Astros Fill Final Roster Spot with Matt Gage

The Houston Astros filled the final spot on their 40-man roster with promising left-hander Matt Gage.

Matt Gage is a six-foot-three, 265 lb. left-handed relief pitcher from Johnstown, NY. He celebrated his 30th birthday just two days ago as a free agent after he was waived by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Gage was initially drafted by the San Francisco Giants back in the 10th round in 2014. He later also played in the New York Mets system. In 2019, he played a full season with the Mexico City Red Devils, going 10-4 with a 5.57 ERA. After spending the 2021 campaign with the Arizona Diamondbacks farm, he earned Buffalo’s Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2022.

Gage has started 119 games in his minor league career, coming out of the bullpen an additional 96 times over parts of eight seasons. He finally made his major league debut last year for the Blue Jays, walking six and striking out 12 in 13 innings. He allowed four runs (two earned) on six hits, holding opponents to a .146 batting average in a pretty small sample size.

Gage’s fastball tops out at 93 MPH, in the bottom 11 percentile of the major leagues. He has used it thus far just on just over 50 percent of his offerings. He tempers the heater with a cut fastball (43 percent, 87 MPH) and a slider (five percent).

Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

Despite the relative velocity of Gage’s fastball, it carried a .248 XSLG on 96 offerings through the 2022 campaign for Toronto. A hidden gem Ala the invisiball? Time will tell. Gage could very well be a diamond in the rough.

Gage could run into problems carving out a decent slice of playing time for Houston at their major league level. The Astros completed the 2022 season with a historically good bullpen (and rotation for that matter), and the only real change thus far is the loss of Justin Verlander. Still, I can never complain about too much pitching, and neither should you. Thanks for reading.