{"id":89476,"date":"2024-11-13T12:53:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T17:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=89476"},"modified":"2024-11-13T13:29:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T18:29:32","slug":"veteran-cardinals-starting-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/13\/veteran-cardinals-starting-pitcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Starting Pitcher a Good Fit for Fringe Contenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

After one season with the St. Louis Cardinals, veteran pitcher Kyle Gibson<\/a>\u2019s contract option was not picked up by the team. Gibson is now an unrestricted free agent heading into the 2025 season. Gibson has a lot to offer a contending team looking for an end-of-the-rotation starter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kyle Gibson Free Agent Profile<\/h2>\n

The Cardinals went into the 2024 season expecting to contend and adding Gibson to bolster their rotation. While the season didn\u2019t go as planned for the Cardinals, the 36-year-old right-handed pitcher held up his end of the deal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gibson went 8-8 in 2024 with 4.24 ERA. It was his best season-long ERA in three years and below his career ERA of 4.52. He also struck out 151 batters and had a WHIP of 1.350.<\/span><\/p>\n

The veteran pitcher proved to be a constant presence for the Cardinals. Gibson started 30 games and pitched 169.2 innings. He averaged 5 \u2154 innings per start. Not once did Gibson miss time with an injury in 2024, only missing time for a bereavement stint for less than a week in June.<\/span><\/p>\n

Contract Situation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Cardinals are entering a period<\/a> where they are cutting costs and focusing on youth<\/a>. Gibson was owed $12 million for 2025 if the organization had picked up his contract for 2025. The Cardinals will still give Gibson $1 million for not picking up his contract.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The decision to let Gibson enter free agency came at the same time the organization released<\/a> other veteran pitchers Lance Lynn and Keynan Middleton. Cardinals\u2019 president of baseball operations John Mozeliak<\/a> told John Denton with MLB.com that not picking up Gibson\u2019s contract wasn\u2019t a reflection of his performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou think back to less than a year ago, when we pursued [Gibson, Lynn and Middleton], and I felt like they fit in really well and I think they were really helpful,\u201d Mozeliak told Denton<\/a>. \u201cBut things also have emerged since then, right? [Andre] Pallante pitched really well<\/a>, and we traded for [Erick] Fedde. So, we’re certainly in a different spot than we were a year ago. But yes, those veteran guys did everything that we had hoped for.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gibson has played for four teams in the past four years. He earned an average of $10.3 million per year in that span. At 37-years-old, Gibson may be due to earn a little less than last year\u2019s $12 million. However, the market for him will likely settle in around the $10 million annually he\u2019s been earning of late.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fits For Gibson<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Gibson offers security as a solid end-of-the-rotation starter. Several teams that feel they can contend for a playoff spot in 2025 will likely take a look at the right-hander as an affordable option to round out their rotation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of all starting pitchers entering free agency, Gibson had the seventh highest WAR in 2024 at 4.0. National League teams on the edge of contention like the San Diego Padres and New York Mets could look to add him to help their rotations in 2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mets have had a revolving door of older starting pitchers over the past year or two. Going into the offseason, Mets GM David Sterns told reporters that started pitching will be a priority for the organization with three of their starters entering free agency<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Padres<\/a> have been hit with the injury bug in their rotation over the past year. Joe Musgrove having Tommy John\u2019s surgery late last year makes it unlikely he\u2019ll pitch in 2025. Padres president of baseball operations AJ Preller said at the Winter GM Meetings that he felt the team has enough talent to contend for a World Series. However, to do that they need more security in their starting rotation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Texas Rangers will look to rebound from a post-championship hangover season in 2024. With Jacob DeGrom and Tyler Mahle both coming back from Tommy John Surgery in 2025 they are likely excited about the top of their rotation. However, with a weaker bottom half and some unease over the ramping up of those two pitchers, Gibson makes sense for the Rangers<\/a> as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After one season with the St. Louis Cardinals, veteran pitcher Kyle Gibson\u2019s contract option was not picked up by the team. Gibson is now an unrestricted free agent heading into the 2025 season. Gibson has a lot to offer a contending team looking for an end-of-the-rotation starter.\u00a0 Kyle Gibson Free Agent Profile The Cardinals went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5111,"featured_media":89498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,25],"tags":[6421,391,6273,1860,5860,3228,1764,2262,164,93,168,259,1680],"class_list":["post-89476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-cardinals","tag-andre-pallante","tag-erick-fedde","tag-jacob-degrom","tag-joe-musgrove","tag-keynan-middleton","tag-kyle-gibson","tag-lance-lynn","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-new-york-mets","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-texas-rangers","tag-tyler-mahle"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}