The Pirates will place Marco Gonzales on the injured record attributable to a forearm pressure, supervisor Derek Shelton advised the Pittsburgh beat (X hyperlink through Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Put up-Gazette). The Bucs haven’t formally introduced that nor a corresponding roster transfer, however Alex Stumpf of MLB.com tweeted this night that reliever Ryder Ryan joined the staff in San Diego. Ryan will not be on the 40-man roster, so the Pirates would want to make one other transfer to carry him up in the event that they place Gonzales on the 15-day IL.
It’s the second time this season that Gonzales has been shelved by a forearm pressure. He averted surgical procedure the primary time round however nonetheless was out of motion between mid-April and simply earlier than the All-Star Break. The southpaw has returned to make 4 begins. Gonzales solely accomplished 5 innings in a type of appearances. He surrendered 4 runs throughout 2 1/3 frames in his last begin of July earlier than permitting 5 runs over 4 2/3 innings in opposition to the Padres final week.
Gonzales has made simply seven begins for the Bucs on the entire. He owns a 4.54 ERA with a effectively below-average 15.2% strikeout share and a strong 7.3% stroll fee in 33 2/3 innings. That’s pretty typical manufacturing for the soft-tossing management artist. Gonzales ate loads of innings behind a rotation at his greatest in Seattle. He sadly has not been in a position to try this over the past two seasons. A forearm pressure additionally disadvantaged him of the ultimate 4 months of the 2023 marketing campaign.
The Bucs traded Martín Pérez and Quinn Priester on the deadline. They weren’t promoting, however transferring Priester allowed them to carry again an higher minors hitting prospect (Nick Yorke) whereas Pérez was arguably superfluous whereas Gonzales was wholesome. The pair of trades coupled with one other Gonzales damage is stretching their beginning pitching depth. Pittsburgh has plugged Jake Woodford and Luis Ortiz into the rotation.
Ortiz had an excellent three-start run in the midst of July however has been hit laborious in his most up-to-date trio of appearances. Woodford signed a minor league contract in June after being reduce unfastened by the White Sox. On the MLB stage, he has given up 17 runs in as many innings this yr. Jared Jones isn’t too far out from coming back from a lat pressure, however the rotation depth is diminishing at a time when the staff is reeling.
Pittsburgh has hung within the playoff combine for many of the season. They’re taking a seven-game dropping streak into tonight’s sequence opener in San Diego. They’re nonetheless solely 5 video games again of the Braves within the Nationwide League Wild Card race, however they’ve dropped 5 video games beneath .500 and wish to leap six groups to get into playoff place. It’s very a lot an uphill battle.
Gonzales is within the last season of the $30MM extension that he signed with the Mariners again in 2020. The Bucs maintain a $15MM choice for subsequent yr, although that’ll be a straightforward name for the entrance workplace to say no. Pittsburgh is reportedly solely on the hook for $3MM of his $12MM wage this yr, because the Mariners and Braves every paid down a part of the contract among the many sequence of offseason trades that landed him within the Metal Metropolis. Even when Gonzales once more avoids surgical procedure and is ready to make it again for the stretch run, he’ll hit free company with sturdiness questions going into his age-33 season.
Ryan misplaced his roster spot on deadline day when the Bucs referred to as up Woodford. He cleared waivers and accepted an outright task to Triple-A. The 29-year-old righty made his debut with Seattle final season. He has pitched in 13 video games for Pittsburgh, permitting 11 runs (10 earned) throughout 17 frames. Ryan has tossed 28 1/3 innings with Indianapolis, permitting a 4.45 ERA with a modest 16% strikeout share however a robust 50% grounder fee.
