Former Orioles right-hander Kyle Gibson grew up in Indianapolis but eventually moved to Missouri and was surrounded by Cardinals fans, adding a bit of fire when he pitched against the Cardinals in MLB.
Now, the 11-year big league veteran will pitch close to his home in the St. Louis area, where he moved to be closer to his wife’s family. He signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals on Nov. 21.
Gibson, 36, did not have much contact with the Orioles during the free agency process, but he enjoyed his year with the team.
“Baltimore and Camden Yards was just somewhere I had always enjoyed playing at as a road player,” Gibson said on Glenn Clark Radio Dec. 1. “Knowing how passionate the fan base is when that team is really good, and the support they get even in years when maybe they’re having a down year, was just something that looked like a lot of fun to be a part of. It was just a spot that I really wanted to be.”
The right-hander went 15-9 with a 4.73 ERA across 192 innings for Baltimore in 2023. Gibson said he heard from the Orioles after the season thanking him for his work with the club, but he understood that the team might not want to re-sign him.
“I would have loved to have been back, but what I learned over the last year was that this front office is pretty prepared. This front office has a pretty good plan of what they do,” Gibson said. “Just because I fit into the plans in 2023 and I don’t fit into the plans in 2024, that doesn’t change how I feel about my time there and how I feel about the people there.”
The Orioles’ starting rotation should include Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, John Means and Grayson Rodriguez, while others like DL Hall, Cole Irvin and Tyler Wells could compete for rotation spots in the spring. Means, 30, is the oldest of the group.
Gibson sees the potential of the team’s starting pitchers, a unit that had the 11th-best ERA in the majors at 4.14. The unit will look to take another step forward under new pitching coach Drew French.
“They’ve turned themselves into a rotation that has a lot of different weapons and comes at you a lot of different ways with those weapons and with the pitch mixes they have,” Gibson said. “I feel like it’s probably fair to say we were underestimated probably all year, and I think as a pitching staff, we ended up being pretty darn good.”
A big reason the Orioles’ pitching exceeded expectations this season is because of the leadership behind the plate from catchers Adley Rutschman and James McCann. Orioles catchers caught 26 percent of runners trying to steal, good for fourth in MLB. Baltimore only had two passed balls all season, tied for first in the league.
“On the field, you can’t look past what [Rutschman] brings to the field,” Gibson said. “His ability to catch and throw, his ability to block is as good as I’ve seen. Obviously, hitting is really, really good. … Each and every game he plays he’s learning more and more about each pitcher he catches. That is a big job. That is a lot to soak in. Having McCann by his side walking him through some of this, he will and Baltimore will see the radiating effects of James McCann for a long time.”
Looking back on his time with the Orioles, Gibson enjoyed the atmosphere of playing in Baltimore.
“The group of people that I was with, the players and coaches, they just made it really enjoyable. It’s easy in today’s culture and today’s age to be elsewhere [mentally] while you’re in one place,” Gibson said. “… Thankfully, we had a really fun group to be around. In those cases and those times, I try to maximize having fun and try to maximize the situation I’m in. That was a fun group to do that with.”
For more from Gibson, listen to the full interview here:
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