The Orioles announced that right-hander Kyle Gibson has been released. That was the expected outcome after he was designated for assignment on the weekend. Assuming he’s already cleared release waivers, he’s free to sign with any club.
Gibson, 37, was a late signing of the O’s. He and the club agreed to a one-year, $5.25MM deal in the latter half of March. He had lingered unsigned throughout the winter while the Orioles had some concerns about their pitching depth due to some spring injuries.
Adding a stable veteran like Gibson made plenty of sense but it did not work out at all. He agreed to be optioned to the minors at the start of the season, effectively as a delayed spring training ramp-up. He was recalled to the big leagues in late April but was quickly shelled. His first start was against the Yankees, with Gibson allowing four home runs in the first inning. He would eventually log 3 2/3 innings on the day, allowing five homers in total.
His next three starts weren’t much better. On May 5th, he allowed three earned runs in four innings against the Royals. He squared off against the Angels on May 10th, allowing five earned runs in four frames. On Saturday, he didn’t make it out of the first, getting tagged for six earned runs in two thirds of an inning against the Nationals. Put it all together and Gibson has an ugly 16.78 ERA through 12 1/3 innings this year. The O’s clearly ran out of patience, cutting him from the roster on Sunday.
Given those poor results and his salary, no club was going to claim him and take on the remainder of his contract. As a veteran with years of experience, he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment.
But as a free agent, he might generate interest. With the O’s on the hook for the remainder of his salary, another club would only have to pay him the prorated version of the major league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster. The recent results have obviously not been good but perhaps some teams will chalk that up to his unusual ramp-up period. Gibson has almost 2,000 big league innings and has generally been a serviceable back-end guy. As recently as last year, he posted a 4.24 ERA over 169 2/3 innings with the Cardinals.
Given his track record and the number of pitching injuries around the league, it wouldn’t be a surprise for him to secure a minor league deal from some club in need of experienced depth. That’s what recently played out with Kenta Maeda, who was released by the Tigers but then landed a minor league deal with the Cubs. If Gibson follows a similar path, he could perhaps get a chance to get in a nice groove in the minors and earn his way back to the big leagues.
It’s also possible that the O’s are the club to give him that minor league deal, as they still have rotation depth concerns with Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells and Albert Suárez all on the 60-day injured list.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
Indy league bound ⚾
Wow that experiment worked out well
Exhibit one million: pitchers need a full spring training.
That was a nice easy 5 mill for him
He just made $5 for under 3 months of work! He pitch 4 games? That equates to $40m for 32 starts. Is he the highest paid pitcher by the game in the league? My bet is Scherzer takes that crown with $15m/game.
Have a hard time beating Gerrit Cole who will make 0 starts.
Let’s set the baseline at 1 game
Strasburg still in the mix unless there was a settlement.
Somewhere Jason LaConfora is frantically rage tweeting (X ing?)as we speak….
I will never understand why anyone gives that clueless moron attention.
He’s not even fun in a lolcow sort of way.
Kind of wish Ole Jed will sign Gibson and lose Maeda. I’m more hopeful for a Gibson rebound than a Maeda one.
So long Kyle and thanks for all the earned runs.
Who’s next on the chopping block? Did the front office fire the pitching coach? Usually that’s next after firing the manager…
I wanted the hitting coach (Cody Asche) fired before anyone, even Hyde.
So hopefully him.
That’s usually another head to roll. Hopefully your team figures it out, too much talent to be collapsing like my White Sox did in 2022…
This year is obviously FUBAR’d but I’m not too worried about our long-term prospects yet.
Elias absolutely needs to do a better job of supplementing the young core this offseason though, no more half measures. Rubenstein gave you money to spend so spend it, and not on guys whose upside is “fine.”
“no more half measures”.
I agree Elias screwed the pooch on the position player side of the roster. The big O’Neil signing is definitely a bust to date. Not a veteran influence to the “young core” at all.
I liked the logic behind the construction of the rotation. Innings eater with overseas cred Surgano being a bridge to Braddish. Just a few days after missing out on Burnes, they went out and got another innings eater with MLB cred, Morton. And when Rodriguez went down, in comes the 3rd durabiblty guy, Gibson.
Bullpen was okay. Look tired now. Soto was the one reach to me. Oh, Cionel is who he is. I thought he stayed and not Coulumbe because he and The Mountain seem tight … with FO thinking each a postive influence to each other.
Finally a move that actually benefits the pitching staff.
Made out like a bandit
“Dodgers sign Kyle Gibson” to a minor league deal.
No need. Phillies maybe.
You can instead just say that you’re obsessed with the Dodgers, (not) Donnie Moore.
Obsession for men, Dodgers $
Dodgers are a bit frivolous but they aren’t stupid.
Man, it is *lucrative* to be a borderline MLB quality pitcher.
$73 mil for a career 4.60 ERA and .500 record, quite lucrative indeed
30+ starts with at 90-ish ERA+ nearly every year will get you far in MLB.
I gaurentee that he’ll be a Brave by the end of the week
This seems like a panic move. He started late and I doubt his 0.450 BABIP and 9.6 HR% are sustainable. It’s been all of sixteen innings. What are the Orioles’ better options?
Charlie Morton, of course!
Wouldn’t mind the Jays kicking the tires here. He looked rough in Baltimore but looked alright last year. Lord knows he’s probably more projectable than Jose Urena.
Someone else will sign him to a minor league deal. He had no spring training and only 12 innings on the minors before being called up, it would have been a miracle if he didn’t struggle.
Would be a great guy to bring in during one of the many blowout games MLB has these days to save utility infielders and backup catchers from having to pitch.
Signing guy who hasn’t been good since the 90s. Like a festival headlined by Creed. What were you expecting Os?
Yikes. He literally got paid 5M to put the ball on a tee and let the opponents beat him to a pulp. Nice work if you can get it.
Another great move by the mastermind elias!Still proving that he is smarter than everyone else!
Give him a shot Astros!