20 BF, 71 pitches, 83% strikes, 14 whiffs, 21 called strikes, 49.3 CSW%
My word was this a banger. This was the most impressive outing I’ve seen this MiLB season. If you listened to the AL East podcast this offseason, if not for Nestor German, Trey Gibson was my O’s choice. The 2023 UDFA out of Liberty set the SAL high water mark for strikeouts this season on an insanely low number of pitches and dominance of the zone. If not for one hitter who has his number, Christian Suero, this was darn near perfection. (As you’ll see, Gibson had Suero up against the ropes three of the four times they squared off this season, with Gibson making mistakes Suero did not miss.)
Gibson fits my archetype as a good “pitcher” with lots of offerings, an ability to use them well, and an arsenal growing teeth. Draft (or in this case sign) a good pitcher, sharpen the tools…the O’s have done this well. Their current AA rotation, which includes Nestor German, Braxton Bragg, and now Gibson, all seem to fit this mold.
I didn’t label pitches in this video for a few reasons: one, I didn’t want to add more gaudy graphics to a masterpiece, and more so, there’s a lot here, and I wasn’t confident in a lot of calls. Your eyes will get the gist. Gibson’s fastballs are in the 93–95 range, with a sinker seemingly the most used. There’s a good curveball, obvious to the eye, that he deployed selectively and often as an overwhelming, never even thought of that coming, kill shot. There’s a firm slider/cutter, a gyro-looking slider, and a more sweeping slider. There’s also an offspeed pitch flashing a lot of vertical drop…perhaps a splitter. You’ll see him put a mix-it-up-fill-the-zone clinic on. As he strikes out 7 of 9 the first time through, as he rarely, if at all, doubles up an offering, getting to 0–2 before the hitter knows it. He gets to 0–2 counts on 12 of the 20 batters faced. You’ll see 21 called strikes, 5 for strike 3…and I don’t know about you, but freezing a hitter has become more aesthetically pleasing to me than a swing and miss.
To boot, Gibson did this against the best lineup in the league, and one that got him good earlier in the season. There’s no one dominant pitch here, but a dominant arsenal in full command. Outside of a few balls in the dirt and a mistake for a home run, this was a video game performance. This is what it looks like when a pitcher has it all working:
Here’s what Gibson’s done as a pro thus far:
He’s been on one this last month, and he’s the best version of himself yet:
He broke the SAL this last month, and the O’s agree. It looks like Gibson is set to make his AA debut Saturday. He’ll do the same thing to Akron he did to Brooklyn…shoot, a bunch of lineups at lots of levels, if he executes like this day. Tall order? Yes. Capable? I think so. At just 2% Fantrax rostership, Gibson is not getting the dynasty love he deserves. Say what you will about the O’s pitching and current MLB issues, but they have developed arms well if you define “develop” as making pitchers better than when they got to you. They’re one of the best at it in my opinion, and there’s a crop hitting the uppers right now I’m excited to see if the success maintains and gets into that big league rotation. Gibson is firmly planted in said crop.