Struggling Rockies veteran left-hander Austin Gomber, part of the 2021 trade that sent Nolan Arenado to St. Louis, was unconditionally released by the team on Friday.
Gomber was 0-7 with a 7.49 ERA in 12 starts this season. He is the only starting pitcher in the majors this season to have 12 or more outings with no quality starts.
Tuesday night, the Dodgers hammered him for seven runs on nine hits in a season-low three innings. Los Angeles hit a pair of solo homers in the second inning off Gomber — first by leadoff Alex Call and then Shohei Ohtani hit his 44th homer of the season.
After the game, Gomber was candid about his struggles, saying he felt “a little bit lost out there right now.”
“I don’t really have any confidence or conviction,” Gomber continued. “I don’t really have an identity of what I’m trying to do … and I’m just searching as I go. It’s a tough place to be, out there trying to figure out what’s going to work on the fly.”
Gomber was placed on outright waivers early this week, a hint that his time in Colorado was nearing an end. When no team claimed him after 48 hours, the Rockies decided to release him. A team would have had to pay about $1.3 million remaining on Gomber’s $6.35 million salary if they had picked him up.
Gomber, 31, was scheduled to become a free agent at the end of the season.
When the Rockies traded Arenado to St. Louis in February 2021, they also received infielders Mateo Gil and Elehuris Montero and pitchers Tony Locey and Jake Sommers. Now, none of the five players remain with the organization.
Gomber is in the middle of a bad stretch. Never a hard thrower, the lefty’s average fastball this season is sitting at a career-low 89.5 mph. That’s down 2 mph from his first season with Colorado in 2021. His strikeout rate is at a career-worst 12.5%, and his 7.2% swinging-strike rate is tied for ninth-worst among the 257 pitchers who’ve pitched at least 50 innings this season.
Gomber missed the first two and a half months of the season because of shoulder soreness. But he said Tuesday that he was feeling fine.
In five seasons with the Rockies, Gomber was 28-44 with a 5.31 ERA over 125 games (109 starts).
In other roster moves on Friday, the club selected the contract of lefty reliever Lucas Gilbreath from Triple-A Albuquerque, recalled right-handed reliever Angel Chivilli from Triple-A, and placed right-handed reliever Dugan Darnell on the 15-day injured list with left hip inflammation.
Gilbreath, 29, a graduate of Legacy High School, has been battling his way back from injuries. As the season nears its final month, he’ll get a chance to show what he might have left. His numbers for the Isotopes were not good — 6.21 ERA, 11.8% walk rate, and 1.91 home runs per nine innings over 37 outings — but the Rockies’ bullpen has been taxed.
Gilbreath’s future as a back-end reliever looked promising in 2021-22 when he posted a 3.78 ERA with a 25% strikeout rate. But he underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2023, wiping out his season. He was reinstated from the injured list in August 2024, but he made just three appearances before shoulder inflammation wiped out the rest of that season.
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