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Joey Gerber

Mets Acquire Joey Gerber

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The Mets have acquired right-hander Joey Gerber in a trade with the Rays, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports.  Tampa Bay will receive cash in return for Gerber, who was one of six players the Rays designated for assignment yesterday.

After making his big league debut in the form of 17 games and 15 2/3 innings of 4.02 ball with the Mariners in 2020, Gerber then missed virtually all of the next three seasons due to back surgery and a Tommy John surgery.  He resurfaced to pitch in the Yankees’ farm system in 2024, and a subsequent minor league deal with the Rays last winter paved the way for his return to the Show.  Gerber appeared in two games (4 1/3 innings) for the Rays in September, posting a 2.08 ERA.

There is still a bit of a “work in progress” aspect to Gerber’s performance in the wake of such an extended layoff, as reflected by his 6.23 ERA over 43 1/3 innings with Durham last season.  An inflated .351 BABIP and a lot of home run problems contributed to Gerber’s ERA, but he has a 26.74% strikeout rate over 57 1/3 total frames at the Triple-A level.

It was enough to pique the Mets’ interest, and president of baseball operations David Stearns has long had a reputation for seeking out undervalued relievers with intriguing stuff.  Gerber has a minor league option remaining, which gives the Mets some extra roster flexibility if he does happen to make the team.

Rays Designate Six Players For Assignment

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The Rays announced a major shake up of their 40-man roster today as they get started on their offseason. Right-hander Alex Faedo and outfielder Stuart Fairchild were both activated from the 60-day injured list and designated for assignment, while right-handers Cole Wilcox, Caleb Boushley, Joey Gerber, and Garrett Acton were all designated for assignment as well. Those moves make room for recently-acquired outfielder Ryan Vilade on the 40-man roster and also clear up spaces for players to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list, which goes away five days after the World Series.

Faedo, 30 later this month, missed the entire 2025 season due to shoulder inflammation. He was acquired by the Rays last offseason in a trade with the Tigers after Detroit designated him for assignment back in January. A back-end starter and swingman for parts of three seasons with the Tigers, Faedo has 175 2/3 big league innings under his belt with a 4.51 earned run average, 20.9% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate. He is out of options, which makes him hard to roster. The Tigers designated him for assignment last winter. The Rays took a shot on him but got a lost season as the result.

Fairchild, 30 in March, spent the past three seasons with the Reds and entered Spring Training with the club this year. He was squeezed off the roster and ultimately wound up traded to the Braves, for whom he appeared in 28 games as a reserve outfielder. He was traded from Atlanta to Tampa shortly before the trade deadline this year, but an oblique strain prevented him from playing for the Rays. Fairchild is a strong defender and baserunner but is a career .223/.305/.384 hitter across 229 games with five different clubs since he made his big league debut with the Diamondbacks in 2021. Like Faedo, he is out of options.

Wilcox, 26, just made his major league debut this year. He originally came to the Rays in the December 2020 trade which sent Blake Snell to San Diego. Wilcox required Tommy John surgery the following September. After returning from that procedure, his results in the minors as a starter were fairly middling. He was moved to the bullpen in 2025 with decent results. He tossed 58 1/3 innings on the farm with a 3.70 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate, 10.8% walk rate and 50.3% ground ball rate. The Rays added him to the 40-man in September and he tossed one big league inning, allowing three earned runs.

Boushley, 32, has been a long reliever for the Brewers, Twins and Rangers. The Rays claimed him off waivers from the Rangers in September but kept him in the minors. Boushley has 49 2/3 big league innings over 28 appearances with a 5.80 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 40.6% ground ball rate.

Gerber, 29 in May, made his debut with the 2020 Mariners. Injuries wiped out much of the next few years. He signed a minor league deal with the Rays coming into 2025. He earned a 40-man spot in the summer but was mostly kept in the minors. He only pitched 4 1/3 big league innings this year, allowing one earned run. He logged 44 1/3 innings in the minors with a 6.09 ERA, 27.9% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate.

Acton, 27, signed a two-year minor league deal with the Rays going into 2024. He had undergone Tommy John surgery prior to signing that deal and missed the entire 2024 campaign. He was added to the 40-man late in 2025 and tossed one scoreless inning in the bigs. He threw 58 2/3 innings in Triple-A with a 3.68 ERA, 30.1% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate.

