The Reds have signed left-handed pitcher Tyler Gilbert to a minor league contract, the team announced. The deal comes with an invitation to major league Spring Training. The All Bases Covered client will be 30 years old in 2024.
Drafted by the Phillies in 2015, Gilbert was traded to the Dodgers ahead of the 2020 season and selected by the Diamondbacks the following winter in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. He made his debut with Arizona in 2021 and is best known for throwing a no-hitter during his first MLB start and fourth big league appearance. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to live up to that impossibly high standard throughout the rest of his career. He has shuttled back and forth between the majors and Triple-A over the past three years, while also making a couple of trips to the injured list with trouble in his pitching elbow. Overall, he tossed 91 2/3 innings for the Diamondbacks, pitching to a 4.32 ERA and 4.78 SIERA in 13 starts and 15 relief appearances.
The lefty spent most of his 2023 campaign pitching out of the bullpen, working as a primary reliever for the first time since his 2019 season in the Phillies organization. While he gave up 10 runs on 21 hits in 17 1/3 big league innings, his underlying numbers were much more promising. Gilbert, one of the slowest-throwing arms in the game in 2021 and ’22, threw all his pitches with an extra 2-4 mph. Opposing batters swung and missed more often at almost all of his offerings, and he nearly doubled his strikeout rate from 2022. Consequently, his 3.32 SIERA was a vast improvement over his 5.17 figure from the previous two seasons. Moreover, while his 11 MLB appearances make for a tiny sample, he boasted a near-identical strikeout rate in 74 2/3 innings at Triple-A.
The Reds have already added plenty of bullpen arms this winter, signing Emilio Pagán and Brent Suter, re-signing Buck Farmer, and scooping up Justin Bruihl and Brooks Kriske on minor league deals. They also added Nick Martinez to the rotation, although his experience as both a starter and reliever surely increased his appeal. Still, there is no such thing as too much bullpen depth. Nor is there such thing as too much starting pitching depth, for that matter, and given the fact that the injury-prone Frankie Montas is the only starter on the team with a full, qualified season under his belt, Gilbert’s experience as a starter surely increased his appeal, too.
Gilbert has one option year remaining.
cguy
Another LHRP depth piece for the Reds, as Sam Moll (1 option), Brent Suter (0 options), and Alex Young (1 option) make the bullpen. Justin Bruihl (1 option), Logan Gilbert (1 option), and injured Reiver Sanmartin (2 options) in reserve. All have ML experience and ML starts to their credit. Quite an upgrade from a year ago.
0
TrumboRedux
The
data is invalid. [ERROR_INVALID_DATA (0xD)]
runningwithnailclippers
Should we call tech support, T-R?
TrumboRedux
Running, please do. That is all my brain could register when I tried to compute “cguy’s” post.
Big whiffa
What kind of options do sticks have ?
casey21
I wish it was Logan Gilbert, but it’s Tyler.
cguy
Tyler. duh!
DCartrow
I’m glad Gilbert got freed from the Diamondbacks.
dbacksrs
Doesn’t get rave reviews when starting or coming in from the bullpen.
Old York
LOL @ Padres for getting no-hit by this guy who only struck out 5 batters over 9 innings. Garbage Team.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
Old York
Troll-like comment
Old York
@MannyBeingMVP
I’m sorry I hurt your feelings about your favourite team.
FanOfTheUmpires
Arguably the most underrated fanbase, city, stadium, and team in all of sports. You can ask anybody. Stephen A, Slusser, Verducci, Rosenthal, Rome, etc.
drdback
Well things didn’t pan out with him in AZ, but I will always remember him for throwing a no-hitter on my birthday. I had tickets to the game, the next day.
dbacksrs
Doesn’t get rave reviews when starting or coming in from the bullpen.
MrSeptember
You don’t say
This one belongs to the Reds
You can say that again!
This one belongs to the Reds
Dumpster diving. Reminds me of the Alex Mills sogning.
cguy
I don’t remember Alec’s first ML start being a no hitter.
cguy
BTW, Krall definitely has some “dumpster diving” to do. With about all the young prospects now at ML, plus Reynolds, Lopez. Chuckie and co. gone- Louisville will need several more decent hitters to field with what should be a pretty good AAA pitching staff.
This one belongs to the Reds
That’s what AA is for. I’d rather they promote prospects like Hinds, Collier, Stewart and Arroyo than sign a bunch of AAAA players that are failed propects elsewhere. Time to see if all those ballyhooed prospects are legit or suspects.
cguy
Collier and Stewart are still in A ball- neither will play in AAA this year. Arroyo probably won’t make Louisville until June or July. Even Rece
Hinds may spend some more time in Chatanooga to start this season. Reds are finally developing their prospects in house and patience is required. Louisville needs 2 or 3 hitting upgrades to compete.. We’ll see what Krall does.
HBan22
The Reds suddenly have a pretty damn solid/deep bullpen.
TrumboRedux
The only missing link now is Votto!
HBan22
They should have brought him back for one more year instead of signing Candelario.
This one belongs to the Reds
Good competition is a wonderful thing!
SFBay314
Giants should have offered him a contract. From Santa Cruz and a great arm
Troutahni
LH pitchers when in can be lights out. Worth a gamble to see if he makes significant gains at AAA level
MLBTR needs to hire editors
There should never be a comma after “too.” Come on, it’s not the sixties anymore.
Hired Gun 23
Still waiting for the Reds to trade for Cease and part with all these amazing young infielders they have. Does anyone think that happens?
titanic struggle
Not a chance..