Texas Rangers: Four best fits for Kyle Gibson in a trade

One of the biggest surprises this MLB season has been Texas Rangers starter Kyle Gibson. Gibson has pitched to the tune of a 6-3 record and 2.87 ERA in 2021 earning his first-ever All-Star Game selection.

What most impresses about Gibson this season is that he is consistently missing the sweet part of bats without boasting the tangibles other pitchers have who are in a similar boat.

For instance, Gibson now ranks in the 93rd percentile per Baseball Savant in barrel percentage allotted while his fastball velocity scores in the 28th and both his fastball and curveball spin score in the 45th. When it comes to someone like Gibson this year, I liken his style to that of Aaron Nola, another highly successful pitcher who does not have great metrics on his pitches.

In the case of Nola, he is able to miss bats completely and rack up strikeouts whereas Gibson’s bread and butter is still in the realm of soft contact and ground balls. Any way you slice it, Gibson is having himself a fantastic season and his performance this year has most likely earned him the denomination of a valuable trade chip the Rangers have to utilize at their disposal.

The trade deadline is a mere few days away, so here are the four teams I feel best fit Gibson and vice/versa Gibson best fits on in no particular order.

Tampa Bay Rays

An American League Cy Young is not out of the question for Gibson at this point even with his recent skid, so remaining in the AL would certainly be in his best interest.

One thing that the Rays do very well is manage a pitching staff. What they’re low on right now is actual guys to manage. They’ve suffered a bunch of injuries to the starting rotation and their pen is still trying to get itself healthy with Nick Anderson, Chaz Roe, and Oliver Drake all looking to get back into action in the coming month.

Tampa is in play to not only get to the postseason but win the AL East outright, so a big need they have to fill now is starting pitcher, especially after they traded Rich Hill away.

The problem with these bullpen-heavy teams is that they eventually run out of steam (at least in this day and age in the early stages of the strategy’s evolution). We saw the Rays run out of steam a bit last year in the ALCS which then transitioned into the World Series. The same thing went for the Milwaukee Brewers back in 2018 and the Oakland A’s in both of their Wild Card Game losses in ’18 and ’19. The Los Angeles Dodgers look to be going through something similar right now.

At this stage, another quality starter would go miles for a team like the Rays who need to preserve some of their bullpen’s energy if they’re going to try and make another run at the crown.

Boston Red Sox

I love the fit on the Boston Red Sox, although Gibson coming aboard will force the Sox to do some shifting of their rotation. Chris Sale is due back soon and everybody else in the rotation has had their fair share of ups and downs this season.

The trio of Garrett Richards, Nick Pivetta, and Martin Perez have all found more success on the road than at home this season, and Nathan Eovaldi has always been an under-the-radar late bullpen candidate to shut games down ever since 2018. If a move is indeed made to bring Gibson on, I suggest moving Eovaldi into a high-leverage role as we come closer to postseason play, and then also move Richards into the pen since he had experience doing so last season in San Diego.

The Red Sox this year love to strike guys out being that they’re top 10 in that category. But a contact pitcher who can work through an order quicker and preserve the bullpen may be exactly what this team needs moving forward if they want to grab another world title.

Gibson’s stuff is very similar to that of one Rick Porcello, leaning primarily on the offset fastball to get contact outs, so a move to Gibson could possibly reunite them with a familiar style of pitching they do not currently have anymore.

Houston Astros

The Houston Astros have proven to everybody that they are not what their haters said they were in 2017, which is frauds. Now that everybody is presumably playing on equal ground, they’re tops in the league right now in scoring and strikeout less than any other team in baseball. They had a blip last regular season (while still maintaining their low strikeout rate), but turned it on in the playoffs as great clubs usually do.

Their lineup is going to carry them a long way, but what they need is a starting pitcher badly. Framber Valdez is not in the groove he was in last year and his walks are starting to affect his game. Zack Greinke has also not been that dominant at controlling the zone as he’s been in years past.

No Justin Verlander. No Gerrit Cole. The Astros will surely be missing a dominant force on the hill come October, but an addition like Gibson will give them a line of pretty-to-very-good starters that could be able to carry the load come playoff time.

A move like this also puts the ‘Stros in better position to rattle off wins in the AL West being that in doing so, they would pull Texas’ best pitcher who has had success against them this year away from a divisional rival.