Meet Tyler Gilbert

Posted By on February 17, 2020

There has been so much discussion about the Asterisks that I thought I would perhaps break in with a short interlude and introduce a new Dodger that was acquired in the trade for Kyle Garlick on Saturday. Both Garlick and Gilbert were victims of the numbers game.  Garlick was backed up behind a bevy of outfielders with the Dodgers and Gilbert was stacked up against a number of left-handed bullpen options with the Phillies.

The 6’3”/ 195-lb Gilbert was born in Santa Cruz, California and attended  San Lorenzo Valley High School in his home town of Fenton, California.  Following graduation, the now 26-year-old played two years with the Santa Barbara City College Vaqueros where he made 27 starts posting a 15-7 record along with 145 strikeouts and 38 walks over 168 innings pitched. He recorded a 3.11 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP.

Following his time with Santa Barbara, he decided on a move to the University of Southern California as a junior.

“I chose USC over a few other schools because I felt like it was the right fit,” said Gilbert, who was the WSC North Pitcher of the Year last season. “They’ve got a good culture and tradition, and being a private school, they have some great academics. Plus the location. I wanted to stay in California, preferably Southern California. SC was the ideal spot.”

With the Trojans, – over 22 games – he split his time as a starter and in relief posting a 5-2 record and a 2.79 ERA along with 66 strikeouts and 25 walks in 67.2 innings pitched.

In the 2015 First-Year Player Draft he was selected by the Phillies in the 6th round. His march through the Phillies farm system was in a lockstep fashion moving from starting to relief. He made 8 starts in 2015 in rookie ball and 23 in 2016 in Class-A ball. The transition came in 2017 as he made 35 relief appearances with the A+ Clearwater Threshers of the Florida State League.

“It’s my niche,” Gilbert said of relieving. “It’s my comfortable spot right now. It’s given me more doors to open. I’m enjoying it.”

“As a starter, I had four or five days to think about my next start,” Gilbert said. “There’s not a whole lot of time to think in the bullpen because you don’t know when you’re going to pitch. You get your name called and you go. You lock-in and everything else shuts down around you.”

After a solid first year in the bullpen in 2017, Tyler Gilbert saw his stock take a big upturn in the middle of 2018 as he made it to AAA. He was topping out at about 93 mph – an uptick in relief – but he added a cutter which rapidly became a go-to pitch for him. He continued to be successful against left-handed hitters, but the cutter had given him a weapon against right-handed hitters.

Splitting his time in 2018 equally between the AA Reading Fightin Phils and the AAA Leigh Valley Iron Pigs he posted a 3.28 ERA over 69.1 innings and a 0.995 WHIP along with 69 strikeouts and 15 walks.

Along with that jump in his fastball’s velocity since becoming a reliever, his changeup remains a consistent weapon. He continues to use his cutter and has worked on a spike curveball for which he credits former teammate Seth McGarry.

“I learned [the spike curveball] on the day of a game I pitched in,” he recalled, “and I used it in that game. I got a couple of strikeouts.

“It didn’t take me long to get the feel for it. It comes and goes like every other pitch, but I adapted to it quickly.”

Gilbert made 36 appearances for AAA Lehigh Valley last season and posted a 2.83 ERA over 47.2 innings with 46 strikeouts to 14 walks.

There is always something to be learned in this game, such as a new pitch, but Gilbert learned an all-important lesson of another kind during his successful 2019 season. That is, taking care of the body that has gotten you to the place you want to be.

During the 2019 season, he had two stints on the IL. The California native threw only 17 pitches before his first stint on the injured list with what was labeled a left groin strain. He returned to active duty 19 days later only to suffer a second set back within three weeks with a left hamstring sprain. Gilbert attributed both injuries to his diet and  after that did not visit the IL again during the 2019 season.

“It’s been a little bit of a wake-up call,” Gilbert said.  “I’m taking the good from the bad and moving forward. I’m taking the extra steps to get my body ready. I’m 25, which is not that old, but every year you’ve got to do a little bit more to get yourself ready.”

“I’m taking certain things a little differently to prevent something else from happening again. Now that I’m back, I have a good idea where I need to be before a game in terms of hydration and preparation. I’m going to keep it moving forward.”

