Nicholas Joseph Gonzales (born May 27, 1999) is an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

second baseman in the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

organization. He was selected seventh overall by the Pirates in the 2020 Major League Baseball draft.

Amateur career

Gonzales attended

Cienega High School Cienega High School (also known as CHS) is a public high school in Pima County, Arizona. It opened in the fall of 2001 with approximately 400 students (freshmen and sophomores). It is a member of the Arizona Interscholastic Association's 5A Conf ...

Vail, Arizona Vail is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pima County, Arizona, United States. It is southeast of Tucson. The population was 10,208 at the 2010 census, up from 2484 in the 2000 census. The area is known for the nearby Colossal Cave, a large ...

. During his career, he hit .399 with 89

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

(RBIs). As a freshman at New Mexico State in 2018, Gonzales hit .347/.425/.596 with nine

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 36 RBIs over 57 games. He was named the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

Freshman of the Year. As a sophomore in 2019, he led the nation with a .432 batting average. He finished the season hitting .432/.532/.773 with 16 home runs and 80 RBIs. After the season, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

for the

Cotuit Kettleers The Cotuit Kettleers are a collegiate summer baseball team based in the village of Cotuit, Massachusetts, which is in the southwest corner of the town of Barnstable. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the lea ...

of the

Cape Cod League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

, where was named the MVP of the league after batting .351 with seven home runs over 42 games. Gonzales entered his junior year in 2020 as a top prospect for the 2020 Major League Baseball draft. He batted .448 with 12 home runs over 16 games before the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Professional career

Gonzales was selected seventh overall by the

in the 2020 Major League Baseball draft. On June 23, Gonzales signed with the Pirates for a reported signing bonus of $5.4 million. He did not play a game after signing due to the cancellation of the season. Gonzales made his professional debut in 2021 with the

Greensboro Grasshoppers The Greensboro Grasshoppers are a Minor League Baseball team based in Greensboro, North Carolina. They are members of the South Atlantic League and are the High-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. They play their home games at First National ...

of the

High-A East The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its h ...

, slashing .302/.385/.565 with 18 home runs and 54 RBIs over eighty games. He missed over a month during the season due to a hand injury. He was selected to play in the

Arizona Fall League The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an off-season sports league owned and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB) which operates during the autumn in Arizona, United States, at six different baseball complexes. Arizona Fall League rosters are fill ...

for the

Peoria Javelinas The Peoria Javelinas are a baseball team that plays in the West Division of the Arizona Fall League. The Javelinas play their home games in the Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Arizona. The ballpark is also the spring training facility for the Sa ...

where he was named to the Fall Stars game.

References

External links

New Mexico State Aggies bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzales, Nick 1999 births Living people People from Pima County, Arizona Baseball players from Arizona Baseball second basemen New Mexico State Aggies baseball players Cotuit Kettleers players Greensboro Grasshoppers players Altoona Curve players