The New York Mets aren’t sitting around waiting for free agency to heat up. They made an early, under-the-radar move, acquiring 28-year-old right-handed pitcher Joey Gerber from the Tampa Bay Rays after he was designated for assignment this week.
It’s not a headline grabber, but it fits the Mets’ recent trend of buying low on players with some trace of upside. Gerber has only logged 20 big-league innings since his debut in 2020, but he’s flashed just enough to make him an interesting reclamation project — the kind that teams like the Rays and Mets love to tinker with.
A career still searching for stability
Gerber’s big-league resume is short, and the numbers are mixed. He carries a 3.60 ERA but only strikes out 4.5 batters per nine innings, a surprisingly low rate for someone who’s known for missing bats in the minors. He made just two appearances for Tampa Bay this past season, throwing 4.1 innings with a 2.08 ERA.
That small sample isn’t enough to draw firm conclusions, but his minor league results paint a clearer picture. Over 44.1 innings in 2025, Gerber posted a bloated 6.09 ERA. The strikeouts were still there — and that’s what keeps teams intrigued — but the consistency clearly wasn’t.
The stuff and the concerns
Gerber works with a pretty standard two-pitch mix: a four-seam fastball and a slider. His fastball sits around 93.8 mph, and his slider comes in near 85. Those are fine numbers, but not the kind that overwhelm hitters. The bigger issue has been his tendency to give up home runs, a problem that stems from both his limited pitch mix and below-average velocity.
Without a third pitch to keep hitters guessing, Gerber’s command has to be pinpoint. When it’s not, mistakes get punished. That’s what makes him a risky play — but also what makes him cheap. The Mets are essentially taking a flyer on a pitcher who’s struggled to find his footing but has shown flashes of swing-and-miss potential when everything clicks.
A depth move with a small upside
This isn’t a move that changes the Mets’ offseason outlook, but it’s the kind of depth play smart front offices make while waiting for the bigger dominos to fall. If Gerber can rediscover the form that once made him a promising prospect in Seattle’s system, he could carve out a middle-relief role in New York.
If not, the cost is minimal. That’s the beauty — and the gamble — of these early November acquisitions. For a Mets team looking to build a more reliable bullpen heading into 2026, taking chances on arms like Gerber’s is just part of the process.
The question is whether their pitching development team can finally turn one of these longshots into something meaningful.