The Rangers have signed a lefty Austin Gomber to a minor league deal, according to Aram Leighton of Just Baseball. Gomber’s deal includes an invitation to MLB Spring Training next month.
Gomber, 32, was selected by the Cardinals in the fourth round back in 2014. He made his major league debut with the team in 2018 but was traded to the Rockies in a trade that sent him off. Nolan Arenado in St. Louis and has spent most of his MLB career in Colorado during this time. At the time of the trade, Gomber looked like a solid swingman who could break into a competitive rotation. He posted a 3.72 ERA with a 3.89 FIP in his 104 innings for St. Louis. Marquez from Germany again Kyle Freeland.
The results of Gomber’s time in Colorado were mixed. His 4.53 ERA (good for a 106 ERA+) in 23 starts for the Rockies in his first season with the club was solid, but he regressed in 2022 and ’23 before sneaking up to nearly league-average numbers in 2024. A big part of that step back was a drop in strikeouts. Gomber struck out 23.2% of his opponents while walking 8.4% in 2021. Over his next three seasons, he was able to shave two points off that walk rate, dropping it to a clean 6.3%, but that came at the cost of a significant dip in strikeouts. From 2022-24, Gomber struck out just 16.3% of his opponents, a drop of nearly seven points compared to 2021. Gomber’s ground ball rate also dropped from 44.3% to a pedestrian 40.5%.
Although he struggled to achieve his strong 2021 season a few years ago, the wheels really came off in 2025. Gomber’s strikeout rate dropped to just 12.5%, his groundball rate dropped to 33.2%, and his barrel rate dropped to an uncontrollable 14.5%. That left the southpaw to get 12 innings for the Rockies, and he contributed a 7.49 ERA with a 6.50 FIP over his 57 2/3 innings of work. It was a disastrous showing and led to the Rockies releasing Gomber in August. He signed with the Cubs on a minor league deal and looked good for the team’s Triple-A Iowa, posting an impressive 0.47 ERA in 19 innings of work in four outings (three starts).
That late-season success in the new organization creates some reason for optimism, even though Gomber never made a minor league deal given the 2025 campaign he had in the majors. That deal has come to Texas, and Gomber should provide much-needed rotation depth for the Rangers’ clubhouse that clearly needs it even after the trade. MacKenzie Gore. A rotation that could include Gore, Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Jack Leiteragain Kumar Rocker he looks solid on paper, but Eovaldi and deGrom both come with significant injury risks while Rocker has yet to emerge as an MLB regular.
This spring, Gomber can compete with Rocker and swing man Jacob Latz the fifth and final spot in the Rangers rotation. Gomber looks like he might opt out of that camp battle in the rotation, and other strikers could be brought in to make things even more difficult. Still, though, Gomber still appears to be in good shape to enter the season with a real shot at breaking into the rotation, whether that comes in the form of beating out other potential fifth starters or due to injuries creating an opening at some point during the season.
