4:25pm: The Rays announced that they have signed Gibson to a minor league contract.
3:20pm: Right-hander Kyle Gibson is signing with the Rays, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s unclear if it’s a major or minor league deal. If it’s a big league deal, the Rays have an open 40-man spot after designating catcher Ben Rortvedt for assignment earlier today, so they would only need to make a corresponding active roster move.
Gibson, 37, is a veteran with a solid track record but he is having a rough season so far. He lingered in free agency for a long time, eventually signing a one-year, $5.25MM deal with the Orioles less than a week before Opening Day. Since he missed spring training, he agreed to be optioned to the minors to get built up. He was called up at the end of April but got pounded, allowing 23 earned runs in 12 1/3 innings over four starts. The O’s then designated him for assignment and released him.
That leaves Baltimore on the hook for the remainder of that salary, meaning any club can sign Gibson and only pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary, with that amount subtracted from what the O’s pay.
It seems the Rays are willing to overlook Gibson’s 16.78 ERA in 2025 to focus more on his career track record. He has 1,878 big league innings under his belt with a 4.60 ERA on the whole. As recently as last year, he was a solid innings eater at the back-end of a rotation. He made 30 starts for the Cardinals in 2024, logging 169 2/3 frames with a 4.24 ERA, 20.9% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 44.8% ground ball rate.
The Tampa rotation has been without Shane McClanahan all year but has otherwise been remarkably healthy. Apart from one Joe Boyle spot start, every other game has been started by the quintet of Taj Bradley, Ryan Pepiot, Drew Rasmussen, Zack Littell and Shane Baz. No one in that group has an ERA higher than 4.94 this year. The Rays also have guys like Boyle, Joe Rock and Ian Seymour on the 40-man roster and pitching in Triple-A.
Regardless, there’s no real harm to adding Gibson since the O’s are responsible for most of his salary. The Rays could be adding a bit of non-roster rotation depth or perhaps they want Gibson to jump into their big league bullpen and serve as a long reliever. It’s also possible that one of their big league starters has some sort of ailment that has not yet been publicly reported. Time will tell what the Rays have in mind for Gibson’s usage but he’s a respected veteran with a solid track record and essentially no cost.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
As a Rays fan I say this with as much respect as humanly possible: Ew.
Who knows? Maybe he becomes one of the best pitchers in the league. I don’t know what magic formula you guys give to old pitchers/unknowns to make them elite.
Hoping so! But I’d rather them focus on getting the young guys right like Taj Bradley. If Gibson flips the switch and ends up being a serviceable starter for the league minimum then I won’t be able to complain at all for sure lol
Sure. And maybe 97-year old Roy Face comes back to help out his beloved Pirates.
In 13 seasons he’s never been one of best pitchers in league. So that’d likely beyond a long shot.
However with Rays history of getting most out of some players, I would not be surprised if he rebounds to be a serviceable or better SP.
2nd place Tampa. Funny thing is they will still look to strategically sell off some pitching at deadline even if they are pursuing the 3rd WC spot the way so many AL teams are hovering around .500
Organization can’t win a playoff game when we actually have a good squad, god knows even if we are in a WC spot this year the FO isn’t believing in this group lol
Do the Rays need bad pitching?
Give him a few weeks. Good, crafty pitcher who can still go on some runs. Sometimes has so much movement he can’t find the zone, though.
If there’s any team out there that can “fix” him it’s probably the Rays
You stole my comment! Watch him post an ERA under 3.50 for the Rays the rest of the season…
Rays are gonna Ray.
@Johnny Gibson was decent in 2023 and 2024. He pitched at about replacement level in 2022. In 2021 he was pretty good though.
For the last 5 years he’s not given up close to 5 runs every time he takes the mound. Again he was decent last 2 seasons and pretty good in 2021. They have stats that track these things…
You made the false claim not me. And the last 2 years his #s were better than 5th starter and sometimes 4th of rotations Bob Gibson was in after the mound was lowered.
Obviously he’s nowhere near as good as Bob Gibson, Beaver, or Carlton most aren’t and have not been both then and now. So not sure how you re now spiraling to rant on that.
For the bulk of Kyle Gibson’s career he’s pitched slightly above average or a bit more. And there will always be an average as long as statistics are take. If pitching above said average is “mediocrity” you might want to accept reality, there will always be a ton of players slightly above average. In fact the type of players you went on to rant about have compromised roughly 1% of the sport since it’s inception, they are and will be few and far between.
lol the Orioles broke him so the rays could fix him.
Rays acquire:
Gabriel Rincones Jr. (#10)
Alex McFarlane RHP (#16)
Andrew Baker RHP (#31)
Phillies acquire:
Pete Fairbanks RHP
Dru Dowd LHP (#29)
Instead of dowd I would try to get Mathew Etzel if I were the Phillies.
Fairbanks has been pitching great and has a very team friendly $7M option for next season. Why would the Rays be interested in giving that up for a bunch of underachieving Minor League players?? On top of that tossing in a young arm that’s been pitching quite well??
And why would they give up dowd who is better than baker and McFarlane? Those 3 for Fairbanks isnt enough, Rays could find better.
Exactly, it’s an absolute ridiculous hypothetical transaction.
This may have to do with the rays having 10 games in next 11 days. Maybe he has a spot start or eats some innings. He wasn’t horrendous the previous two seasons
ccahoe02;
Great point! Am sure that’s a part of it.
The Orioles don’t understand pitching at all. To start, a pitcher needs a solid experienced catcher and a high Baseball-IQ SS that can cover ground. The O’s had a smart catcher 2 years ago. Since then their pitching philosophy and coaches ruined him (wouldn’t be surprised to see Rutschman on the Rays in a few years…or the Reds, Guardians, Royals….all those teams have learned from the Rays and can get him back to what he was). The Rays always bring in experienced ML catchers to work with their staff. Jansen has been great this year. In addition to Walls, Caballero is an excellent back-up SS. Those 2 positions anchor a defense and any hitting a team get is a bonus. The name of the game is pitching and a pitcher needs a defense around him.
I wrote at the beginning of the season that the Rays were the most underrated team in MLB. Mainly because the FO is smart, and in addition to squaring away their own players they pick-up players that are out of sorts during the season and right them or cut them and bring in someone else. Mr. Gibson is a smart player. If he’s still on the Rays in a month it’s because he’s back to being himself and is helping them win games.
Praise the Lord. Orioles won’t be tempted again!🤣
The O’s ownership needs to spend to get decent starting pitching. Shopping from the bargain bin gets the results we’re seeing this year. Normally I’d suggest they trade from their strong position players on the farm, but that doesn’t seem to be an option.
Or if they simply refuse to spend, find a GM with enough wit to at least copy Stearns’ approach with the Mets.
They tried to sign Burnes he opted to sign for less elsewhere. Who do you think they should have signed that was willing to sign with them last offseason??
Rays need a good batting practice pitcher and they have found their man..
Pete Fairbanks will cost that much by himself, maybe more
Watch Gibby return to form with the Rays…
2025 AL Cy Young winner Kyle Gibson.