The Giants and lefty Matt Gage have agreed to a minor league contract, per his transaction log at MLB.com. The Paragon Sports client has been assigned to Triple-A Sacramento for the time being. Gage was designated for assignment by the Tigers last week and elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment.
The 32-year-old Gage tossed 5 2/3 shutout innings for the Tigers this season, bringing his career totals to 25 1/3 frames of 1.42 ERA ball. That’s come in small looks across parts of three seasons with Toronto, Houston and Detroit. Gage doesn’t throw especially hard, sitting 91.9 mph with his four-seamer this season, but he’s still fanned a solid 22.5% of his big league opponents against a more elevated 10.8% walk rate.
Despite those strong big league results, Gage has never gotten an extended look. He’s spent the bulk of his career in Triple-A, where he carries a 4.64 ERA, 20.9% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate in 316 1/3 innings. He was excellent with the Tigers’ top affiliate this season, however, pitching 32 1/3 innings with a 1.67 ERA, a 22.8% strikeout rate and a vastly improved 3.3% walk rate.
San Francisco currently has two lefties in the bullpen: Erik Miller and Joey Lucchesi. The former has a tidy 1.50 ERA on the season but has more combined walks (20) and hit batters (3) than he does strikeouts (22), which makes his ability to sustain that production questionable, at best. Lucchesi was only recently summoned to the majors and has allowed three runs in six innings so far. Gage will provide another depth option beyond that pair as the Giants jostle with the Mets, Brewers, Padres, Cardinals, Reds and D-backs in a tightly contested NL Wild Card race. At present, San Francisco sits a half-game back from the final Wild Card position.
Matt Gage has had a curious career. The Giants drafted him in 2014. He was mediocre his first 8 pro seasons then reinvented himself in 2022 with outstanding showings in Buffalo and Toronto (his 9th pro season) and has been solid since. Kinda cool that the Giants drafted him during their last world championship season.
Matt looked fine when the Tigers called for some help. Hope he finds a steady gig soon…
I’m a little surprised the Tigers weren’t interested in keeping him in the fold. Tyler Owens didn’t look particularly good yesterday. Gage is better than him, right?
The Tigers were interested in keeping him. If they weren’t he would’ve been released. They assigned him to AAA, but he had the ability to refuse and be a FA. The Tigers were probably disappointed that he didn’t accept the assignment.
Giants need another lefty option at the ready. Love Eric Miller’s ERA and raw power, and especially the slider. The slider is elite when he doesn’t throw it like a gopher ball. But the WHIP – the WALKS – suggest disaster is right around the corner.