From Setbacks to Show Me: Joey Gerber Gets Another Shot, This Time in Queens
- Mark Rosenman
- Apr 12
- 4 min read
There’s something about a reliever’s journey that feels a little like a cross country road trip in a car with questionable brakes. You start out in one place, pick up a few miles, lose a few along the way, maybe break down in the middle of nowhere, and if you are lucky and stubborn, you eventually find yourself back on a big league mound wondering how you got there and why your GPS sounds like it is judging you.
That brings us to Joey Gerber.
On a day when the Mets shuffled the bullpen deck, sending Luis García out the door and dialing up Gerber from Syracuse, it was not just another transaction line scrolling across your phone. It was another chapter in a baseball life that has required equal parts talent, patience, and the ability to keep showing up when the game politely, and sometimes not so politely, tells you to go away.
I caught up with Gerber back in spring training, before the call up, before his name started bouncing around Mets circles like a loose foul ball in the upper deck.
At the time, he was not campaigning or selling himself. He was just honest.
“I think just being consistent and just doing the best I can with what I have,” he told me. “They have me working on a cutter… just listening to what they have to say and applying that the best I can. That’s what I need to do and just perform. I mean, if you don’t perform, you’re not going to make the team. So, I mean, just perform.”
There is no poetry there. No buzzwords. No deep dive into spin rates and vertical break.
Just perform.
It is the baseball version of your dad telling you to take out the garbage. Simple, direct, and not really open for discussion.
Gerber’s path here is not the fast track story. He was not drafted out of high school and had to go the college route at Illinois, where he turned himself into one of the better relievers in the Big Ten, even tying a school record with 14 saves in his junior season.
The Seattle Mariners drafted him in 2018, and from there he did what good relievers do. He missed bats, moved up the ladder, and made himself impossible to ignore.
By August of 2020, he was in the big leagues.
And then baseball reminded him how this works.
Injuries followed, including back surgery that wiped out his 2021 season. There was a release, a reset with the Yankees, more rehab, more grinding, and eventually a brief return to the majors with Tampa Bay in 2025.
If you’re scoring at home, that’s Mariners to Yankees to Rays to Mets, with a few detours that didn’t come with postcards.
Through it all, he has put together solid numbers when healthy, including a mid 3s ERA across his professional career and a strikeout rate that suggests his stuff plays at this level. It has not been a straight line, but then again, very few bullpen stories are.
“Every day you can step on a baseball field is a blessing,” he said. “I’ve been hurt a handful of times… it’s helped me recalibrate and appreciate where I’m at a little more.”
That is not something you hear from someone who has had everything go right.
The Mets have been working with Gerber on adding a cutter, one of those pitches that, when it is right, makes hitters look like they are trying to swat a mosquito with a pool noodle.
For him, it is not pressure. It is part of the fun.
“Oh, I mean, it’s fun. You know, it’s baseball. You try to add something new,” he said. “It’s all about trying to get the hitter off balance… that’s what makes the game fun.”
He paused for a second and added, “Sorry, I’m waking up. I probably need some more coffee,” which might have been the most honest scouting report of the entire spring.
One of the more interesting parts of Gerber’s journey is the list of names he’s shared a clubhouse with—guys like Cal Raleigh, Logan Gilbert, Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, and now a Mets room that includes veterans and big personalities.
But he doesn’t treat it like a museum tour.
“They’re your teammates,” he said. “A lot of them are really down to earth and willing to talk to you about what made them good… you take what you can from that and try to apply it to your own game.”
He knows he is not going to pitch like Craig Kimbrel.
“I don’t throw 100 with that ride,” he said with a grin. “But you can take what you can from everyone.”
If you are wondering whether the moment might be too big, consider this. He has already faced Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout early in his career, and later saw Vladimir Guerrero Jr. step into the box against him.
“I want to face as many big league hitters as I possibly can,” he said. “That’s what I’m going for.”
That is not fear. That is an open door.
So what are the Mets getting right now. A 28 year old right hander who has taken the long way back. A pitcher with a live arm, a developing mix, and a perspective shaped by having the game taken away and earning it back again.
He is not trying to be the savior of the bullpen.
He is just trying to do one thing.
“Just perform.”
In a sport that loves complexity, that might be the simplest and most refreshing scouting report of all.
And for Joey Gerber, it might be the one that finally sticks.
Here is the full interview with Joey Gerber from Spring Training :
So now it is your turn. What do you think of the move, and what are you expecting from Joey Gerber in this latest bullpen shuffle? Jump into the comments and let’s hear it. And as always, keep the conversation going over on the KinersKorner.com Facebook group, where we are open 24/7/365 and there is always another story waiting to be found.
Comments