All six players now head into DFA limbo. The Rays will have seven days to trade them or pass them through waivers. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade talks would have to come together in the next five days. If Fairchild clears, he would have the right to elect free agency since he has at least three years of service time. Boushley will have the right to elect free agency since he has previously been outrighted in his career. Faedo should be eligible for seven-year minor league free agency five days after the World Series but he could be held in DFA limbo longer than that.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Rays Select Joey Gerber

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1:35pm: Gerber indeed had an upward mobility clause in his contract, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. That provision forces the Rays to either grant Gerber his release or add him to the 40-man roster if there’s another team willing to sign him to its own 40-man roster. Gerber seemingly had interest from another team, then, and forced the issue with the Rays.

1:15pm: The Rays have selected the contract of right-hander Joey Gerber and transferred fellow righty Hunter Bigge from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to clear space on the 40-man roster, per a team announcement. Gerber was immediately optioned back to Triple-A Durham, where he’d previously been pitching.

An addition to the 40-man and immediate option back to the minors — the A’s made the same move with outfielder Carlos Cortes yesterday — likely indicates that Gerber’s minor league contract contained a mid-July opt-out clause. Such provisions are common at the season’s midpoint and typically give the team 24 to 48 hours to decide whether to add the player to the 40-man roster or grant him his release.

Gerber, 28, made a brief major league debut with the 2020 Mariners — the team that originally drafted him in the eighth round back in 2018. He pitched 15 2/3 innings and logged a 4.02 ERA but with a dismal 9.7% strikeout rate against a solid 8.1% walk rate.

Gerber’s minor league run-prevention and strikeout numbers were excellent and would likely have gotten him a look in subsequent seasons had he remained healthy. That wasn’t the case. He missed all of 2021 following back surgery and pitched just one inning in 2022 due to a forearm strain that eventually resulted in Tommy John surgery that wiped out his entire 2023 campaign as well.

After a nearly three-year layoff from pitching, Gerber signed a minor league deal with the Yankees for the 2024 season. He pitched 33 1/3 innings of 2.43 ERA ball across four levels, fanning 28.2% of his opponents and issuing walks at a 12.2% rate. He didn’t get a call to the majors and wound up becoming a minor league free agent, ultimately signing with Tampa Bay in mid-December.

Gerber’s earned run average is up to 4.73 with the Rays in 2025, but his strikeout and walks numbers are better than they were in the Yankees’ system. He’s punched out a comparable 28.6% of his opponents but trimmed his walk rate to a much leaner 8.9% mark. The 93.8 mph Gerber is averaging on his four-seamer in 2025 is actually a half-mile improvement over the 93.3 mph he averaged during his brief debut effort with the 2020 Mariners.

This is the second of Gerber’s three option years. Now that he’s on the 40-man roster, he can be shuttled freely between the Rays’ major league club and Triple-A Durham affiliate both this year and next. He’ll be in the mix the next time the Rays need a fresh arm and could be an option to claim a larger role depending on what happens at the trade deadline.

Tampa Bay is three games over .500 and 1.5 back from a Wild Card spot. They’re generally expected to operate primarily on the buy side, but they rode a four-game losing streak into the All-Star break and are generally open to listen on veterans even during contending seasons. A trade of an impending free agent like starter Zack Littell, for instance, could push a current bullpen member like Ian Seymour or Joe Boyle into the rotation. Ace Shane McClanahan is on the mend from a triceps injury and could step into any rotation vacancy that opens up, but further injuries and/or a trade of a veteran reliever with dwindling club control (e.g. Pete Fairbanks, Garrett Cleavinger) could lead to additional opportunities for Gerber and other depth arms.

The 27-year-old Bigge’s move to the 60-day IL is a formality. He’s been out since May 1 due to a lat strain and has thus already spent more than 60 days on the injured list. He’s pitched to a 2.51 ERA in 32 1/3 MLB frames between the Cubs and Rays since making his debut with Chicago last year and being traded to Tampa Bay at the 2024 deadline. He resumed baseball activity late last month and will continue to work toward a late-season return.

Rays, Joey Gerber Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rays are in agreement with reliever Joey Gerber on a minor league contract, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The right-hander receives a non-roster invitation to MLB camp.

