North Shore Tavern Mound Visit: Gonzales showing what Pirates want

It goes without saying that the Pirates are in desperate need of a spark on offense. Henry Davis was promoted to the majors a week ago for that reason and was arguably their top hitter these past two series, but he couldn't jump start the offense by himself.

So they went back to the minors again this weekend, selecting the contract of another first-round pick, Nick Gonzales.

Gonzales was the first draft pick of this new regime back in 2020, and while his rise of the majors has been steady, it hasn't always been smooth sailing. He hit over .300 and had a 150 wRC+ for Class High-A Greensboro in 2021, but his OPS was nearly 300 points higher at his very hitter-friendly home park, First National Park Field. He posted a .383 on-base percentage for Class AA Altoona in 2022, but he also struck out 28.5% of the time.

Actually, those strikeout rates were pretty common for him. He struck out 27.4% of the time with Greensboro, 28.5% in Altoona and 28.6% for Class AAA Indianapolis. In 2022, I wrote a Mound Visit about how it's almost a 1-in-1000 occurrence for a hitter to strike out 30% of the time in the minors and then go on to have a successful major-league career. Gonzales wasn't quite at 30%, but that's probably too close for comfort for someone who was an early first-round pick.

With that said, even if Gonzales has only ok results in the minors this year, he was showing some very good signs before his promotion. Not just in terms of results, but peripherals that could suggest the strikeouts could start to go down.

"He was swinging the bat well," Derek Shelton explained when asked why now was the time to promote Gonzales. "I think we've talked about when we think guys are at the point where they're ready or close to being ready that we're going to bring them to the big leagues if we have an opportunity. I think right now we have an opportunity to get him some at-bats."

In June, Gonzales slashed .270/.440/460 (good for a 136 wRC+) with almost as many walks (20.2% walk rate) as strikeouts (21.4%). He's posted a .370 OBP on the year, and while that raw power he was touted as having at the draft hasn't translated into a ton of homers, they are line drives that can be doubles.

"We've been doing a lot of stuff with the hitting coaches down in Indy," Gonzales said to traveling media in Miami. "We've been working on just hitting the ball hard, being more selective early in the count, trying to find a pitch I can drive and stick with that approach, whatever it is based on the pitcher that day."

Back in spring training, the hitting coaches approached Gonzales about his bat path. He used to come in level with his swing, but then whip it upwards towards the end. This year, the focus has been on making sure it stays level throughout, relying on backspin and being able to hit it to all fields instead of just certain areas.

"t was making contact a little deep was easier for me, but once I got it a little further out in front, my barrel would come up a little bit more," Gonzales said.

Having that better bat path is helping Gonzales cut down on the whiffs, in his opinion. It hasn't come at the cost of the quality of his contact, either, which is still largely line drives:

Being selective is key for Gonzales, too. The Pirates put a lot of emphasis on what hitters do against high-quality pitches over just regular minor-league stats. They aren't going to see a lot of 90 mph fastballs in the majors, so they want to monitor how they do against high velocity (95+ mph) and spin (I used 2,600 RPM as a cutoff).

Early in the year, Gonzales had a tendency to chase

These aren't huge sample sizes (Gonzales saw 42 high-velocity fastballs in April, 47 in May and 29 before his promotion in June), but it does show a positive trend, especially with whiffs. Getting the bat to a fastball is the first tenet of major-league hitting.

The second tenet would probably be to not swing at junk. Again, we're dealing with a small sample size (though he saw more high spin breaking balls in June than he did din April), but Gonzales again is whiffing and chasing less:

Gonzales got his first taste of major-league pitching this past weekend and went hitless in his eight at-bats, but he also showed some patience and drew a big two-out walk in the ninth Saturday that helped the Pirates tie the game. It wasn't the ideal start to his major-league career, but some of those good traits he was showing in the minors popped up in that first taste of the bigs.

Regardless of how the rest of the 2023 season plays out, Gonzales is an important part of the Pirates' rebuild. They need consistent production out of the middle infield, something they have been lacking this year in Oneil Cruz's absence. Gonzales hasn't necessarily shown it in long stretches, but this June has been a very positive sign.

He's also the latest first-round pick to be called up, joining Davis and right-handed reliever Carmen Mlodzinski, who both beat him to the majors by a matter of days. Consider that another positive sign for the team's long-term projections.

"It's so cool," Gonzales said. "I'm going to give them a hard time because they beat me here, but it's all good. It's really exciting to see those guys here and to know that we're so close, and to be here now is a dream come true."