Pittsburgh Pirates 2021 Previews: IF Erik Gonzalez
The 2020 season was supposed to be the year that Erik Gonzalez proved himself to the Pirates after coming over in a trade with the Cleveland Indians. Gonzalez won the starting shortstop job in Spring Training 2019, but a broken collarbone in May limited him to just 53 games. Rookie Kevin Newman emerged during that same year and relegated Gonzalez to a bench role during the 2020 season. Even being a bench player, Gonzalez figured to still see a decent amount of playing time, but then the Coronavirus pandemic shut down baseball. This would severely limit Gonzalez's opportunity to shine, and he would have to make the most of every opportunity that he was given.
Fortunately for Gonzalez, the Pirates suffered through injury problems and ineffectiveness that allowed him more opportunities to step up for his team. He ended up appearing in 50 of the team's 60 games during the season and hit .227 with three home runs and 20 RBI over 181 at-bats. He went from a bench player to the team's starting third baseman, to a utility role in the span of three months, and had a roller coaster of results to go with it. The Pirates extended Gonzalez on a one-year deal this off-season, and he jumps into the thick of a middle-infield position battle brewing for the Pirates. He is looking to build off of his successes last season, and earn a more consistent role on the team in 2021.
From Bench Player to Consistent Hitter
All things considered, 2020 was one of the most successful years of Erik Gonzalez's young career to this point. Even though the final stats don't show it, at one point he was the Pirates' most consistent hitter on the team. However, like many of the Pirates players, it took Gonzalez a while to get things going. He picked up just one hit through his first five games of the season and had a batting average of just .083. He struck out just three times during that stretch, so he was putting the ball in play, it just wasn't finding the holes. Lucky for Gonzalez, his fellow teammates were struggling just as much as he was, so any spark of success could propel him to the top of the Pirate's depth chart. Gonzalez would get his big break, when the Pirates moved Colin Moran to first base to help the struggling Josh Bell, opening up a spot on the field for Gonzalez.
With more at-bats, Gonzalez began to look more and more comfortable at the plate, and it began to show as he was getting better at-bats. His breakout game came on August 4th against the Minnesota Twins, where he went 3-4 with a double while scoring a run to raise his average from .125 to .250. It kick-started a stretch from August 3rd to August 13th where he led the team hitting .464 with a home run and nine RBI. He became the team leader in batting average and looked like he secured a spot in the batting order day-in-and-day-out. Gonzalez stayed hot throughout the month of August, finishing with a .282 batting average, three home runs, and 15 of his 20 RBI on the season.
However, September brought Gonzalez's numbers back down to Earth as he once again was struggling to find his way on base consistently. Strikeouts became a big problem for the infielder, as he had a strikeout rate of just over 32% in the month of September. While he was putting the ball in play early in the season, pitchers had seemingly figured out the infielder and he wasn't able to put anything in play. He sluggishly finished the season going 2-24 (.083) over his final seven games of the season, and dropped his batting average more than 100 points to .227 by season's end. After riding such a high in August, it was not the end of the season that Gonzalez envisioned, and now he has to work to prove that the Gonzalez the Pirates saw at the end of the season is not the type of player that he is.
Seizing The Moment in 2021
For Erik Gonzalez, the 2021 season is a big year in terms of how his career will play out. A strong showing will allow him to see significantly more playing time and make the trade with the Indians look a lot better. there is no question of Gonzalez's defensive abilities, the real question comes with his offensive abilities. In his short time with the Pirates, he has shown ups and downs at the plate and hasn't been very consistent either way. 2020 was a prime example of that as he went from not being able to hit the broad side of a barn at the beginning of the year to being one of the top hitters on the team in the middle of August.
The difference between the two halves of the season for Gonzalez is how many times he strikes out. Even though he was struggling at the beginning of the year, Gonzalez was only striking out at an 18% clip. He was putting the ball in play, but just wasn't finding holes and hit just .118 through the first five games of the season. However, as he continued to put the ball in play, the hits started to come and he upped his batting average to a team-high .350 by the middle of the month. However, as he got more successful, he began chasing pitches out of the zone and this is where he ran into trouble. In September, Gonzalez hit just .184, but the problems came with his strikeout numbers. He struck out 28% of the time and just lost his confidence at the plate.
I think that Gonzalez will see a lot of playing time in 2021, just not at one position. He is another guy who can play all over the infield, and he saw time at third base, shortstop, left field, and center field last season. Look for the Pirates to use him in a similar role in 2021, as he serves as the guy to give others a day off throughout the season. If he can hit the ball like he did in August of last season, he could become a regular in the starting lineup. He plays defense well at all four of the positions he played at last season, and that brings a boost to this team. Gonzalez will decide his own fate, and a strong performance could seal his future with the Pirates.
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