ARLINGTON — When Ian Gibaut came on to pitch Monday, it was in a blowout loss. The Rangers were down 10-2, their fate basically sealed.
But when he pitched two days prior, it was with a two-run lead in the eighth and the tying run up in the form of All-Star Anthony Rendon.
That’s kind of been the story of Gibaut’s season so far. Pitch in low-leverage situations. Pitch in high-leverage situations. Pitch pretty much every night. Entering Tuesday’s matchup, Gibaut had pitched in nine of Texas’ 15 games.
“I put him in some big spots,” manager Chris Woodward said. “[Monday] night obviously he had to eat up two innings. … He’s been really good for us. He’s filled a lot of different roles for us, different innings for us. Different spots. He can get lefties and righties out.”
In his nine appearances, Gibaut has a 6.48 ERA, having allowed six runs over his 81/3 innings. He has 11 strikeouts and four walks.
The hard-throwing righty was among the first players assigned to minor league camp way back on March 6. But the time off because of the coronavirus pandemic presented an opportunity for Gibaut. And he came back to summer camp with low expectations and exceeded all of them.
“I gotta be honest with you, I wasn’t expecting what I saw,” Rangers pitching coach Julio Rangel said back when the club announced Gibaut had made the roster. “He’s always had stuff, we saw it last year, [but] the consistency wasn’t there. But he came in, his mind-set ... when he reported, the way he’s just attacking hitters and using his stuff.”
One of the other areas the Rangers saw improvement was his time to the plate. He was slower previously and had issues controlling the running game, Rangel said. Before he was around 1.7 seconds to the plate, which made it tough for him to be trusted with runners on base. Now, it’s closer to 1.3 seconds.
Not only does Woodward trust him, he leans on him in more roles than anyone else on the staff.
By appearing in 60% of Texas’ games, he led all MLB in frequency of games played among pitchers. Scott Barlow (Royals) and Yusmeiro Petit (Athletics) have appeared in 10 games but have played 17 and 18 games, respectively.
“I expect a lot out of him,” Rangel said. “I think it was just his mind-set. He came in very differently this time around. He took the challenge and said ‘I want to do this, I want to be on this team.’”
Gibaut, 26, was designated for assignment and then traded by the Rays to Texas last season. He made nine appearances with the Rangers and had a 5.11 ERA in 2019. He was then non-tendered. Then, in the spring, he was basically among the first told he wouldn’t make the team.
The four-month COVID-19 hiatus seems to have changed the trajectory of his career.
“I’m really just focusing on executing and letting the defense work behind me,” Gibaut said after his first appearance of the season on July 25. “Last year, coming out of spring, I tore my lat, so it was kind of a hiccup to come over. … I really feel like I’ve gotten over that hurdle.”
Woodward now uses Gibaut in a bunch of different roles and against a bunch of different hitters. Part of that was out of necessity, as a huge chunk of the current bullpen was on the IL when the season started.
But Gibaut survived the roster crunch. And he survived again Tuesday when Wes Benjamin was called up and Jimmy Herget was sent down. Woodward said he didn’t know what to expect from Gibaut when camp started. He’s slowly working his way into a solidified piece of the bullpen.
“That stuff is real,” Woodward said. “It doesn’t matter how they set their lineup up, he can go in and face the best hitters. I don’t want to overexpose him, but at the same time, I want to kind of see what he’s capable of.”
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