Too many players from the St. Louis Cardinals have left the team and succeeded elsewhere. Not long after being moved, players that were traded away, such as Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen, and Adolis Garcia, made a splash. Even Paul Goldschmidt, who left St. Louis in free agency, has had a successful season with the New York Yankees. However, one athlete who has taken a different approach is Kyle Gibson.
Gibson was a useful innings-eater at the back end of St. Louis’ rotation last season, but he was by no means an ace for the Cardinals. In 30 starts and 169.2 innings pitched, he recorded a 4.24 ERA.
Even though the entire season was disappointing, St. Louis was still able to get almost 170 reasonably good innings from a veteran who signed a one-year contract. However, Gibson’s situation has not been good since agreeing to a one-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles.
Kyle Gibson has taken a massive step back with the Orioles
Due to a lack of interest from teams in signing him over the winter, Gibson’s season started late. He was only acquired by the Orioles after they had lost a number of pitchers to injuries. We can now see why Gibson’s market developed slowly.
In his three starts with the Orioles, Gibson has allowed 17 runs on 23 hits in 11.2 innings of work (13.11 ERA). Even more concerning is the fact that throughout those three games, Gibson has walked six hitters and allowed seven home runs. Due in major part to five home runs in his season debut, he let up nine runs in 3.2 innings, and since then, things haven’t gone any better.
Gibson’s pitching style hasn’t been very appealing. In all three of his appearances, he has not finished five innings. In each of his three appearances, he has given up at least one home run. He has taken the mound three times, and each time the Orioles have lost. It has been unsightly.
Conversely, the Cardinals’ rotation has been largely strong without Gibson. In the majors, they are ranked seventh in fWAR, ninth in innings thrown, and tenth in ERA. at fact, they have so many starting pitchers that Michael McGreevy is at Triple-A and Steven Matz, who has pitched effectively, has been moved to the bullpen.
Gibson is currently 37 years old, so it wasn’t difficult to let him go, especially for a team that was reportedly starting a retool. However, given that Gibson currently doesn’t seem like he belongs in Major League Baseball, there was no reason to anticipate things to go this badly.