Gerber, 27, is attempting to get to the big leagues for the first time in five years. The Illinois product debuted with the Mariners during the shortened 2020 season. He allowed eight runs (seven earned) across 15 2/3 innings. A forearm injury essentially robbed him of the next two years, leading the Mariners to release him midway through the ’22 season. Gerber caught on with the Yankees shortly after being released by Seattle, but injuries continued to plague him. He missed all of 2023 and spent the first half of this past season on the minor league IL.

In late June, Gerber was finally healthy enough to be reinstated. The Yankees assigned him to Double-A Somerset. He struck out 18 while only allowing three runs across 15 1/3 frames. That earned him a bump to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Gerber wasn’t quite as dominant as he’d been in Double-A. He tossed 14 innings and allowed 10 runs (six earned). He punched out 15 and issued eight walks.

Gerber’s fastball averaged 93.5 MPH during his Triple-A work this year. That’s in line with his velocity from his 2020 debut campaign. He got swinging strikes on a solid 13.4% of his offerings for Scranton. The arm strength and swing-and-miss were intriguing enough for the Rays to give him a non-roster camp invitation. If Gerber is able to stay healthy, he could find his way into Kevin Cash’s bullpen at some point.

Yankees, Joey Gerber Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees recently agreed to a minor league deal with reliever Joey Gerber, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to the organization’s complex in Florida, where he’ll presumably build into game shape before heading to an upper level affiliate.

Gerber, 25, was released by the Mariners in late June. The 6’4″ righty had dealt with a forearm strain for most of the first few months of the year, tossing a lone inning of complex ball with Seattle this season. That came on the heels of a 2021 campaign spent entirely on the minor league injured list, derailing Gerber’s attempts to carve out a role in the Mariners bullpen.

A former eighth-round draft choice, Gerber has 17 MLB appearances under his belt — all of which came with the Mariners during the abbreviated 2020 season. He tallied 15 2/3 innings of 4.02 ERA ball, averaging a decent 93.5 MPH on his fastball but only striking out 9.7% of batters faced. He’s missed bats at a much better rate in the minors, including a robust 31.3% strikeout rate in 22 2/3 frames at Double-A to close out the 2019 campaign. Baseball America had rated Gerber among the mid-tier prospects in the Seattle farm system before his recent spate of injuries, writing that his sinker-slider combination gave him a chance to be a high-leverage reliever.

It’s a no-risk dice roll for the Yankees to see if Gerber’s pre-injury form carries over after a lost season and a half. The Illinois product is still young enough to potentially carve out a middle innings role in the Bronx if he’s able to log some upper minors work over the next two months.

Mariners Release Sergio Romo, Joey Gerber

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The Mariners announced this evening that relievers Sergio Romo and Joey Gerber have each cleared waivers and been granted their unconditional release. Both pitchers were designated for assignment in recent days and are now free agents.

Romo is the more accomplished and well-known of the duo. A 15-year MLB veteran, the righty has earned an All-Star nod and was part of three World Series teams with the Giants. He owns a career 3.20 ERA through 719 innings spread across seven teams. Romo’s low arm slot and wipeout slider have allowed him to particularly dominate right-handed opponents throughout his career, but he’s generally been quite good against batters from both sides of the dish.

That hasn’t been the case in 2022, however, as Romo’s stint in Seattle didn’t pan out. He allowed 13 runs in 14 1/3 innings as a Mariner, serving up six longballs in that limited time. Romo was tagged for homers in each of his final two appearances, and the M’s moved on from him on Monday. They’ll remain on the hook for the balance of his $2MM salary, with any signing club only responsible for the league minimum for any time Romo spends on their active roster (which would be subtracted from Seattle’s tab).

Gerber, 25, is in a much different spot of his career. He has just 17 MLB appearances to his name, all of which came back in 2020. The former eighth-round pick spent all of last season on the minor league injured list, and that’s more or less been the case this year as well. Gerber was dealing with a forearm strain in Spring Training; he made one rehab outing in rookie ball a few weeks back but hasn’t pitched since that point.

Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, so Gerber’s release was a formality once the M’s took him off the 40-man roster. It’s possible they’ll look to bring him back via minor league deal now that he’s passed through waivers, but he’s free to explore similar opportunities elsewhere.

Mariners Select Tommy Milone, Designate Joey Gerber

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The Mariners announced some roster moves in between games of today’s doubleheader. They have selected the contract of left-hander Tommy Milone, with right-hander Matt Festa being optioned to create room on the active roster. In order to make space on the 40-man roster, righty Joey Gerber has been designated for assignment.

