Washington Nationals Prospect Profile: Darin Gorski

The Nats didn’t sign Yoenis Cespedes, but they did add a Mets prospect to their farm system

Even though the Washington Nationals did not sign Yoenis Cespedes, they still were able to add a former member of the New York Mets, but one without any Major League experience. According to Baseball America’s recent transactions update by Matt Eddy, the Nats signed pitcher Darin Gorski to a minor league contract. Gorski has been with the Mets since the organization drafted him in the seventh round of the 2009 MLB Draft out of Kutztown University.

Last season, the 28-year-old left-hander went 10-8 with a 5.52 ERA in 28 games (27 starts) with New York’s triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas 51’s. While he increased his innings total by 37 innings from 2014 (137 innings in 2015), Gorski did struggle pitching in a hitter friendly league. Opposing hitters hit .291 against him and he led the entire league in walks with 69.

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If you look at Gorski’s numbers last season more closely, he went six innings or more in only eight of his starts. He had one seven-inning performance on July 2 in a win over Tacoma (Seattle Mariners). In the start after that game, he had 10 strikeouts against Albuquerque (Colorado Rockies).

The question going forward with Gorski is how he will do in the International League with Syracuse since that is more pitching friendly than the PCL. To get some more insight on Gorski, I spoke with Daniel Abriano, the editor of Rising Apple, and Mike Lecolant, who runs Rising Apple’s minor league coverage.

As far as where Gorski was in the Mets’ organization, Abriano told me that“Gorski was always viewed as a middling prospect here — likely a bullpen arm or emergency rotation filler if they suffered a rash of injuries.” As for Lecolant, he told me to look more at Gorski’s double-A numbers with Binghamton from 2014, where he went 4-2 with a 2.22 ERA in nine starts before being promoted to Vegas:

"“2014, though, he sufficiently improved at that level. But,, Las Vegas did not agree with him. Therefore, I’d try to make something more out of his AA stats just to get a better idea of what he could be. The hope is Washington is getting a healthy and more mature pitcher.”"