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Milwaukee Brewers: Starter landed in Gio Gonzalez

ByJason Evans|
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 24: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Gio Gonzalez #47 of the Washington Nationals in action against the New York Mets at Citi Field on August 24, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. Players are wearing special jerseys with their nicknames on them during Players' Weekend. The Mets defeated the Nationals 3-0. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 24: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Gio Gonzalez #47 of the Washington Nationals in action against the New York Mets at Citi Field on August 24, 2018 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. Players are wearing special jerseys with their nicknames on them during Players' Weekend. The Mets defeated the Nationals 3-0. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

The Milwaukee Brewers get the starter they needed in lefty Gio Gonzalez

The Milwaukee Brewers at the non-waiver trade deadline added Mike Moustakas and Jonathan Schoop to bolster the offense and Joakim Soria to the bullpen. After acquiring lefty reliever Xavier Cedeno earlier in the day, the team has finally landed the starting pitcher they needed in GIo Gonzalez from the Milwaukee Brewers.

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The 32-year old left-hander has not had a great season in the final year of his contract. Thus far, he is 7-11 with a 4.57 ERA with a 1.53 WHIP. This coming off a 2017 campaign  where he won 15 games and had a sub 3.00 ERA.

One of the reasons for this may be that his line drive percentage is up almost five points compared to last season which has caused a BABIP of .319 against. His changeup usege is the highest of his career at over 21% while he’s using his curveball less per Fangraphs.

Down the stretch, the Milwaukee Brewers are going to need the 2017 version of Gonzalez. Brent Suter and Zach Davies are done for the year. Jimmy Nelson won’t be pitching this year. Jhoulys Chacin and Chase Anderson are their best starting pitchers and their formula is getting to a stacked bullpen and have the starters keep them in games. That can certainly win in the playoffs, but the issue is you have to make it there before you can unleash the strategy.

Gonzalez will most likely be the best pitcher moved tonight and the Milwaukee Brewers had to be the ones to land him. They sit five games behind the Chicago Cubs in the division, but are just half a game back of the St.Louis Cardinals for the top Wild Card spot with the Colorado Rockies sitting just two games behind them.

It’s a move the club had to make. Whether a change of scenery helps Gonzalez, we will see down the stretch.

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