Gio Gonzalez
Twitter, Bryan Hoch

Gio Gonzalez made his first spring training appearance with the New York Yankees on Saturday and the results were less than desirable.

James Kelly

The New York Yankees acquired veteran lefty Gio Gonzalez to fill the rotation in the absence of Luis Severino and CC Sabathia and to provide rotation insurance all year.

Despite early reports from pitching coach Larry Rothschild, it looks like Gonzalez still needs some time to fully prepare for the season.

The lefty pitched two innings on Saturday and struggled. He gave up four hits, five runs, two walks, a home run, and a hit batter. Gonzalez also failed to record a strikeout in 13 batters faced.

The results show that Gonzalez still needs some fine tuning after getting a late start to spring training. There were some positives, however. His velocity seemed to be in good shape and he was able to throw a decent amount of pitches.

Most importantly, it looks like he’ll make it to the regular season healthy. That may not seem like much, but with the way this spring has gone for the Yankees training staff, I’m counting it as a huge win.

Gonzalez will start the year in the minors after the Yankees announced that Domingo German will be named the fourth starter to replace Sabathia having to serve a five-game suspension for the “that’s for you, bitch” incident against the Tampa Bay Rays last season.

With a lot of off days and likely a lot of rainouts, Gio Gonzalez will have all the time he needs to get back in a rhythm and should be able to make a few solid starts before Luis Severino and CC Sabathia return.


Lifetime ballplayer and Yankee fan. Strongly believe that the eye-test and advanced stats can be used together instead of against each other.