What Happens to Nick Gonzales if Brandon Lowe Leaves?

Happy Friday, everyone. And in the off-season, on Fridays, I am taking your Pirates questions. A lot about Brandon Lowe and second base. But if the Pirates do not retain him, what do they do with Nick Gonzales?

Good morning, and welcome to OffBeat, here on North Shore Nine, presented by FanDuel. My name is Alex Stumpf, and this is a daily look at your Pittsburgh Pirates.

I'm going to start off with a Nick Gonzales question here, and it comes from at Buck's, excuse me, Buck and Logan on Twitter.

If Brandon Lowe leaves, does Nicky G shift back to second? If so, percentage chance of third base being filled with Siwon Rowe, J.P. Crawford, or Edmundo Sosa?

To get the second half of that question out of the way first, it's not going to be Rowe.

J.P. Crawford was someone the Pirates were connected to, or forecasted for, by MLB trade rumors.

I can see that.

They have liked Edmundo Sosa in the past, and I really think that is probably the best case here.

Haven't had to confirm that they're in the market right now, but someone they have been interested in the past, has defensive flexibility, has, who would be able to add a right-handed bat to get the lineup a little more balanced, give them a proper backup at shortstop for Konnor Griffin.

I think there's a lot of ways they could add 110 starts here, and he becomes like a low-cost, come here, get your platform here type guy.

I really like him.

I think he would make sense.

But the heart of the question, should Nick Gonzales move back to second base?

Last year, whenever the Pirates were in the market for an infielder, before the LOW trade, I personally thought it was going to be a third baseman.

And honestly, the ball of water started with pursuing Jorge Polanco, someone that they liked.

And I asked, like, he doesn't have a lot of third base experience.

can he go over to third base?

And I was pretty much told, like, no, he'd probably be second base here, and third base we would figure out internally.

And obviously, Polanco doesn't sign, but it put in my head, like, okay, second base is a real option here.

They get LOW.

Nick Gonzales goes to third.

And I don't know if Nick Gonzales really, the Pirates went into the year thinking that Nick Gonzales was going to be their everyday third baseman.

I think they probably were leaning more, it was going to be Triolo, who had the most war out of any position player in 2025.

Someone who brings that really good glove that they obviously valued for years with Hayes.

I thought that was the way they were going to go.

Nick Gonzales hits too darn well.

He stays in the lineup.

He has a really bad year at third base.

And part of it was surprising to me, because going based off of his baseball savant data, his best trait as a second baseman was making plays to his right.

Those plays up the middle.

And I know it's an apples and oranges thing, but it's like, okay, if he's good at making those plays to his right, where he's throwing against his body a little bit, getting to those balls.

That profiles well for third base.

Because making a play to your right at second base, that's a single.

Making a play to your right at third base, that's potentially taking away a double.

And he went from being plus two on plays to his right at second base to negative six outs above average.

Again, it's a very different position.

It's a lot harder to throw against your body across the whole diamond at third base.

I get that.

But the traits that I thought maybe he could have done well at third base, they didn't really translate.

So it raises the question, do you just move Nick Gonzales back if they don't re-sign Brandon Lowe?

They want to re-sign Brandon Lowe.

That is one of their top priorities this winter, if not the top priority.

But if it doesn't happen, I think I'm moving Gonzalez back to second.

He could play third.

If he is, I want to tell him before the lockout, focus on third base.

Just take ground balls constantly at the hot corner.

Try to get a better feel for that position.

Because even this past winter, he was focusing on all three infield positions.

Like he was working out with Joey Ortiz of the Brewers.

He was trying to become more defensively versatile.

Didn't really work.

I think he needs to become a master of one position rather than a jack of all trades of all three infield spots.

I think he profiles better as a second baseman.

I think Edmundo Sosa or Polanco will profile better at third base.

Or if you want to go down the trade routes, I think there are better options at third than there are in second.

If you don't acquire anyone, I think Triolo profiles better defensively at third base than at second base.

Unless they are able to re-sign Brandon Lowe, in my head, I think it makes more sense to move Nick Gonzales over to second base.

But we need to see, obviously, how this offseason goes before we find out what position Nick Gonzales has got to play.

Daily9108 asks, What left-handed starter, if any, will they target?

Lefties are on the shopping list.

Ben Charington said that at the GM meetings in Las Vegas this week.

And it could be Gregory Soto.

But it's different, I think, for the rotation.

If for no other reason than I don't know if there is a clear spot right now.

This could change if they trade Mitch Keller.

Or even if they trade Carmen Mlodzinski.

But we talked about the starting pitching depth they have internally.

And it might not be as strong as they've had in years past.

