PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – If you stretch the numbers out over the course of a season we’re looking at 120 RBI. Those aren’t numbers for Oneil Cruz, Andrew McCutchen or Bryan Reynolds. It’s the impact Nick Gonzales is making in his second season.
After 35 games in his rookie season in 2023, it didn’t look great for the 2020 first-round pick. Gonzales hit .209 with two home runs and 13 RBI with a .268 on-base percentage, .348 slugging percentage, .616 OPS in 2023.
He went into Spring Training with an opportunity to win the second base job, but quickly moved to third or fourth in line. He was coming off an offseason adjustment to his swing where he is a little quicker through the zone.
There weren’t immediate results through 2024 Grapefruit League games, hitting .257 and a .297 OBP in 14 opportunities. He would start the season in AAA and it ended up giving him the shot to fine tune his swing changes. He took off with Indianapolis. He would hit .358 with 14 doubles, four home runs and 19 RBI. The OPS was 1.039 and eventually got the call.
He’s been better in the major leagues. The average isn’t quite as high .310, but that’s over 100 points better than last year. In seven fewer games, the right-handed hitting infielder has one more RBI than in AAA. He’s become a fixture in the Pirates starting lineup.
He also has six games with multiple RBIs in the majors including a pair, like Wednesday night, when he drove in four.
“He didn’t try to do too much,” manager Derek Shelton said of the production against the Dodgers. “The more you get … comfortable is kind of a scary word, but the more you get accustomed to being in the big leagues and seeing things, that’s with two strikes (speaking about a sacrifice fly late in the game). Having the ability to do that, I think we’re seeing the game slow down for him. Because of the adjustments he made, we’re seeing the results of that.
The 25-year-old agreed as he matched his career high for runs batted in.
“When I first came up, last year especially, the game was a little fast,” Gonzales said. “I don't even remember too much of being up here a lot. Just kind of sped through things. So being able to slow it down a little this year, and obviously just the adjustments that I made are helping slow down the game a little bit."
It’s made it where Paul Skenes and Andrew McCutchen aren’t the only Pirates first-round picks making an impact in 2024.