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Gio Gonzalez Installed 'Street Fighter' The Arcade Game In The Yankees AAA Clubhouse - Might Be The Best Teammate Ever

Gonzalez has been somewhat of a Santa Claus there.

Since the start of the season, he’s bought a pair of Nike sneakers for every member of the team, installed a “Street Fighter” arcade game in the clubhouse and purchased several team meals, a person connected to the Scranton clubhouse told NJ Advance Media.

Gio Gonzalez deserves to be in the major leagues. There is really no reason he should be stuck in the minors with no interest from big league teams. He’s been a big league starting pitcher for 11 seasons. Right now he’s in AAA Scranton working on getting back to the show. As a seasoned vet you could handle this in two ways. 1) Be a disgruntled employee while you bitch and moan about the situation at hand. 2) You could embrace it while working your butt off to get the call. Gio has chosen option 2 and he’s become, as Brendan Kuty puts it, Santa Clause.

Gio bought everyone on the team a pair of Nike sneakers. He’s bought them a good amount of team meals. And best of all, he bought the clubhouse the ‘Street Fighter’ arcade game. That is AWESOME. Everyone loves Street Fighter. What a legend Gio is. There’s some guys on that AAA team who are stuck because of the big league talent in this organization. Life probably sucks at times, so to see a guy from through like Gio come through and play hero ball that’s got to be sweet. He’s just a really good dude.

In a few days the Yankees have an interesting decision with Gio. On April 20th he has a clause in the contract he signed where he can opt out if he isn’t called up. Gio brings a veteran presence who can eat innings and is durable. He has never been hurt in his career which is pretty crazy. Given the fragile state of this pitching staff it would be ideal to have Gio on deck, but right now it’s going to be tough to get him up to The Bronx. What might happen is Gio gets his opt-out clause extended which would be the most ideal. I’d hate to let him slip away because you know there’s going to come a point in time in June or July, especially if Severino doesn’t come back, where he’s going to be needed. CC is old and has recurring knee issues, Paxton has never thrown over 160 innings, Tanaka’s arm is being held by a string, Severino you have no idea, and Domingo German has yet to exceed 120 innings in any season minors or majors. Keep Gio however you can. He’s going to produce and you’ve already seen he’s a huge clubhouse guy. Gio Gio Gio!