JAWS and the 2026 Corridor of Fame Poll: Gio Gonzalez

The next article is a part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing take a look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2026 Corridor of Fame poll. For an in depth introduction to this yr’s poll, and different candidates within the collection, use the device above; an introduction to JAWS will be discovered right here. For a tentative schedule, see right here. All WAR figures discuss with the Baseball Reference model except in any other case indicated.

The baseball trade loves its pitching prospects — and generally appears to like dreaming on them by utilizing them as commerce chips nearly as a lot because it does truly letting them pitch. Thought-about to have among the best curveballs within the sport from the outset of his skilled profession, Gio Gonzalez was traded 3 times earlier than he’d thrown a significant league pitch, and 5 occasions throughout a profession that ended simply after he turned 35. Alongside the way in which, the undersized southpaw made two All-Star groups, acquired Cy Younger votes twice, and helped his groups attain the playoffs 5 occasions. Whereas he wasn’t all the time straightforward to observe given his excessive stroll charges, his capability to overlook bats was a testomony to the standard of his stuff.

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Giovany Aramis Gonzalez was born on September 19, 1985 in Hialeah, Florida, a metropolis in Miami-Dade County the place roughly three-quarters of the inhabitants is of Cuban ancestry. He’s the oldest of six kids of Max and Yolanda (Yoly) Gonzalez. Max, a first-generation Cuban-American, put in billboards and owned a scooter store, whereas Yoly, an immigrant from Cuba, labored at numerous jobs to assist the household make ends meet.

Gio was simply 4 years previous when his dad and mom launched him to baseball. Rising up, he performed sandlot baseball with neighborhood youngsters in a slim, rocky strip of land behind the household’s townhouse. “We broke so many home windows that I discovered a man who would change them for 15 bucks apiece,” Yoly recalled in 2011.

“Max grew up powerful, by no means received to play as a lot ball as he needed and, when it rained on too-rare Sundays when he had a sport as a baby, he broke down in frustration and cried. However he by no means stopped learning the game,” wrote the Washington Put up’s Thomas Boswell in 2012. When his eldest son confirmed a flair for the sport, Max taught him the curveball that might change into his signature.

“I can’t clarify it or present find out how to do it,” Gio advised Boswell almost about the pitch. “It’s a distinct grip, a snap of the wrist he taught me. I’ve completed all of it my life. ‘Make it fall off the desk, all the time 12-to-6,’ he’d say.”

“He taught me find out how to attempt to make it look precisely like a fastball,” Gio advised FanGraphs’ David Laurila in 2012.

Gio had such a complicated really feel for pitching that he gained Florida 6-A state title video games for Hialeah Excessive College as a freshman (2001) and sophomore (2002). Disputes between Yoly and Hialeah Excessive’s coach over youthful brother Max Jr.’s enjoying time led each brothers to be dismissed from the group. They transferred to non-public Monsignor Tempo Excessive College for Gio’s senior season; he went 5-0 with a 0.93 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 37 innings, however was suspended through the playoffs because of an identical dispute (the pinnacle coach advised the Miami Herald that each gamers had violated group coverage). These incidents and his bodily stature (listed at 6 toes — however maybe shorter — and 170 kilos) involved some scouts, however his arsenal was simple. From Baseball America’s pre-draft report in 2004:

His monitor file on the sphere, in addition to his stuff and nice really feel for pitching, nonetheless have him poised to go late within the first spherical. Gonzalez pitches within the 87-90 mph vary, touching 93-94, and enhances it with what will be the nation’s greatest curveball, a decent spinner that he instructions effectively. He’s additionally proven good really feel for a changeup. He has polish and will transfer rapidly.

The White Sox selected Gonzalez through the supplementary section of the primary spherical in 2004, as compensation for dropping Tom Gordon to free company; he was the thirty eighth choose total. Signed to an $850,000 bonus, the 18-year-old started his skilled profession at Rookie-level Bristol, then was promoted to A-level Kannapolis after seven appearances; in all, he put up a 3.20 ERA with 9.7 strikeouts per 9 in 64.2 innings. After boosting that strikeout charge to 11.2 per 9 in a season cut up between Kannapolis and Excessive-A Winston-Salem in 2005, the White Sox — who had simply gained their first World Sequence in 88 years — traded Gonzalez to the Phillies because the participant to be named later from a three-player bundle that had despatched Jim Thome to Chicago in November 2005.

