An option for Cardinals' 2025 rotation and influential presence, Kyle Gibson hopes for return

A glimpse into the conversations veteran Kyle Gibson had with his fellow Cardinals starters in the dugout on Friday night or is always game to have with a young pitcher in the clubhouse came after his start with the media in front of his locker.

Gibson was willing to go pitch by pitch, hint by hint through a key at-bat vs. Cleveland's all-everything third baseman Jose Ramirez.

"I'm not facing those guys again," Gibson said. "So I don't mind going into it."

The duel ended with a solo homer, one of three the Guardians hit on their way to a 5-1 victory at Busch Stadium that officially, finally eliminated the Cardinals from playoff contention.

Ramirez's home run came shortly after the Cardinals made it a one-run game, and as Gibson revisited the at-bat in detail, he revealed some of thinking, explaining, and even questioning that has made him such a valuable resource for his teammates in his first year as a Cardinal.

He hopes it's not his only year as a Cardinal, he told the Post-Dispatch.

"Ideally, I'd like to have my option picked up and be here again," he said.

The Cardinals have a $12-million option for 2025 on Gibson, who turns 37 in October. There is a $1 million buyout on the option that would make him a free agent, but he repeated that his preference is to return to the Cardinals. A Mizzou alum who makes his offseason home in the St. Louis area and had his kids at the ballgame Friday, it's surprising it took this long for him to become a Cardinal. It's not surprising at all how quickly he fit in as a Cardinal.

Earlier in this homestand, lefty Matthew Liberatore spent at least 20 minutes beside Gibson in the clubhouse talking through various approaches with pitches. Andre Pallante credited Gibson with suggestions he's made during the young right-hander's bullpens – because Gibson rarely missed one, if he missed any this season. The catchers have all mentioned Gibson being part of their feel for calling games, and not just his games. And on Friday, late in a game the Cardinals were about to lose, there was Gibson along with starters Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, and others picking apart this at-bat by Ramirez and Gibson's approach.

It wasn't a pitch he felt he missed, but a swing he did not catch.

"I can't throw a two-strike, front-hip sinker any better than I threw to him, and obviously he was looking for that one," Gibson said. "Just bad recognition on my part. ... If his hips are clearing early and he's really out front on a cutter that's middle-down, probably in one of his nitro zones – he's got many, but in one of his nitro zones. That should tell me to go to something soft away. I kind of got blinded by wanting to go to that front-hip sinker."

When Ramirez came to the plate in the top of the fifth inning, the Cardinals had just paired doubles to cut Cleveland's lead in half, 2-1. Gibson struck out the first batter of the inning and faced Ramirez, an All-Star who is making a bid to be the first third baseman to join the 40-40 club. (He got closer Friday with his 40th steal and 36th homer.)

On his way to a three-hit game, Ramirez was 1 for 2 going into the fifth.

Gibson started the at-bat with a four-seam fastball, in and tight and fouled off.

The right-hander then missed low with a sweeping slider and in with a sinker to fall behind 2-1 in the count. Gibson leveled the count when Ramirez fouled off a cutter.

And there it was.

The swing that should have clued Gibson into the next pitch.

"I look at that at-bat – get ahead of him, probably beat him on the first pitch where it jams him, and pulls it just foul," Gibson said. "I think I threw a ball. He fouled another one off – a cutter that was down, middle, that probably should have been hit harder. But he was trying to clear to get open and get that inside pitch. If I look back at that cutter – in my head, I was finding a way to get to a front-hip sinker for the looking strikeout. And by him being out front on that cutter, that should have told me to go with something away. I didn't see it because I wanted to throw that front-hip sinker."

He delivered the 2-2 sinker at 90.5 mph, and it darted in and slightly up to Ramirez. Gray would check the video to share his thoughts on the pitch with Gibson.

Ramirez got the final say on it.

He laced it 366 feet into the right-field seats.

Reading and responding to the hitters swing is something Gibson does throughout his starts, and it's been a subject of ongoing conversation with rookie catcher Pedro Pages, who said late Friday night that talking with Gibson has informed how he calls games for other pitchers because he's looking for info from hitters swings.

"Once you get on the same page, you just start rolling with him," Pages said. "You start seeing and thinking like him, and it's a lot of fun."

The sinker that could have instead been off-speed away was one of two pitches Gibson said he'd like to rethink from Friday. Both were lifted for home runs. In six innings, Gibson allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks. He struck out two to help limit innings and got as many outs in the air (six) as on the ground (six). In the other half of the innings, the Cardinals went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, whiffed on a few chances, and did not muster much against Guardians starter Ben Lively.

In his post-game presser, manager Oliver Marmol said Gibson "gave us a shot."

Marmol agreed how he described the evening was how he could describe Gibson's season.

"He did exactly that," Marmol said. "He's going to want the ball until you take it from him. He just wants to be out there, and he's going to give you a shot, and I feel like he consistently does that. One of the better traits in this game is being described as consistent."

The manager did not stop with the trait.

He began his post-game comments with another one he sees in Gibson.

"It's hard to put it all into a quick description other than when we targeted him in free agency, we had a really good sense of what we were getting and it was needed in that clubhouse," Marmol said. "He's a guy who does a really nice job of encouraging others and bringing others alongside. Man, he did exactly that. He wakes up thinking about other people. That's a nice trait."

His final start of the season captured a lot of the conflicting traits of the Cardinals in 2024. Gibson authored his 13th quality start, which puts him beside Gray and Miles Mikolas for the team lead in a statistic that was supposed to define a heartier, sturdier rotation for 2024. Yet, at pitcher-friendly Busch, his ERA was more than a run higher than on the road, and the loss Friday meant he did not win a game at Busch after May 17.

After the game he spoke about wanting to shoulder one more inning Friday night and how pitching seven innings in his next start – likely at Coors Field next week – would "be a big deal" even after the Cardinals are eliminated. Seven innings against the Rockies would still leave him shy of triggering a $500,000 bonus for pitching 175 innings. He is at 165 2/3.

He feels the sharpness and quality of his stuff, like that front-hip sinker or the sweeper to lefties, has been "as consistent as it's been in a long time." And when elaborating on reasons he wanted to return to the Cardinals he was as detailed as he was about the Ramirez at-bat or will be with a young pitcher this weekend about an at-bat they navigate.

"For me, I've enjoyed being here," Gibson said. "I've enjoyed being in this clubhouse, with this staff, playing at Busch every time was fun. It's always been a place I enjoyed pitching. Obviously, I'm at home so that adds a lot to it. But it's been a really fun group to be a part of, so I'd like to be a part of it again, if I can."

Lead baseball writer