But I don't know how high a priority signing a starter free agent is going to be.

Unless they trade from the core again.

And I don't see an Ashcraft trade.

There will not be a Skenes trade.

I would be shocked if there was a Jones or Chandler trade.

So while this team, this last year was the first time they did have a left-handed starter in the rotation.

They still do have Hunter Barco as a depth option, in the minor leagues.

I don't know if they're going to outright sign a left-handed starter.

I think there are higher priorities.

If they do, it is going to be a more minor signing.

And this is, again, assuming Keller stays.

If Keller gets traded and they're on the free agent market, then, yeah, I imagine they're going to be looking at lefty starters.

But as it stands right now, and with Keller being on the track of being healthy for next year, I don't know how high a priority that is.

We've got more questions coming up here.

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What are the chances Valdez develops into an everyday player versus becoming a Swinsky-like player?

dragging Swinsky a little bit here.

Like, obviously, he was a platoon, very streaky, but there were parts of his game that I did really like, and I wouldn't be shocked if he could be, a major league contributor at some point in his career again.

But, yeah, I get it.

The guy that we saw got a little glimpse of in 2022 and saw more in 2023 whenever he hit those 26 overs.

He didn't really pan out fully.

I wouldn't call it, like, a failure by any means, but it didn't pan out in Pittsburgh.

Esmerlyn Valdez, I get the question because there is a lot of swing and miss in his game.

There is a lot of strikeouts in his game.

Those are concerns.

That was what really held Swinsky back.

And Valdez's OPS was really buoyed by the power that he could run into homers, that he could run into doubles, and that he could draw walks and, raise his OBP that way.

So I get why you have – why they are probably fair-ish comparisons.

Guys who were added to a 40-man roster whenever they weren't, the highest-ranked prospects but have really good power, can field their position.

I'm a little more bullish, I think, on Valdez.

And I think he has probably a higher floor here.

And a large part of that is I've seen the growth.

I saw the growth from where he was a year ago versus Swinsky, who just came up and rammed into some home runs.

the Pirates in 2021, their target was, find guys who perceived – they perceived to have broken out during the COVID absence.

And Valdez is someone who has had, I think, a more linear growth pattern.

He's also shown that he could hit right-handed pitching.

Yeah, he did a lot better against lefties, platoon splits, but he wasn't just out there flailing against right-handed pitching the way Swinsky would against left-handers sometimes.

So I'm higher on him because he can play a little first base if needed, positional flexibility.

He, I think, has a better feel for the strike zone.

There isn't as much in-zone swing and miss.

But, yeah, I get why that's a comp there, but I'm a little higher on Valdez.

A couple questions here about Bryan Reynolds.

First from Corby Q on Twitter.

Would you upgrade either of the corner outfield spots to allow Bryan Reynolds to be the full-time DH?

And in the similar vein, Salutations Y'all on Blue Sky asks, do you think the Pirates will sign more outfielders and rotate Reynolds more into the DH slot this year as he's getting older?

Reynolds did DH some last year, and he played all 162.

But I was really impressed more than anything that he was able to handle left field.

And, yeah, he did not have a great year defensively in 2025, and even in 2026, negative three outs above average.

But that's a tough left field to play.

And I think he played pretty well, all things considered.

The arm's a concern, and I do think Reynolds is trending on a path that he will need to DH more.

But I think he could still play the position in 2027, which is important because, as it stands right now, the Pirates do have some DH opportunities open.

They don't have, like, an Ozuna, who's just DH only hogging up the spot.

But whenever you have Horwitz and O'Hearn, and O'Hearn's going to play a lot more first base.

Yeah, it's not as flexible, DH-wise.

It does create an opportunity to, whenever there's a lefty starter, Reynolds can DH, and you either sit Horwitz or O'Hearn.

You have Mangum start those games in the outfield instead.

You could do that.

I do think outfield is an opportunity to upgrade this winter.

Even with Odeo Cruz still playing at a high level.

Even with, Esmerlyn Valdez having a really good year.

Even with Jake Mangum being a really solid number four outfielder.

I do think there is opportunity to add someone to that fold.

I wouldn't be shocked if the Pirates do it.

I don't think, look, their number one priority is their second baseman right now.

Finding a way to retain Brandon Lowe.

But there are ways that this lineup can get better, that this roster can get deeper.

And I think an outfielder is someone in the mix.

Reynolds is still going to be playing corner outfield in 2027.

He's still going to be one of the main guys there.

But long term, I do think he is going to need to get more DH opportunities.

And I think there is a little more flexibility for that in 2027.

Thank you so much for your questions here at a mailbag on Offbeat here on North Shore Nine.

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Have a good weekend.

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