White Sox sign Gio Gonzalez to fill out rotation
Robert Murray of the Athletic reports that the Chicago White Sox have agreed to a deal with left-hander Gio Gonzalez.
Presumably, the deal is for one year as he is not quite in the tier of pitchers you’d expect to get a multi-year deal.
Gonzalez, 34, only made 19 appearances (17 starts) in 2019 as he battled left arm fatigue for almost two months.
In the time he did pitch, Gonzalez had a 3.50 ERA, 4.04 FIP, and 1.294 WHIP with 8.0 K/9 as compared to 3.8 BB/9.
Prior to that, he was the epitome of durable as he had made 30 or more starts in four straight seasons and in eight of the last nine.
For his career, Gonzalez has a 3.68 ERA, 3.65 FIP, and 1.315 WHIP with 8.6 K/9 as compared to 3.8 BB/9.
It appears that the season he had last year, when healthy, showed no signs of decline that the White Sox should be concerned about.
This will actually be the third time in his career that he’s in the White Sox organization as he was drafted 38th overall by the team in the 2004 MLB Draft.
He was then packaged in a deal to acquire Jim Thome and Aaron Rowand from the Philadelphia Phillies in 2005 before being reacquired in 2006 along with Gavin Floyd for Freddy Garcia.
However, Gonzalez never actually made a major league appearance for the south side as he was traded to Oakland Athletics in 2008 for Nick Swisher.
Gonzalez, hopefully, will get to finally make his debut with the club in 2020.
With the southpaw in the fold, the White Sox rotation depth includes Gonzalez, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech, Dylan Covey, and eventually, Carlos Rodon.
Ross Detwiller was brought back on a minor league deal on Wednesday, but should merely serve as a depth option in Triple-A and not be considered a major league option going into 2020. Covey should really fall into this tier as well.
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It remains to be seen whether or not Gio Gonzalez will be the last starter the Whtie Sox sign going into next season.