Emergency Yankees Free Agent Target: Kyle Gibson

03/12/2025 08:30 AM

Gerrit Cole's season-ending injury should force the Yankees to consider every veteran free agent possibility.

The New York Yankees were struck a huge blow with the announcement that their ace Gerrit Cole would need Tommy John surgery. Despite a down 2023 relative to his Cy Young Award-winning year, Cole's importance to the Yankees starting rotation cannot be understated.

However, with Cole's injury, it means that general manager Brian Cashman, his staff, and manager Aaron Boone have to decide whether or not they will address the rotation or leave it be for Opening Day and beyond. So far, indications are that they will allow their internal options get the first crack at replacing Cole.

Still, there are a few options management can consider if they want to bring in external help. Yesterday, we took at a couple of veteran free agents, Spencer Turnbull and Lance Lynn. There's also Kyle Gibson, a 37-year-old journeyman right-hander who has a track record of durability.

2024 Statistics: 30 games started, 169.2 IP, 4.24 ERA, 4.42 FIP, 4.19 xFIP, 20.9% K%, 9.4% BB%, 1.35 WHIP, 1.5 fWAR

2025 FanGraphs Depth Charts Projections: 21 games, 121.0 IP, 4.36 ERA, 4.42 FIP, 19.4% K%, 8.5% BB%, 1.39 WHIP, 1.1 fWAR

Previous Contract: Signed one-year, $13 million contract with the St. Louis Cardinals on February 24, 2024.

Gibson began his career with in Minnesota, pitching for the Twins organization for 12 years before leaving in free agency in 2019-20. With Minnesota, he posted a 93 ERA+, as Gibson generally took the ball every five days but provided below average production. His best seasons were the one and a half he spent with the Texas Rangers in 2020 and part of 2021. Of course, those were the two seasons affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but nonetheless, he pitched well in a Rangers uniform, with Gibson's only All-Star appearance coming in 2021 with Texas.

After his stop in the Lone Star state, Gibson moved on to the Philadelphia Phillies, where he also played a season and a half, accumulating only 0.7 bWAR in that span with a 5.06 ERA. From there, Gibson played one season with the Baltimore Orioles, where he started an American League best 33 times with a 4.73 ERA. He also had the fewest hits against in the AL with 193. Gibson made his last stop last year with the Cardinals. He pitched 169.2 innings and posted a 4.42 ERA with a 99 ERA+, perfectly reasonable but unexciting production.

While there are some valid concerns about Gibson's age and his performance in prior seasons, there are qualities about his game that the Yankees can use at the back of their rotation. Even though he's consistently come in slightly worse than average in terms of run prevention, the most attractive part of his game is how many innings he can eat. The last time Gibson did not reach the 150 innings pitched plateau (excluding the 2020 season) was almost a decade ago in 2016. Since then, he has been a reliable source of innings for every team he has donned a uniform for.

If the Yankees feel they want some reliability at the back of their rotation, Gibson would be an adequate option. There's zero chance he'll be a front-end arm, but he can soak up innings five or six at a time once every five days. Gibson certainly won't overpower anyone, as he's morphed into a finesse pitcher. He relies on the breaking and offspeed pitches in his six-pitch arsenal to get hitters out at this point. He used his sweeper 20.7% of the time and it finished with a 41.2% whiff rate and 25.7% put away rate, both the highest in his toolbox. That's the kind of pitcher he his at this point of his career, someone who will use a whole host of pitches to try and navigate a lineup in the absence of pure stuff.

The Yankees have some important decisions to make coming up following the injury of the most important pitcher in their starting rotation. Gibson is an option that's freely available for just money, though he comes without much upside. He's there if the Yankees want to boost the floor of the back of their rotation a bit.