Nearly two weeks after dropping a series to the Cleveland Guardians, the Dodgers claimed one of their former relievers in righty Ian Gibaut.
Standing at 6-foot-3 and weighing 250 pounds, the 28-year-old Gibaut brings a sizable presence to the mound. The Houston native and former 11th round pick of the Rays in 2015 made his MLB debut with Tampa back in 2019.
In 28 major league relief appearances, the Tulane product has thrown 34-2/3 innings, registering a 5.19 ERA and an even 1.500 WHIP with 34 punchouts and a whopping 21 walks.
Gibaut primarily throws a mid-90s heater that tops as high as 97 MPH. He complements his fastball with a plus slider and continues to work on a straight change as a secondary offering.
To make room on the organizational 40-man roster, the team moved righty reliever Daniel Hudson to the 60-day disabled list.
There will surely be additional moves in the coming weeks with Hudson and Tommy Kahnle on the shelf. Although righty Blake Treinen has begun a throwing program, there’s still no timetable for his prospective return.
After sending an astonishing 39 different pitchers to the mound last year, the Dodgers have already used 26 so far this season. Gibaut will be the 27th if he makes an MLB appearance anytime soon.
The move comes on the same day the team begins a four-game divisional series at home against rival San Diego. Before Thursday’s opener, the Dodgers lead the Padres by 1-1/2 games and the Giants by a full six games in the NL West.
Despite a disappointing series against the Rockies, the team still returned home with a 6-3 record during the last road trip, thanks to a sweep in Cincinnati and a series win against the Braves.
Set to start for the Dodgers are Mitch White in the opener, Tony Gonsolin on Friday, Tyler Anderson on Saturday and Clayton Kershaw in the finale on Sunday.
The team is still without star outfielder Mookie Betts, who resumed baseball activities on Thursday by taking a live batting practice session on the field at Dodger Stadium. The team is hopeful that Betts can return by the All-Star break, which begins on July 17.
Jake Lamb gets another start for the Dodgers in Thursday’s opener hitting seventh in the DH spot. The remainder of the lineup looks like this:
First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. Pacific.
These pickups are always intriguing considering how far down the line we are in terms of teams that can claim someone off waivers. The front office must have seen some potential in Gibaut, although he may be one of those guys who spends a day or two on the MLB roster before being DFA.
I guess they haven’t announced anything yet, but I’m assuming he starts his Dodger career at OKC.
I’m looking forward to seeing an arm-wrestling match between Gibaut and Brusdar Graterol.
They have to use their left arms. We don’t want them screwing up their pitching wings.
Is this going to be one of those moves, where we pick up another teams trash and release him after 1-2 appearances? This guy has too high of a walk rate to trust.
C’mon Gary.
The Los Angeles Dodgers fix broken pitchers. 🙂
Yes, pitchers with control problems are better to pick up during the off-season. That gives you spring training to work on fixing him. Using a control problem pitcher during a pennant race is an iffy proposition.
Interesting they ink a guy with a high walk rate but will not try their Farm Guys that are working on the same issue. He averages a strikeout an inning but some of the Farm guys do better than that.
Which guys are you referring to, Tmax? Are they starters?
Stone for one he has closer experience from college and he throws strikes and has an incredible SO rate and a very low WHIP. The others are Knack and or Beeter. I know they are starters currently but the Dodgers have had “Starters” throw bullpen, look at the roles Urias, May and Gonsolin played in the last few years. Guys like Pepiot, Stone, Knack, Beeter have nasty swing and miss stuff. That is all you need if your a a bullpen guy. Yes you need to throw strikes and have a low WHIP. But sometimes you just need to have guys to grind innings. Might as well have these guys get some experience than some guy you are going to DFA in a few weeks. Heck Miller was incredible in the spring. If he doesn’t need to worry about throwing more than an inning or two and just throw gas he would be phenomenal. The guy averages 97-100
Just my opinion, but I think AF wants his better prospect starters to keep on a regular starting schedule and build up their innings, rather than come up here and work an inning here and three innings there. Then sit for a week, etc. I guess you and I just disagree on this. If I’ve got a really good prospect starter, I want him to concentrate on that.
If someone is doing a consistently excellent job, I would consider bringing him up as a long man out of the bullpen come Aug-Sept, but with the exception of Stone, none of these guys is having one good game after the next. Still very inconsistent and I’d rather keep them at OKC or Tulsa so they can work that out.
It may come down to needing an extra arm or two, or three, come late summer early fall. If that’s the case, it may be them coming up or being used in trade. My crystal ball says the same thing now it did a couple months ago. We’re gonna need pitching. It’s possible we may be looking to upgrade our utility guy too. I saw a mention of Drury somewhere today. I could live with that.
There will be movement.
We don’t actually disagree I am simply saying the only reason these guys are on the Farm is to either make the Dodger club or for trade. It is a mercenary business with a lot of dreams chattered. The Dodgers next year have Urias, Gonsolin, and if they are recovered May and Buehler. Depending on his injury status and the results from the rest of the year I will guess Kershaw. So not a lot of room to crack the rotation next year or the year after. The Dodgers used the same path I am talking about for May, Urias and Gonsolin. Why is that path now not OK? Sure it may impede a pitchers progress a bit. But on the other hand what value do you place with being on the Dodger club and being able to see day to day experienced pitchers preparing and strategizing for a game? Being able to talk to Kershaw and other experienced guys during a game? And occasionally pitching against Major League batters?
