Looking at the fit for Marco Gonzales and Ben Heller

The Pirates add two pitchers on Tuesday, one by trade and the other a minor league free agent.

After a quiet start to the Winter Meetings, the Pirates have started to make moves, first signing Ben Heller to a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training.

Then, late Tuesday night, they announced they had acquired Marco Gonzales from the Atlanta Braves, along with cash, in exchange for a player to be named later.

Last year showed that you can never have enough pitching, so these make sense in addition to a position of need. With both moves official, here’s a look at how both fit on the roster.

Ben Heller

Last year - Heller struggled with injuries and hadn’t pitched in the majors since 2020 before playing 19 games for the Atlanta Braves this past season. He posted a 3.86 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 19.2 innings pitched with Atlanta. After being outrighted to Triple-A at the end of the year, Heller elected free agency.

What he brings - If you throw a sinker or sweeper or have a lower arm slot in your delivery, there’s a chance you are on the Pirates’ radar. It turns out Heller checks all of those boxes.

Heller throws a power sinker that reaches the mid-90s and, overall, can hit the upper 90s. He was mainly a sinker/cutter guy in the majors, and in a very small sample size, the sweeper had a whiff rate of over 70%.

Hitters went 0-for-14 with 11 strikeouts against the sweeper last year.

His sinker averaged over 17” of horizontal break and averaged 94.3 mph. He didn’t get a lot of swing-and-miss with it, but he did put up a 50% ground ball rate overall in the majors.

How he fits - The Pirates brought him in on a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training, so he will have an opportunity to make the majors.

As a right-handed reliever, he will have competition from several arms trying to earn a spot in the major league bullpen. There aren’t many full locks in the bullpen, but there are a lot of names he will have to fight past that are already on the 40-man roster.

Marco Gonzales

Last year - Gonzales only pitched in 10 games, posting a 5.22 ERA in 50 innings pitched. He had surgery to help deal with a nerve issue in his forearm. He’s had solid success in the majors before his injury-riddled 2023 season.

What he brings - Assuming (that’s dangerous, I know) he’s healthy, the biggest thing he brings to the table is the ability to cover innings. With Johan Oviedo out for the season, the Pirates desperately need pitching, especially in the rotation.

Gonzales has thrown 180 innings twice, topping 200 in 2019. He’s won 10 games four times, with another seven in 11 starts during the 2020 COVID season.

A soft-tossing lefty that the Pirates have had some success with in recent years, Gonzales has a good change-up with a Run-Value on Baseball Savant of +2 while putting up a whiff rate of 29.5%. He also throws a four-seam, curveball, and cutter.

Advanced metrics aren’t always as kind to soft tossers, but even in 2023, Gonzales didn’t walk a lot of hitters, avoid barrels, and was actually in the 81st percentile when it comes to chase rate.

How he fits - The Pirates need starting pitching, and a lot of it. This is a start, but when you think about it, this accounts for the potential innings lost from Oviedo.

Gonzales isn’t going to be a difference-maker, but if the pieces fall into place the way they want, he’s a solid back-of-the-rotation guy who’s going to cover innings.