Good move. Gamboa has been great this season and seems to be underappreciated. Lots of red on Statcast and decent FIP for a low leverage guy. I'd rather him pitch than Martinez, Burgos, et al.
Swinging Strike % (More than 100 Pitches)
Romy 27.7 - WOO
TCC 26.9 - WOO
Eaton 26.7 - WOO
Duran 26.3 - Plays every dang day!
Narvaez 26.4 - BAL
Story 25.0 - IL
That's a list of guys who you wouldn't want to see up with the game on the line this year.
Per the most recent episode of the TalkSox podcast, it's noted that the issue is that he doesn't square up the ball (7th percentile) and his bad approach at the plate isn't going to change that anytime soon (high chase and whiff numbers). While he's swinging the bat hard, he's just not able to connect on many pitches. He can't even hit 4 seamers this year.
He's only playable because they didn't trade him for prospects and grab a cheap RHB replacement like Grichuk. Add a platoon partner like Bleday and you'd still save $$$. A much better LF than Duran too.
Pivetta was a reclamation project at the time. Schwarber was injured and most fans generally shrugged their shoulders when it happened. There were a few posters here who prefered Valdez over Abreu for a while.
20 - Pivetta and a bunch of lesser prospects
21 - Schwarber, Robles, Davis
22 - Hosmer, McGuire, Pham, Abreu, Valdez
23 - Urias
He wanted to swing for the fence in '22, but got gun shy for one reason or another.