Dodgers: Tony Gonsolin Shares He's Changed Some Things Pitching Wise This Offseason

Dodgers pitcher Tony Gonsolin dropped the puck at the Kings game and then said he's some mechanical tweaks this offseason to try to be more durable.

Dodgers star pitcher Tony Gonsolin hit up an LA Kings game recently to do the ceremonial dropping of the puck, the NHL's equivalent of throwing out the first pitch. Goose did a great job, although dropping a puck is pretty easy since gravity does most of the work. But as Gonsolin pointed out, "I didn't fall," so the low bar he set for himself was a huge success.

After the hard part was over, Gonsolin sat down with Bally Sports West personality Patrick O'Neal, who asked him what he expects from himself this upcoming season.

"Just trying to get stronger over the offseason, get everything feeling good, feeling right. Doing a little mechanical changes to try and stay healthy all year and that's the goal, to stay healthy all year and let the results show for themselves."

Gonsolin was outstanding in 2022, a breakout season that saw him post a 2.14 ERA. He was a legitimate Cy Young contender until a forearm strain took him down in late August and cost him most of the rest of the season. 

Gonsolin didn't go into detail on what mechanical changes he made, so it will be interesting to see if anything is obvious when we see him on mound a month or so from now. Even with the injury, the 130.1 innings he logged in 2022 were by far a career high in the big leagues. We saw Julio Urias throw a career-high number of innings in 2021 and then come back even better in 2022, so hopefully we can see the same thing from Gonsolin in 2023.

It would be hard to expect Gonsolin to pitch better than he did last year, but if he can pitch more with similar quality, that would be a huge win for everyone.