The Dodgers have a few pitchers on track for ‘23, and a few more targeted for ‘24. They also have deep pockets to attract free agents. It’s worked pretty good so far. I have no clue what pitchers they consider untouchable, maybe none if the right trade becomes available.
Just to provide what must be a contrast in philosophies, I checked the use of Rookies by the Dodgers and the Cardinals. I picked the Cards because when looking at box scores I had noticed many names I was unfamiliar with. Thus far this season, the Cards have had 12 Rookies appear (5 position players and 7 pitchers), while the only Dodgers have only given brief opportunities to pitchers Pepiot and Grove. For what it’s worth pre-season rankings of Farm systems had LA at #5 and STL ranked 16th! Interesting! Without looking deeper, maybe most of the Cardinal prosects were in the upper minors and Dodgers at lower levels? LA just seems to prefer signing ex major leaguers and career minor leaguers. The money spent on Hamels, Duffy, Kahnle, Nelson, McKinley, Sousa, and a whole bunch of guys last year and we could have signed Jansen and still had Pollock. Just saying. But really the main point here is why not give some of the young guys a chance instead of signing castoffs, who you might get lucky with? And some have worked out.
Here we go again. Dfa rejects that 25 other teams don’t want. Tmaxster is right. You don’t get mlb experience in the minors. Kind of proves my point. We have nothing on the farm better than other teams rejects. White is our best prospect? Oh wait he’s too old to be a prospect. This is the thing about the dodgers I hate. Lousy farm system. Nothing but quality double A prospects until they aren’t. Sorry. Frustration.
I feel for you, Gordon. Having to put up with the junk pile that is the Los Angeles Dodger roster and farm system.
Of course, I do wonder how they’ve managed to have the second best record in MLB to this point in the season, despite having 10 players on the 60-day IL and another 4 on the regular IL, including one who will be on the All Star team.
I hear the Reds and Royals, among others, are accepting new fan applications.
(I apologize for the extreme sarcasm. Please note that I am saying all of the above with a twinkle in my eye and do enjoy our back and forth here)
Well, it didn’t take them long to activate Gibaut. Let the walk-a-thon begin.
Hopefully he won’t be tried with a game on the line at first
Apparently, Rick Honeycutt flew into OKC yesterday and straightened out Gibaut’s command issues overnight. 😆
He’s on the 26-man? Whose place is he taking on the roster?
Bruhl
They optioned Bruihl to add Gibaut.
Poor Bruihl. He’s battling White for the 2022 Brock Stewart award, given to the pitcher who is optioned the most times in a season. Luckily, they won’t let them do it more than 5 times any more.
Can’t believe they’re playing JT tonight after a 2-homer, 3-hit game. That kind of performance usually earns a guy a seat on the bench for the next game.
Me to. My frustration is that they never perform to their potential, and despite all the sucess in the national league west, have never won anything. And dispite there top ten farm system, they keep bringing in other teams rejects instead of promoting their young guys which to me means they aren’t major league caliber. Then they buy what they need. Only a couple of home grown position players in 8/10 years. Only one in friedmans reign? Reds don’t care if they have fans. Where do I sign up for the royals Jeff?
Only a couple of home grown position players in 8/10 years. In last 8-10 years, I can think of Pederson, Seager, Lux, Smith, Bellinger, Rios, Puig, Verdugo, Ruiz and some others that are on other MLB rosters like Farmer, Beaty, Garlick. Yes, some are minor players, some have been traded, some affected by injuries. Some head cases.
Basically a bunch of bench players, platoon players and career minor leaguers. Which was exactly my point. Only a couple of major league regulars. Lux could be another one but we should probably eliminate Bellinger but he was obviously a home grown sucess (short term ). It’s not how you build a team without lots of money and lots of luck ( turner, Taylor and Muncy.). Did I mention we haven’t developed a 2ndbase, 3rd base or outfielder in those 8 years? How is that possible?
Uh, Lux plays 2B and Verdugo is a very good OF for the Redsox. Bellinger is still young enough to turn things around (hopefully). Vargas plays 3B and will be a good hitter, but will his D be adequate to stay at 3B? Gordon you can look at many of the other teams and see the same situation. Now I agree that the Dodgers don’t always emphasize certain positions. Was it last year or 2020 when all the draft picks were pitchers?
Well Gary it sounds like you agree with me totally except Verdugo, and you are right with him. Sometimes we confuse double A prospects with major leaguers. There is a small difference.
Unfortunately you can’t sign up on line Gordon. Just go to St. Louis and turn left.
Could you clarify jeff ? Do I turn left before or after st. Louis?
At the arch.
Listening to the game. A couple of times guys have struck out with RISP. Bellinger struck out with the bases loaded and 1 out in a 1-0 game in the 4th inning it’s a Team game! Not acceptable to not score that run… This is why I highly dislike Robert’s style. Lasorda would have been in the players face and rightfully so.
That’s been happening with Justin Turner quite a bit this season.
J Turner completely overmatched by Snell. No chance. Father Time is winning with JT unfortunately. But Bellinger is a head case.