Joey

Gerber

Gerber will augment Tampa Bay’s organizational relief depth after missing most of the last four years due to injury. The 27-year-old righty made 17 relief appearances for the Mariners during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, posting a serviceable 4.02 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 6/5 K/BB ratio across 15 2/3 innings of work. He’s the definition of a low-risk lottery ticket.

As is typically the case at this point in March, there were no real surprises among this batch of cuts for the Yankees. Rice, 25, went 2-for-7 (.286) with a pair of RBI and a 2/3 K/BB ratio over five games in Grapefruit League action. He’ll begin the season as extra catching depth in the upper minors.

Gerber was released by the Mariners back in late June after sustaining a right forearm strain and has managed to find a new opportunity with the Yankees. The 24-year-old righty made 17 relief appearances for Seattle during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. He’ll serve as organizational relief depth for New York.

Like Sergio Romo before him, Gerber also cleared unconditional release waivers on Wednesday and became a free agent. The 24-year-old hurler has been sidelined due to a mild forearm strain, but was booted off of the M’s 40-man roster earlier in the week to make room for Tommy Milone. He’ll try to find another opportunity elsewhere.

Talk about adding insult to injury. Gerber is currently sidelined due to a mild forearm strain and now he gets booted off of the 40-man roster so that the Mariners can promote Tommy Milone on Saturday night. There’s a good chance that he’ll pass through waivers unclaimed and continue his rehab at Triple-A Tacoma.

Gerber suffered the injury while throwing a recent round of live batting practice. The expectation is that he will be close to fully recovered when Triple-A Tacoma begins play in early April. He was already optioned out of the major league side of camp.

Gerber will start the 2022 campaign as extra pitching depth in the upper minors. The 24-year-old righty, who made his big-league debut back in 2020, missed the entire 2021 campaign due to injury.

Gerber will be making his major league debut whenever he gets into a game. The 23-year-old posted a 2.59 ERA and 69/19 K/BB ratio in 48 2/3 innings last season in the minors.

We still don’t know when the season will begin, but Divish projects that if the regular season would have been able to start on Thursday as originally planned that Gerber would have been one of the relievers on the roster to face the Rangers in the opener. The 22-year-old did not allow a run in any of his five Cactus League appearances, and he struck out seven hitters against just one walk in that timeframe. The former University of Illinois closer posted a 1.59 ERA in his time with Double-A Jackson last year, and very well could be the Mariners’ closer of the future.