Veteran right-handed starting pitcher Kyle Gibson has signed a one-year deal with the Baltimore Orioles, the team announced on Friday. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the deal is for $5.25 million, with up to $1.525 million in performance bonuses.

The 37-year-old is entering his 13th MLB season and his second stint with the Orioles. He is coming off a strong 2024 campaign with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Kyle Gibson Offers Stability to Orioles Rotation

Gibson may be in his late 30s, but he has shown he still has a lot in the tank. The starter went 8-8 in 2024 with a 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.

The veteran pitcher proved to be a constant presence for the Cardinals. Gibson started 30 games and pitched 169 2/3 innings.

He averaged 5 ⅔ 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.

Slating Gibson in as a back-of-the-rotation starter will give the Orioles bullpen some relief, as he has rarely retreated from a game in the first frame.

He will also give Baltimore a chance in the games he starts. While Gibson isn’t likely to win any 1-0 pitcher duels, he is likely to provide a five-inning start with four or fewer runs. In other words, winnable games if the offense can perform.

The Next Stop on a Journeyman Career

This will be Gibson’s fifth team in as many years. Gibson started his career with seven straight years with the Minnesota Twins.

He then started the next two seasons with the Texas Rangers before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2021. After the Phillies, Gibson moved to the Orioles in 2023 and then the Cardinals in 2024.

Gibson has a career .509 winning percentage and a career ERA of 4.52. He’s cleared 165 innings pitched in each of the last four seasons. Gibson has struck out more than 140 batters in each of the last four seasons as well. In 2021, he was named to the AL All-Star Team with the Rangers.

The Cardinals declined Gibson’s 2025 option after this past season. As a result, they will pay him $1 million in 2025. The team is entering a soft rebuild. Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said the team’s decision to part ways with Gibson had nothing to do with his performance.

“We’re certainly in a different spot than we were a year ago,” Mozeliak said this offseason. “But yes, those veteran guys did everything that we had hoped for.”

Gibson’s Wide Arsenal of Pitches

The right-hander boasts an arsenal of pitches six deep. He still gets into the low 90s range with two of his pitches: the fastball and sinker.

He throws the sinker the most at 26 percent and his fastball fourth most at 13 percent.

Gibson then takes some off of a couple of his other pitches. His cutter and his changeup come in at the mid-to-high-80s range. He throws the cutter second most at 21 percent of the time and his changeup fifth most at 10 percent of the time.

Finally, Gibson slows things way down for his other two breaking pitches. He throws the sweeper 21 percent of the time and it comes in at the low 80s. He throws his curveball just nine percent of the time. It’s his slowest pitch, coming in somewhere in the high 70s.

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