Forgotten Yankees: Chi Chi Gonzalez
- Dominic Konareski
- 5 days ago
- 1 min read
The New York Yankees have had a flurry of pitchers make one-off appearances over the years. The Cuban right-hander of Chi Chi Gonzalez is no exception.
In 2022 Gonzalez, whose real name is Alexander Rios Gonzalez, signed a minor league deal with New York after being released by the Tigers in late August of 2022. Gonzalez would spend roughly a month in Triple-AAA SWB before getting called-up to the majors on October 2nd.
This late-season roster move gave Chi Chi major league service time with his third different team this season, having spent time in the bigs with both Minnesota and Milwaukee earlier. Gonzalez got the call to start for New York in the 158th game of the season.
Gonzalez would pitch 4.2 innings and allowed a run enroute to a no decision, but a positive 0.2 pWAR. The spot-starter would be DFA’d 24-hours later on October 3rd, and would later elect free agency later that month.
The start vs Baltimore would be the last career start for Gonzalez, who went on to appear in three more games in the majors. Gonzalez’s 1.93 ERA with the Yankees marks the lowest ERA he had posted with any team throughout his 7-year career spanning 71 games. Overall, the former 5.68 ERA righty is now a bullpen catcher for the Miami Marlins