For a pitcher who was not even drafted, but signed as a free agent after the 2023 MLB draft, O’s right-hander Trey Gibson has been getting noticed a lot lately.

The 22-year-old is ranked as the club’s No. 12 prospect (and their fourth highest-rated pitcher) by Baseball America and No. 13 by The Athletic.

In addition, ESPN named him as one of 12 players currently outside of its top 150 national prospects who could break into the top 100 list. And Baseball America wrote he was one of 10 minor league pitchers with an intriguing pitch arsenal to watch in 2025.

Not bad for a player who was suspended for his 2023 college season at Liberty, for reasons that are not publicly known. He did pitch that summer in the Cape Cod League, and even after giving up 33 earned runs in 29 innings, he showed something there that attracted the Orioles. Now, others are noticing him.

From Yorktown, Virginia, Gibson is a big, strong guy at 6 feet 5 and 240 pounds who throws a fastball in the 94, 95 mph range along with breaking pitches considered plus by analysts and at least one scout I spoke with.

At Single-A last year – throwing 55 2/3 innings for Delmarva and 36 1/3 for Aberdeen – Gibson went a combined 3-9 with a 3.72 ERA. Opposing batters hit .218 with a .602 OPS, while he gave up only three home runs and had a 1.23 WHIP.

His walk percentage was 10.0 and his strikeout percentage was a robust 30.3. He averaged 11.54 strikeouts per nine innings – with 13.1 at Delmarva – to rank second among O’s farm pitchers with 80 or more innings, behind only Chayce McDermott at 12.96.

Gibson had a 40.0 percent whiff rate on his cutter/slider and curveball and recorded an induced vertical break per a scout of 16.5. IVB in the 18 to 20 range is considered elite and a pitcher with a ranking like Gibson at 16.5 is one who gets good “ride” on his fastball, making him more effective and more able to pitch well up in the zone.

Here is what an MLB scout told me about him: “Gibson physically is a high-energy guy with five pitches. It’s a starter’s repertoire with kind of a reliever’s delivery. The line between say a guy who could be a fourth starter and a reliever is more and more blurred, and I think he’s on the good side of that line because of his pitch quality. Some people in the game may like [Nestor] German better than him, but I like Gibson a bit better.”

The scout added that Gibson throws a fastball, cutter, curve, sweeper and changeup. He said Gibson has average control right now with the fastball but could see him gaining better command of that pitch. He said he was a physical pitcher with an at-times power curveball. He really likes his feel for his sweeper, which the scout described as an east-to-west (meaning across the zone) slurvy-type pitch. He said Gibson threw a firm cutter at 89-90 mph and saw his fastball in the 94, 95 range, although it touched 98 in an outing he attended.

Baseball America filed a report saying last year Gibson used his four-seam fastball 38 percent, slider 24 percent and curveball 17 percent. He was noted to have strong 7-foot extension, which is the point at which the pitcher releases the ball as he strides toward home plate.

With his size, mid-90s fastball and breaking pitches that grade as plus, Gibson is a pitcher to watch this year when he will likely start the season in High-A Aberdeen’s rotation.