Morning Rundown: Nick Gonzales rejoins the Pirates for final stretch

The 2020 first round pick was tearing it up with Indianapolis during second stint.

All minor league affiliates for the Pittsburgh Pirates have finished their respective seasons, so it’s just the minor league team that is left - with six games on the schedule remaining.

After their loss on Sunday, they will be finishing with a losing record no matter how many more wins they get.

They will have a familiar face joining them in Philadelphia to finish the season, as Nick Gonzales is set to be promoted.

The first draft pick of the Ben Cherington era, Gonzales made his major league debut this season and despite having some initial success, could not make the necessary adjustments to major league pitching and was sent back to Indianapolis.

He went on a tear in Triple-A, slashing .314/.392/.585 with a 141 wRC+ in 42 games during his second stint. The strikeouts was down to 23.8%, which was encouraging.

That will be key for Gonzales, as while he may have made progress in hitting minor league breaking pitches, he will still need to show he can do it against major league pitching.

Pittsburgh will play three games in Philadelphia before heading back home to to round things out ago against the Miami Marlins.

The week ahead

Today Ethan will have an article with an update on the whole Regional Sports Network situation. The rest of the week we will be doing more stuff to wrap up the 2023 minor league season, including handing out some hardware.

The staff here at Bucs on Deck have voted on hitter, pitcher, and breakout player of the year, and those will roll out throughout the week.

Plus I have some other fun stuff to wrap up the season as well.

For the remainder of the season the morning rundown will focus more on the major league team, since they are the only one still playing, with the weekly features shifting more towards recapping the minor league season.