Gonzalez cracked BA’s High 100 Prospects Checklist at no. 73 the next spring, his first of 4 occasions making the checklist. His keep within the Phillies’ group was not lengthy. He spent 2006 at Double-A Studying, the place he battled command points and was hit for 1.4 homers per 9 en path to a 4.66 ERA, although he nonetheless struck out 9.7 batters per 9. He was extra spectacular in a stint within the Arizona Fall League, and two days shy of a yr after being traded from the White Sox, he was despatched again to them together with Gavin Floyd in change for Freddy Garcia. He was overpowering at Double-A Birmingham in 2007, main the minors with 185 strikeouts (11.1 per 9) in 150 innings whereas posting a 3.18 ERA. BA famous his maturation each as a pitcher and an individual, whereas additionally lauding each his curve and his fastball (“…typically parks within the low 90s however can spike upward to 96 mph… has some pure sink, permitting him to get his share of groundballs. He can change speeds together with his fastball, including and subtracting all through the sport and generally saving his greatest velocity for the late innings.”). Whereas the publication anointed him the White Sox’s no. 1 prospect because the Baseball America Prospect Handbook 2008 went to press, on January 3 he was traded to the A’s together with Fautino De Los Santos and Ryan Sweeney in change for Nick Swisher. When BA’s High 100 was launched in February, he positioned twenty sixth.

Gonzalez made a stable exhibiting at Triple-A Sacramento over the primary 4 months of the 2008 season, then was known as as much as debut on August 6 in opposition to the Blue Jays in Toronto. He notched his first strikeout by getting David Eckstein a curveball, however served up a three-run homer to Rod Barajas earlier than finishing the primary inning. “I feel he might need killed a fan within the stands, that’s how laborious he hit that ball,” Gonzalez recalled with some amusement for La Vida Baseball in 2018. He held on to finish six frames that night time, permitting only one extra run, however took the loss. He earned his first win in his subsequent begin, a five-inning, one-run effort in opposition to the Rays, however that was the excessive level of his call-up; struggling together with his management, he walked 25 batters in 34 innings whereas yielding a 7.68 ERA.

Gonzalez spent the primary half of 2009 shuttling between Sacramento and the majors, making two lengthy reduction appearances for the A’s. He joined the massive membership for good in late June, however his command and management points continued; he walked 5.1 per 9 whereas putting out 9.9 per 9 in 98.2 innings, ending with a 5.75 ERA. “Gonzalez has pushed his employers to matches of frustration for years now… [due to] his puzzling mixture of swing-and-miss stuff and baffling inconsistency,” wrote Baseball Prospectus in its 2010 annual, however issues had been about to vary. Nonetheless simply 24 years previous, he broke out due to a much-improved changeup, higher total command, and a extra contact-oriented strategy; he went 15-9 with a 3.23 ERA in 200.2 innings in 2010, good for 3.9 WAR.

Gonzalez continued to enhance in 2011. Although he led the American League with 91 walks, he struck out 197 (8.8 per 9) in 202 innings whereas going 16-12 with a 3.12 ERA and 4.4 WAR, and made his first All-Star group. Together with his first yr of arbitration eligibility approaching, A’s basic supervisor Billy Beane made him out there, and in December traded him to the Nationals together with righty prospect Robert Gilliam in change for 4 prospects: lefty Tommy Milone, righties A.J. Cole and Brad Peacock, and catcher Derek Norris. In January, Washington then signed him to a five-year, $42 million extension with a few extra choices — the largest extension to that time for a first-time arbitration-eligible pitcher.

Although he was chased within the fourth inning of his Nationals debut, Gonzalez then strung collectively 24 scoreless innings over his subsequent 4 begins, and lasted not less than six innings in 13 of his 17 begins earlier than the All-Star break. He made the Nationwide League All-Star group and continued to roll, throwing a five-hit shutout in opposition to the Cardinals on August 31 for his seventeenth win of the yr and including 4 extra wins in September to go 21-8 with 207 strikeouts. His win complete and 9.3 strikeouts per 9 each led the league, whereas his 5.0 WAR ranked fourth and his 2.89 ERA sixth.