Milone, 35, is a veteran who appeared in each season from 2011 to 2021. As soon as he gets into a game here in 2022, it’ll mark his 12th straight MLB season. He’s appeared for many teams in that time, including a previous stint with the Mariners in 2019, as well as spells with the Nationals, Athletics, Twins, Mets, Orioles, Braves and Blue Jays. One of the softest throwers in the league, Milone is able to survive by limiting free passes. His 17.7% career strikeout rate is certainly low, given that this year’s league average is around 22%. However, his 5.6% walk rate is a few ticks below this year’s 8.3% league average.

Signed to a minor league deal in the offseason, Milone has made seven starts for Triple-A Tacoma this year. In 32 innings, he has a 1.13 ERA, with a 24.8% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate. That tiny ERA is certainly nice, but is likely being depressed by a .208 BABIP and 100% strand rate, neither of which are sustainable. Nevertheless, the Mariners will give him a shot to see if he can replicate those kinds of results at the big league level.

As for Gerber, 25, he was an eighth round selection of the Mariners in the 2018 draft. A pure reliever, he’s never made a start in his professional career. He pitched well in the lower levels of the minors and earned his way up to Double-A in 2019. In 22 2/3 innings there that year, he put up a 1.59 ERA with a whopping 31.3% strikeout rate, 7.3% walk rate and 37.5% ground ball rate. In 2020, the minor leagues were wiped out by the pandemic, but he was able to reach the majors, throwing 15 2/3 innings for the Mariners that year. Despite always racking up Ks in the minors, he only struck out 9.7% of hitters he faced in the bigs, though in a small sample size.

Despite those promising minor league numbers and making his MLB debut at the age of 23, he has since hit a wall due to injuries. Back surgery prevented him from pitching at all in 2021, either in the majors or minors. This year, a forearm strain has kept him out of action, except for a single-inning appearance in the Complex League on June 11. His current health situation isn’t publicly known, but will certainly have a bearing on next steps. Since injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, it’s possible that Gerber ends up on release waivers in the coming days.

Mariners Place Kendall Graveman On Injured List, Select Joey Gerber

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The Mariners announced Tuesday that they’ve placed right-hander Kendall Graveman on the 10-day injured list due to neck spasms and selected the contract of right-hander Joey Gerber from their alternate training site. Seattle also recalled southpaw Taylor Guilbeau from their alternate site and optioned fellow lefty Zac Grotz. Graveman’s placement on the IL is retroactive to Aug. 3.

Graveman, 29, had a rocky debut effort with the Mariners on July 27 but looked sharper on Aug. 2 before departing the game with some discomfort in his neck. He signed a one-year deal with Seattle over the winter after missing most of the 2018 season and all of the 2019 campaign due to Tommy John surgery.

Prior to his injury, Graveman was a solid mid-rotation piece for the division-rival Athletics, who acquired him as part of their return in what ended up being a lopsided Josh Donaldson swap with the Jays. Graveman proved to be the most productive member of Oakland’s return — though the A’s still have Franklin Barreto — pitching to a 4.11 ERA and 4.44 FIP through 407 frames fom 2015-17. At his best, Graveman racks up grounders and limits free passes and long balls — but he’s struggled a bit with both walks (five) and homer (two) in his first 8 2/3 frames this season.

The Mariners didn’t provide a timetable on Graveman’s return, although there’s no indication that he’s dealing with a significant injury. Seattle opened the season with a six-man rotation that also included Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi, Justus Sheffield, Taijuan Walker and Justin Dunn, so they can simply drop to a more conventional five-man outfit in Graveman’s absence should they choose.

Turning to the 23-year-old Gerber, he’ll be in line for his big league debut whenever he first takes the mound. The 2018 eighth-rounder hasn’t yet reached the Triple-A level, although he’d surely have done so in 2020 had there been a minor league season. Gerber was excellent in Double-A last year and has more generally impressed at every minor league stop in his career to date. He’s a pure bullpen prospect who, in 74 2/3 frames since being drafted, has worked to a 2.42 ERA with a whopping 13.6 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9. Gerber didn’t allow a homer across three Mariners Class-A affiliates and only yielded two in 22 2/3 innings of Double-A work in 2019.

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