Gilbert has been assigned to the Oklahoma City Dodgers. He most likely will not be used in high leverage situations late in a game but may well serve more in a middle or long man relief role perhaps with spot starts. He does have a 3.17 ERA at the AAA level in 82.1 innings pitched with a 1.045 WHIP and a 3.7/1 strikeout to walk ratio. if we remove one appearance in which he gave up 5 runs in two-thirds of an inning, his ERA in 2019 over 47 innings was a nifty 1.91.

This article has 39 Comments

  1. Based on a smattering of things said from Spring Training it would seem that Stripling , Kershaw, and Jansen might have their best years, career years in 2020. Yes that is a leap taken from a wobbly platform but so what.

    Wood is going to have to be not only healthy but as good as he was at his best to keep Stripling out of the rotation.

    Gilbert has good whip, I like that.

    1. Or May or Gonsolin. After acquiring Price, I wonder how much slack Wood gets now that they have 4 lefties in the rotation.

      1. It’s a good problem to have. I have always envisioned Alex Wood as an Andrew Miller.

        Ross Stripling is also working on new stuff.

        Dustin May is going to be hard to keep out of the rotation and after Kershaw, Buehler, Price, and Urias, theres only one spot open unless they go with a six-man rotation… which I think is possible.

        Then there’s Gonsolin and Nelsen….

        1. I don’t know how David Price would feel about it but I keep envisioning him as our Andrew Miller with our starting staff as Buehler, Kershaw, May, Urias and Wood.

  2. Both May and Nelson are already nursing injuries. May’s side and Nelson’s groin. It sounds like Nelson’s is the more serious of the two and they don’t seem to know when he might be ready to start throwing. With such competition on the staff that could be a real problem for his chances of making the team. It’s survival of the fittest in 2020.

  3. Bowden is killing it on MLB Radio tonight about how the title should be vacated. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

  4. The Dodgers continue to seek lefties for the pen. When AF senses a target area he goes after it like he did with the catcher position. We need to come up with a consistent lefty. We may have that lefty but AF is providing more possibilities. Speaking of catchers losing Wong and camargo hurts the depth a bit. We really need someone to grow into that no. 2 sp role. Then when the time comes we could use price as a starter and bp guy. Urias needs to step up.

  5. Back to Tyler Gilbert. Great piece by DC again.

    Tyler White was not picked up so he is headed to OKC.

      1. I think it’s much less of a leap to envision Tyler White as Max Muncy as it was to envision Max Muncy as Max Muncy!

  6. Just listened to Alanna Rizio’s interview of Alex Wood. He’s obviously very happy to be back with the Dodgers. He also spoke of how much he learned from Trevor Bauer and Driveline. His trainer wit Driveline was Rob Hill, now a Dodger pitching coordinator. Looking forward to seeing what he brings to the table this year.

    1. I don’t like banning people for their political opinions, even if weird. Just be civil to people we disagree with.

        1. There is no place for the stuff tweeted in a civilized society. Unfortunately, it is emanated from both sides and it is unacceptable. However, this a Dodger blog and we will stop right there.

  8. Another very nice write-up DC. Thank you. I am excited for Tyler Gilbert. He had an impressive record at USC. That should make AC proud. His added cutter that he developed at AAA makes me wonder if he could be a future closer? And, his spike curveball sounds very interesting. Good luck Tyler and welcome.

    1. Great stuff, JW!

      Here’s the final paragraph on Lux:

      What happens with Lux defensively is somewhat immaterial. He’s publicly admitted to having the yips, which impacts the accuracy of his throws. Pure arm strength is not really an issue, but if he keeps one-hopping easy throws to first base, he might need to move off the infield. I have the arm graded as a 45 because of the accuracy issues and think there’s some risk Lux needs to move to the outfield, but even if that’s the case, I feel better about him hitting than all but one other prospect in all of the minors.

      1. Interesting take.

        A little surprising list. They have Ruiz (12) and Dustin May (13) significantly ahead of MacKenzie Gore (20). I know this list is stat generated. So there will be dependencies. But FanGraph’s curated list has gore at 3 and Ruiz at 88.