After the 98-win Nationals made the playoffs for the primary time since shifting from Montreal in 2004, Gonzalez began the Division Sequence opener, forward of Jordan Zimmermann (recall that Stephen Strasburg had been shut down because of workload considerations). Regardless of strolling seven hitters in 5 innings, he allowed only one hit and two runs; he left trailing 2-1, however the Nationals pulled out a 3-2 win. He threw 5 innings in Recreation 5 as effectively, strolling 4 whereas permitting three runs and departing with a 6-3 lead; alas, the Nationals’ bullpen squandered it, dropping 9-7. After the season, Gonzalez positioned third within the NL Cy Younger voting behind R.A. Dickey and Clayton Kershaw; he even acquired a first-place vote.

Earlier than the beginning of the 2013 season, Gonzalez’s identify surfaced within the Miami New Instances’ report concerning the distribution of performance-enhancing medication out of the Biogenesis Clinic. Gonzalez denied receiving or utilizing PEDs, both from the clinic or wherever else, and he handed a drug check shortly after the story broke. His father chimed in, telling a reporter that he was a consumer of the clinic:

“My son works very, very laborious, and he’s as clear as apple pie,” the elder Gonzalez says. “I went to Tony [clinic owner Anthony Bosch] as a result of I wanted to shed pounds. A good friend beneficial him, and he did nice work for me. However that’s it. He by no means met my son. By no means. And if I knew he was doing this stuff with steroids, do you suppose I’d be dumb sufficient to go there?”

Gonzalez was cleared to pitch for Staff USA within the 2013 World Baseball Basic, delivering 5 shutout innings in opposition to Puerto Rico in entrance of a crowd of 32,872 in Miami.

In August, when Main League Baseball introduced the suspensions of 13 gamers for receiving PEDs from Biogenesis, the league formally exonerated Gonzalez: “Main League Baseball’s investigation discovered no violations of the Joint Drug Prevention and Remedy Program by both Washington Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez or Baltimore Orioles infielder Danny Valencia.”

Gonzalez couldn’t replicate his 2012 season, although he settled in as a stable midrotation starter for the Nationals. From 2013–15, he averaged 176.2 innings with a 3.57 ERA (107 ERA+), 8.9 Ok/9, and a couple of.5 WAR, although he missed a month through the first half because of shoulder irritation in 2014. He pitched very effectively down the stretch that yr, posting a 2.36 ERA with simply 9 walks in 45.2 innings over his closing seven begins because the Nationals ran away with the NL East title. He began Recreation 4 of the Division Sequence in opposition to the Giants, with the Nationals going through elimination; after he allowed two runs in 4 innings, he was pulled for a pinch-hitter with the tying run on second, however the transfer didn’t work, and Washington misplaced the collection.

Gonzalez started the 2016 season together with his common four-seam fastball velocity down about two ticks relative to the yr earlier than (92.8 mph in 2015, 90.5 mph in April 2016). Although he fared effectively that month, and recovered a few of the lacking velo — the pitch averaged 91.8 mph for the season — his 4.57 ERA (93 ERA+) and 1.0 homers per 9 had been his worst full-season marks to that time, as was his 0.8 WAR. Even so, the Nationals gained the NL East once more, and with their rotation behind Max Scherzer thinned out by the lack of Strasburg to an elbow harm, Gonzalez began Recreation 3 of the Division Sequence in opposition to the Dodgers. He allowed three runs in 4 1/3 innings, however the Nationals’ bullpen and offense got here via in an 8-3 win, although once more they misplaced the collection.

Regardless of Gonzalez’s subpar season, the Nationals picked up his $12 million membership possibility for 2017. The 31-year-old lefty developed a powerful bond with new catcher Matt Wieters and made changes, utilizing his changeup and curveball extra and his four-seamer (which now averaged 90.0 mph) and sinker much less, and doing a greater job of avoiding laborious contact. His season rivaled 2012 as the perfect of his profession. He went 15-8 with a 2.96 ERA in 201 innings, putting out 8.4 per 9 and rating second within the NL with 6.5 WAR; his ERA was fifth. On July 31 in Miami, he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in opposition to the Marlins earlier than surrendering a single to Dee Unusual-Gordon.

