The Pirates optioned Nick Gonzales to Indianapolis prior to Thursday’s game. The 2020 first round pick made his MLB debut on June 23rd, batting .216/.268/.353 in 112 plate appearances, with two homers. This came with a 27.7% strikeout rate and a 3.6% walk rate.
Gonzales did well hunting four seam fastballs, putting up a 1.201 OPS against the pitch. He really struggled against offspeed stuff, and was attacked heavily with sliders. Against 137 sliders he had a .434 OPS and an 18.2% whiff rate. He saw more sliders than any two non-four seam pitches, or more than all of the other offspeed pitches combined.