Phillies Ready to Call Gonzalez a Bust?

This week’s episode of When International Signings Go Bad features Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez. Gonzalez was the highly coveted, yet highly questionable Cuban pitching prospect signed last year by the Philadelphia Phillies. So far, he hasn’t looked Major League ready at all.

Gonzalez’s strange adventures in his short, but storied, baseball career took a new low this week when the Phillies, not only removed Gonzalez from their 40-man roster but put him on waivers. It got even worse for the 28-year old righty when not one of the remaining 29 teams put in a waiver claim on him, returning him to the Phillies. He will start his long climb back to the Majors pitching on the farm, unless the Phillies can convince a team that he is trade bait.

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If you don’t remember the back story of Gonzalez, a little refresher course may be necessary. He was one of the many star pitchers for the Cuban national team from 2009 to 2011 after pitching for La Habana in the Cuban Serie Nacional. He was caught trying to defect in 2012 and was suspended from Cuban baseball. He wound up successfully defecting a year later.

Amid private workouts for teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, rumors began to swirl that the Phillies had lured him in on a 6-year deal for $60 million. Whether it was a marketing ploy by his team or simply misinformation, the deal was far from the truth. Two months later, the Phillies did over Gonzalez a deal, but at much less than the earlier rumors. He signed a three year, $12-million deal.

As Gonzalez tried to find an identity as a starter or reliever last year at spring training, he showed little ability to adjust to Major League baseball. He opened the 2014 season on the 60-day DL with right shoulder tendinitis, but many felt a lot of it had to do simply with a terrible showing in his first spring training.

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When Gonzalez returned to the Minor Leagues he had a strong showing. He went five for six in save opportunities behind a 3.14 ERA and Double-A and then was converted both save opportunities in a brief stint with the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs in Triple A while posting a 1.62 ERA. That earned him a September call up where Gonzalez would get shelled. He allowed 4 runs in his 5.1 innings pitched while walking 3 and allowing a .346 opposing batting average.

This spring training was not much better, in fact it was worse. Gonzalez went 0-3 with a 7.53 ERA over four starts (five total appearances) allowing 12 runs to score over 14.1 innings. He only struck out seven and walked five. This lead to Gonzalez losing his spot on the 40-man rotation and being placed on waivers.

"“We have decisions to make on our 40-man roster,” Phillies’ General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. told Comcast SportsNet. “He was told he wouldn’t make our club, but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to be part of our plans.“We just decided we would rather put him on waivers than some of the other guys we could have taken off the roster. At this stage of the game, we felt it was a calculated risk that worked out for us. We were fortunate to get him through. Sometimes things look smart.”"

This is sometimes the problem with Cuban defectors. Often, they haven’t played professionally in a year or sometimes more, as is the case with newest Dodger Hector Olivera. Unless it is a “can’t miss” star, like Jose Abreu, there is often a bit of a gamble involved. Though they don’t want to admit, the Phillies may have lost on this one.

“This whole rebuild is not about money and never has been,” Amaro said. “It’s about making sure we acquire and keep the assets that are necessary to move the organization forward.”