St. Louis Cardinals: Keep an eye on hot young southpaw Gonzales

ST. LOUIS, MO - JUNE 13: Starter Marco Gonzales
ST. LOUIS, MO - JUNE 13: Starter Marco Gonzales /
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The St. Louis Cardinals have a long list of young pitching prospects, but southpaw Marco Gonzales has had an eye-catching stretch in Triple-A. Now that he has made himself known, he could be a factor for the team, or in a potential trade involving young pitchers benefiting the MLB side.

With another young pitching asset to join the likes of Alex Reyes and Luke Weaver, among others, the St. Louis Cardinals have even more incentive to let go of young pitching talent, for the right pieces. In particular, Dakota Hudson, considering the news surrounding the Miami Marlins’ scouting trips of the 2016 first round pick in Springfield.

While there is a great deal of conflict in terms of Hudson, the reason the Cardinals can even talk about trading him is because of the plethora of pitching talent the Cardinals have. Guys like Marco Gonzales, and the improvement he’s showing, just might make it a little easier to let go of Hudson or another young pitching prospect.

Gonzales’ was the Cardinals’ 1st round pick in the 2013 MLB Amateur Draft, number 19 overall. He has steadily climbed the minor leagues, but Tommy John surgery in 2016 brought questions. In an odd way, it has shown. Here are Gonzales pitches thrown with average velocity in parenthesis, via Fangraphs.

SeasonFB%CB%CH%
201457.5% (89.6)9.7% (74.5)27.2% (78.4)
201563.6% (89.4)7.6% (74.6)28.8% (80.6)
201769.0% (91.0)5.2% (78.3)25.9% (83.1)

He has notably increased all of his velocities here to match major league standards, and his performance has improved in great part due to elevated pitch speeds. Whether this is simply the result of a temporary increase in  strength from the surgery is yet to be seen. However, its hard to believe considering the consistency.

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Another thing to note on this table is Gonzales tried to work two other breaking pitches into his arsenal since coming into the MLB.

He stopped using them in 2017. Instead, he has fully committed to his fastball and change-up, due in part to his more threatening fastball velocity complimenting an already good change-up.

While Gonzales hasn’t had any significant success at the major league level, he is a young kid that has shown significant and visible improvement at the top of minor league competition. With yet another pitcher showing he’s at the cusp of MLB readiness, it might be time for the St. Louis Cardinals to make a move with Gonzales, Hudson, or another young pitcher.

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Whether he has the talent to stick in the major leagues is still to be seen,  but playing this well in triple-A, at this age, is making Gonzales another pitching prospect to keep an eye on.