Gonzales, who allowed an earned run on three hits and one walk across four innings in a 7-3 Cactus League win over the Diamondbacks on Sunday, is serving as a mentor to the Mariners' cadre of young pitching prospects, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports.
The young left-hander is already enjoying a promising spring in anticipation of serving as the potential co-ace of this year's staff alongside prized Japanese import Yusei Kikuchi. Gonzales, who also struck out four in Sunday's outing, has allowed just one earned run on four hits over seven innings across two spring appearances. In addition to his strong on-field work, Gonzales is also trying to serve as an example for the promising trio of Justus Sheffield, Justin Dunn and Erik Swanson, acquired this past offseason in trades with the Yankees and Mets. His counsel is much more likely to be heeded when backed up by solid performances, and Gonzales is living up to that end of the bargain thus far. "He's been outstanding; that's kind of what I thought we would get," manager Scott Servais said. "He's still working through some things. His last outing, I don't think he had a great changeup the first couple innings and he found it in the third inning. That's what spring training is about. So far, Marco's spring has been really solid."