Former Phillies Starter Announces Sudden MLB Retirement After 13 Seasons Following Brief 2025 Campaign

Two months after parting ways with the Baltimore Orioles, the former Phillies veteran right-hander didn’t find a landing spot. Then, it stirred quite a disbelief when the 37-year-old announced stepping away from major league baseball after 13 seasons. Made his debut in 2013, the righty had posted the seventh-most innings among all MLB pitchers. During that stretch, his 328 starts on the mound ranked him second, right behind Max Scherzer with 329 starts.

Yes, Kyle Gibson has officially called it a career during his presence on the Serving It Up podcast. Over the course of his journey, he has spent the most time with the Minnesota Twins. Throughout his seven seasons with the Twins, the righty had put up a 67-68 record along with a 4.52 ERA.

Back in 2009, they picked him in the first round of the MLB draft after he put up an impressive career at the University of Missouri. His big league debut would’ve come earlier than 2013. But a Tommy John surgery kept him on the sidelines for a significant amount of time.

In 2019, he became a free agent and signed with the Texas Rangers. With them, he made his first and only All-Star Game appearance in the 2021 season, also his last with the Rangers. Next, he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies at the trade deadline.

With the Rangers, Gibson was 6-1 with a 2.29 ERA across his first 17 starts. But with the Phillies, he couldn’t put up as impressive numbers. Soon enough, with the Orioles in 2023, his ERA spiked to 4.0, and it stayed the same next season.

By 2025, Gibson was excited to return to Baltimore. He signed a short one-year, $5.25 million contract in March. However, his reunion proved to be brief. The Orioles released him in May after his four starts, where he went 0-3 with a concerning 16.78 ERA.

But one tough, short-lived campaign cannot really diminish an otherwise impressive major league career. He has appeared for many big league clubs, but which is the one team where he had the most fun?

Kyle Gibson’s full-circle moment with the Phillies

The right-hander’s journey with the Phillies goes far back, even before he made his debut with them in 2021. During the 2006 MLB draft, the Phillies picked the young phenom who was just coming out of high school. But he did not sign with the Phillies, as he was more inclined towards joining the college at the University of Missouri to refine his game.

Then, after nearly 15 years, he finally put on the Phillies uniform. After acquiring Gibson from the Rangers, he posted a 5.9 ERA and a 4-6 record in 12 appearances. Then the next season, the Phillies had to shift him to the bullpen in the playoffs.

Despite not recording impressive numbers with the Phillies, Gibson had an overall good time with his teammates. Earlier this season, he made a media appearance where he reflected on his time with the team.

“The 2022 Phillies were so much fun because it just ended up being a group of guys that just said, ‘We’re better than this, and we’re just going to keep playing the game every single day, and we believe in ourselves, and we believe that this group is the group that’s going to do it,’” he recalled.

Now, as he’s retired from MLB, we are eager to watch Kyle Gibson in the next chapter…

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