All-Star Pitcher Announces Sudden Retirement

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J.P. Hoornstra writes and edits Major League Baseball content. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors. 

Jon Paul Hoornstra

Contributing Sports Writer

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Pitcher Kyle Gibson, an All-Star for the Texas Rangers in 2021, announced his retirement Thursday in an appearance on the “Serving it Up” podcast.

Gibson said on the podcast that he made his decision “a couple weeks ago.”

The veteran of 13 major league seasons was released from his minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays in June. He went 0-3 in four major league starts this season for the Baltimore Orioles, who released him in May.

Gibson, 37, retires with a career record of 112-111 and a 4.60 ERA.

“My time in Tampa was great,” Gibson said. “I felt really good. My stuff was kind of back to where I wanted it to be. Velocity was right where I needed it to be. The stuff Tampa was having me work on, just from a pitch-usage and location and execution side, really worked out well. It was a lot of fun.

“I took my opt-out at the end of it because they didn’t have a spot (on their major league roster). They thought they might, then they didn’t. It just so happened to line up with our family lake vacation, which was great … and I kind of sat and waited. Didn’t really hear from too many people.

“I really wanted to have a big league opportunity. Didn’t really have a big league opportunity until two weeks after that last start, and at that point I had plenty of time to talk with Elizabeth, talk with our family.”

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Gibson debuted with the Twins in 2013 and went 67-68 with a 4.52 ERA in 193 games (188 starts) over the next seven seasons.

In December 2019, Gibson signed a three-year, $28 million contract with the Rangers. He would go on to start 31 games for the Rangers, and made his only All-Star team in the second year of the deal.

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Gibson’s outstanding first half of of the 2021 season also earned him a trade to a contender in July of that season. The Philadelphia Phillies sent pitching prospect Spencer Howard and two minor leaguers to Texas, and plugged Gibson into their starting rotation for the stretch run.

Gibson would make the only World Series appearance of his career with Philadelphia that fall, when the Phillies lost a six-game series to the Houston Astros.

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Gibson pitched for three different teams over the last four seasons: the Phillies (2022), Orioles (2023) and St. Louis Cardinals (2024), before returning to Baltimore in 2025.

Gibson was originally drafted by the Twins in the first round (22nd overall) of the 2009 draft out of the University of Missouri.

“It’s been exciting being home, turning the page to a new chapter,” Gibson said. “I plan on taking the last couple weeks to call people and text people that I really wanted to let know in person.

“I’m going to take the next few days and try to write something up and make sure I can properly thank everybody that needs to be thanked for the last 15, 16 years in professional baseball.”

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