Once more the Nationals gained the NL East going away, and once more they had been bounced within the Division Sequence, this time by the Cubs. Gonzalez allowed three runs in 5 innings in Recreation 2, leaving trailing 3-1 earlier than his teammates rallied to win. He began Recreation 5 as effectively, and was staked to a 4-1 lead however was pulled after a double, two walks, and a wild pitch within the third inning lower the rating to 4-3; finally, Washington misplaced, 9-8. In November, Scherzer gained the Cy Younger, with Strasburg third and Gonzalez sixth.

Gonzalez pitched sufficient innings to vest one other $12 million possibility for 2018, however neither he nor the Nationals — who had let supervisor Dusty Baker go regardless of successful back-to-back division titles — fared as effectively. With the group simply 67-67 because the August 31 waiver deadline approached, Gonzalez and his 4.57 ERA had been despatched to the Brewers together with some worldwide bonus cash in change for 2 prospects. He was Milwaukee’s only starter (3-0, 2.13 ERA in 25.1 innings) because the Brewers went 20-7 in September, erasing a five-game deficit to tie the Cubs for the NL Central lead, then beating them in a Recreation 163 tiebreaker to find out the division winner and Wild Card group. Whereas the Brewers swept the Rockies (who themselves had misplaced a tiebreaker to the Dodgers) within the Division Sequence, Gonzalez didn’t pitch once more till the NLCS in opposition to the Dodgers, when he made two abbreviated begins totaling three innings in Video games 1 and 4. The primary one, by which he surrendered solely a solo homer to Manny Machado, was a part of a gambit, as supervisor Craig Counsell most well-liked to play matchups in a bullpen sport in opposition to the righty-heavy Dodgers; it labored, because the Brewers gained, 6-5. In Recreation 4, Gonzalez suffered a excessive left ankle sprain whereas fielding a comebacker from Yasiel Puig as he led off the second inning. His removing from the roster ended his season; the Brewers misplaced in seven video games.

A free agent for the primary time in his profession, the 33-year-old Gonzalez — who had completed with a 4.21 ERA, however his worst strikeout and stroll charges since 2009 — acquired curiosity from the Padres, Mets, A’s, and Giants, however he couldn’t discover a multiyear contract, so in March settled for a minor-league cope with the Yankees after they misplaced Luis Severino to rotator cuff irritation. After he signed, he stated it was “just about” the one formal provide he acquired. After three begins for the Yankees’ Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliate, he exercised an opt-out clause, and in late April returned to the Brewers on a $2 million-plus-incentives main league deal, selecting them over the Mets.

Gonzalez made half a dozen begins for the Brewers earlier than touchdown on the injured checklist with what was variously described as “lifeless arm” and shoulder irritation, a difficulty the pitcher traced to throwing too often over the winter amid his uncertainty. He returned simply after the All-Star break, and completed with a 3.50 ERA and eight.0 strikeouts per 9 in 87.1 innings for a group that claimed a Wild Card berth however misplaced to the Nationals.

Gonzalez got here full circle in December 2019, signing a one-year, $5 million cope with the White Sox, with an possibility for ’21. He battled additional shoulder woes early in spring coaching, earlier than the coronavirus pandemic shut down baseball; when play resumed in late July, he made 4 begins and one lengthy reduction look earlier than being despatched to the bullpen with a 6.00 ERA. After one look, he landed on the IL with a groin pressure, then spent the ultimate three weeks of September pitching in reduction. The White Sox went 35-25 and made the expanded playoffs, however Gonzalez was left off the roster for the Wild Card Sequence in opposition to the A’s, which Chicago misplaced in three video games.

The White Sox declined Gonzalez’s $7 million possibility for 2021. In March 2022, three weeks after signing a minor league cope with the Marlins, he introduced his retirement on Instagram, expressing gratitude for the possibility to pitch in entrance of a hometown crowd. “I gave my greatest effort, however my physique struggled to maintain up,” he stated whereas thanking the Marlins and all the different organizations by which he frolicked. It wasn’t fairly a storybook ending, however he had come dwelling.