        1. I think that’s a typo. Ruiz was #88.

          Here’s what they said about May:

          This is nitpicky, but May’s leg kick can make him slow to home and he can be vulnerable to stolen bases as a result, which forces him to vary his cadence home in an attempt to stymie runners. Regardless, he projects as an All-Star, mid-rotation starter.

  12. On people who disagree with me:

    It might be because they are uninformed.
    It might be because they are misguided in what they seek.
    It might be because they’re short-sighted.
    It might be that they are controlled by demons.
    It might be that they are demonstrably wrong.
    Or it could simply be that they disagree with me.

    HA!

  13. Great right up on Tyler Gilbert. He is exactly the type of pickup I’d like to see more of. There is no reason to have a log jam in AAA in certain positions if you can pick up some solid potential bullpen help.

    My primary criticism of AF over the last couple years has been his failure to develop home grown bullpen arms within the system. He has obviously corrected that issue. Converting SP to relief doesn’t always work out. Jordan Sheffield might still pan out. But other SPs have been incredibly resistant to the idea of moving to the bullpen.

    …. speaking of

    Apparently Yadier Alvarez reported to camp yesterday. There seem to be some confusion as to if he was actually invited. As he still on the restricted list and can’t participate in any on-field activities while on the RL. I am just wondering if he showed up in a VW bug with a gold Rolls Royce grill.

    I will be curious to see what comes of this. Dodgers invested $30M in his arm (half was a penalty). He can hit 100 with a very smooth delivery. But he has been almost universally described as “un-coachable”.

    1. If he’s removed from the restricted list it causes another move off that 40-man is what I thought of when I read that the other day.

        2. He grew up dirt poor and somebody put $15 million in his back pocket. Maybe he has had his fun and now wants to start his career.

  14. Lebron has joined the party and called out Manfred:

    “Listen I know I don’t play baseball but I am in Sports and I know if someone cheated me out of winning the title and I found out about it I would be f—ing irate! I mean like uncontrollable about what I would/could do!” James wrote on Twitter. “Listen here baseball commissioner listen to your players speaking today about how disgusted, mad, hurt, broken, etc etc about this.

    “Literally the ball is in your court(or should I say field) and you need to fix this for the sake of Sports! “#JustMyThoughtsComingFromASportsJunkieRegardlessMyOwnSportIPlay”

  15. Sounds like Rob Manfred attended and graduated from the course offered by the Houston Assterick on “How to Apologize Without any Sincerity or Truth!” What a disgrace to the sport of baseball!!!

  16. I looked at Tyler Gilbert’s statistics in the Phillies MiLB system and was pleased to see that on a year-to-year basis his BB/K ratio stayed in the 4.0 -4.5 / 1 range, his ERA was consistently in the low 3’s or lower, and his WHIP was in the lower 1’s at each level as he progressed through the system. I was also pleased to see that Tyler’s improvement also seemed to carry forward overall at each level.
    I have a good feeling about Tyler Gilbert and anticipate that he will benefit from the excellent coaching and the developmental model which the Dodgers utilize to refine talent in the minors. You can never have too many options in LH relievers and since he also been a starter, he doesn’t succeed due to one pitch only. Welcome aboard.

    1. He is similar to Victor Gonzalez whose stock really rose in the Dodgers farm system the past couple of years.

  17. This is about to get out of control.

    The owners need to fire Manfred and vote in a commissioner with real power.

    It’s hard herding cats, but the commish needs to vacate the Astros title and do more damage.

    It’s too late to suspend players, but the rest is do-able.

    New Commissioner:

    Bring Faye Vincent back for one year.

  18. Major League Baseball has reportedly adopted a new policy designed to prevent teams from intentionally hitting opposing players with a pitch.

    Per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, in a memo MLB sent to all 30 teams, umpires will now meet to determine if they believe there was intent on a hit-by-pitch, and managers will be “held more accountable” in the event a hit-by-pitch is deemed to be intentional.

    Heyman noted the rule change is unrelated to recent concerns voiced by Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker about potential retaliation from opposing teams in light of the cheating scandal.

    Per Heyman, MLB’s impetus for changing the rule was tied to issues from the 2019 season, with the benches-clearing brawl between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds from July 30 that resulted in both managers and six different players from both teams receiving suspensions specifically cited.

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