Before the season started, I penned a column where I claimed that Nick Gonzales was going to be the X-factor for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2025.
Gonzales made his major league debut during the 2023 season, but his breakout came the following year. In 2024, he slashed .270/.311/.398 in 94 games, with seven home runs, 49 RBI, and 22 extra-base hits. Virtually every stat improved; average exit velocity, hard hit rate, strikeout rate, you name it.
Heading into 2025, Gonzales’ continued improvement was key on a Pirates team that still lacked the necessary top-end talent. That, plus general manager Ben Cherington’s winter slumber left a lot of weight on Gonzales’ shoulders to help drag the team offense along.
On Opening Day, he did just that. He launched a two-run home run on just his third at-bat of the season, but injured himself on the swing and subsequent rounding of the bases. An ankle injury that hampered him in spring training flared up again, and he soon landed on the Injured List with a non-displaced fracture in his left ankle.
The Pirates didn’t see him again until June 3rd, and the offense surely struggled without him. While Gonzales couldn’t fix a bottom-five offense all on his own, having him for an extra two months certainly would have helped.
Now that Gonzales actually is back and regularly in the lineup, we are seeing just how much the team did miss him. In 19 games this season, he is slashing .320/.350/.493, providing a spark to the offense.
Since his return, the Pirates are 9-9 in games he played. For reference, they were 22-37 without him.
Gonzales is one of the middle-of-the-lineup bats that the Pirates have desperately needed. He’s been able to settle into occupying the four-hole or five-hole in the batting order and gives the team someone can rely on in those spots.
While his (second) start to the season has started off really well, Gonzales’ career high in hits in a game still sat at three. Not only did be break that on Monday night in Pittsburgh’s win over the Milwaukee Brewers, he went above and beyond and racked up his first five-hit game. He went 5-for-5 with a pair of doubles and two RBI.
It was just the eighth time in franchise history that a Pirates second baseman went 5-for-5 (or better), and the Pirates needed every ounce of Gonzales’ effort to pull off the narrow 5-4 win.
Gonzales got his night off with a double in the first inning, drilling a line drive into left field to bring in Bryan Reynolds from first. That got the Pirates a 1-0 lead in this back-and-forth game.
In the top of the third, Gonzales recorded the team’s only hit in the inning, notching a single to right field to get on base.
Later in the fourth, Tommy Pham’s first home run of the season extended the Pirates’ lead. He saw all of it and shot it to deep center field to give Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead, but Milwaukee found a way to strike back in the bottom half.
After starter Braxton Ashcraft exited the game in a planned bullpen game, Hunter Stratton struggled through the fourth, surrendering a pair of runs.
But Gonzales came to the rescue next inning. In the fifth, Reynolds lined a leadoff double before Gonzales was able to knock one into right field. Although Gonzales was thrown out at second base, he got the RBI and helped give the Pirates a 4-2 lead.
Base running was a bit of an issue for Gonzales in this game, but on this play, some credit to Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick. That throw from right was perfectly timed to be able to gun down Gonzales at second with an incredible throw.
In the seventh, Gonzales hit his third single on the night, already setting a career-high four hits with that base hit. But after Spencer Horwitz hit a soft infield single, Gonzales was thrown out at third trying to extend the play.
On replay, Gonzales looked like he slowed down for just a second on that run fron second to third. Perhaps if he’s going full throttle the entire time, he is able to make it to third. But again, the Brewers’ defense deserves some credit there.
Gonzales’ final hit of the day came in the ninth, when he sent one past the center fielder for his second double.
Unfortunately, he was stranded, giving Pirates closer David Bednar the thinnest of margins to get the save.
Gonzales is such an important part of this team, and as it stands right now, he is the only hitter drafted under Cherington that this front office has successfully been able to develop. Gonzales was taken seventh overall in 2020, Cherington’s first draft in charge of the Pirates.
Games like these really prove how much the team missed him over those two months, and while the season might already be gone, it will be a lot of fun to watch him continue to blossom.
Fifth Avenue Sports 
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