Gio Gonzalez was a single 26-year-old man when he became part of the Nationals franchise late in 2011, living in Arlington early in his career in D.C.
Late Friday night he said goodbye to the perennial contenders, now living with his wife and two children in the Maryland suburbs close to where she grew up.
Gonzalez, the enigmatic, jovial native of a Cuban neighborhood of Miami, was officially traded by the Nationals after they lost at home in the rain Friday 4-1 to the Milwaukee Brewers.
“My kids were born here. It is kind of emotional,” he said.