A Potential Pittsburgh Pirates Bullpen Building Piece Now a Free Agent

A one time top prospect is now a free agent and could be a bullpen answer for the Pittsburgh Pirates

If you have been following recent baseball transactions, even though the Pittsburgh Pirates have not done it yet, you’ll notice teams have been mass releasing minor league players. Now most are just Low-A and High-Al level bench bats, or middle relief pitchers. But a few have been prominent names. Now this isn’t unusual when the MLB Draft is around the corner. But usually the draft is 40 rounds, and not the scheduled 5 for this year.

Regardless, one of those few prominent names has been former top 50 prospect Luiz Gohara. Gohara has had a rough go of things lately, which might be an understatement for the Brazilian left hander. I’ll get into that later, but with his release, that means a potential lefty bullpen building block is on the market, and something the Pittsburgh Pirates should look into when they can re-engage in transaction and acquisition talks.

Not long ago, Gohara was considered a top tier starting pitching prospect. Baseball America even had him as their 23rd best prospect heading into 2018. Baseball Prospectus had him at 62 FanGraphs placed him at 31, and MLB Pipeline placed him at 49th. He was pretty much a consensus top 50-40 prospect.

After all, the hard throwing lefty was coming off two straight seasons of dominance. In 2016 with the Seattle Mariners’ low-A and A-ball affiliates, Gohara posted a strong 1.81 ERA, 2.19 FIP and 1.15 WHIP. He racked up big strikeout totals, getting 81 of the 279 batters he faced on strike three. He also let up just 23 free passes and surrendered two long balls.

After a trade to the Atlanta Braves during the 2016-2017 offseason, Gohara continued to put up great numbers. In 123.2 innings split between High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, Gohara had a 2.62 ERA, 2.48 FIP and 1.21 WHIP. Again, he was showing great swing and miss stuff with 147 strikeouts to oppose 44 walks.

Home runs still weren’t an issue as he allowed six balls to leave the park. He also made the MLB, and started five games, and showed a lot of potential. Despite surrendering 16 earned runs in 29.2 innings, he struck out 25.2% of the batters he faced, and walked 6.5%. He carried over his strong home runs suppression skills giving up two in his debut innings.

Things looked to be on the rise for Gohara, but the last two seasons have been pretty tough for him to say the least. Not only has Gohara been injured, pitching just 77.2 innings in 2018, and missing all of 2019 due to shoulder injuries, but was also ineffective, likely because of the injury.

If that was the least of Gohara’s problems, then it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Gohara has suffered off the field, losing his father in December 2018, and watching him die in his arms. He also was placed on the Bereavement List in summer 2018, having to travel back to Brazil as his mother had to undergo heart surgery. If that wasn’t enough, the Braves designated Gohara for assignment on July 31st, 2019 which happened to fall on his birthday. Although he went unclaimed, the Angels signed him at the end of August.

Gohara was part of the LA Angels organization up until Monday night. He was released by the team, along with 39 other minor leaguers. But maybe all Gohara needs is a turn around of things.

He still is just 23-years-old and will turn 24 at the end of July. He wasn’t a top prospect for no reason either. When he is healthy, he can get his fastball into the high-90’s, and has a slider that has 40+ inches of horizontal break. Gohara also has a sinker and change-up, but his bread and butter pitches is his fastball/slider combo. He still has future grades of 60 for both. Standing at 6’3, 235 pounds, Gohara has drawn comparisons to former Indians, Brewers, and Yankees ace CC Sabathia. It’s not every day you run into a lefty pitcher with that kind of potential. Now the shoulder issues are a concern. But if he is moved to the bullpen, he can lighten the load on his arm, lessening the risk of injury.

If Gohara can stay healthy, he could be a long term building block for the Pirates bullpen. Right now, Keone Kela is lined up to be the team’s closer if there is a 2020 season, but is a free agent after the year. While they still have plenty of young arms with potential as a high-leverage late inning relievers, like Clay Holmes, Blake Cederlind, Michael Feliz, and Geoff Hartlieb, there is no risk in taking a chance with a minor league deal on this former top prospect who all he might need to turn around is a healthy year, both on and off the field.