card race, but they’ve fallen five games under .500 and have to overtake six teams to make the playoffs. It’s an uphill battle.
Gonzales is in the final season of the $30 million extension he signed with the Mariners in 2020. The Bucs have a $15 million option for next year, but the front office can easily decline it. Pittsburgh reportedly only has to pay $3 million of his $12 million salary this year, as the Mariners and Braves each paid off a portion of the contract as part of the series of offseason trades that brought him to the Steel City. Even if Gonzales again avoids surgery and manages to come back for the final stretch, he will enter free agency at age 33 and face questions about his durability.
Ryan lost his spot on the roster at the deadline when the Bucs called up Woodford. He came off the waivers list and accepted a direct transfer to Triple-A. The 29-year-old right-hander made his debut with Seattle last season. He has pitched in 13 games for Pittsburgh, allowing 11 runs (10 earned) in 17 innings. Ryan has thrown 28 1/3 innings with Indianapolis, posting a 4.45 ERA with a modest 16% strikeout rate but a strong 50% grounder rate.
