Anthony Gose’s road back to the majors has been a long one, and now it puts him in position to face the Guardians with the Royals.
Kansas City added the left-hander to its big league roster ahead of its three-game series against Cleveland, giving Gose another shot at MLB innings against the team that once gave him a chance. He made his Royals debut last night and worked a scoreless ninth inning in a blowout win over the Blue Jays.
For Cleveland, Gose is a familiar name. He spent four seasons on the edge of the Guardians’ bullpen picture and logged 32 innings for the club, with most of that work coming in 2022. That season ended with a 4.71 ERA over 21 innings, still his busiest full big league season.
What makes Gose’s path stand out is how unusual it was from the start. He began his professional career as an outfielder before converting to pitching in 2017. The Guardians took a minor league flier on him in 2019, and the arrangement worked for both sides: Gose turned himself into a major league reliever, and Cleveland got useful innings out of the conversion project.
His time with the organization stretched into 2020, then into the end of 2021, when he finally made his pitching debut in the majors. He threw 6 1/3 innings for the Guardians that season, then became part of the big league bullpen in 2022 before Tommy John surgery shut him down.
That surgery erased his 2023 season. He returned in 2024 and logged 4 1/3 innings in the majors, while also putting up a 3.22 ERA across 44 2/3 innings at Triple-A. Last season, he spent the entire year at Triple-A and recorded a 4.62 ERA in 37 innings between the Mets’ and Diamondbacks’ affiliates.
This year began in Mexico with los Leones de Yucatán before he signed a minor league deal with Kansas City in April. Since then, he’s been with Triple-A Omaha, where he posted a 4.89 ERA in 46 innings.
The profile is still the same one Cleveland saw: plenty of swing-and-miss, but too many free passes. Gose has struck out hitters at a 27.6% clip in Omaha, yet his 13.8% walk rate has kept the command issues front and center.
Kansas City has also used him in a different role, giving him some long relief work. That could make him a useful extra arm as the Royals play out the string, especially with Connor Thomas the only other lefty in the bullpen.
Even with the promotion, Gose doesn’t look like a huge threat to the Guardians. Cleveland’s left-handed heavy lineup has had some recent success against righties, and it’s tough to see Gose or Thomas lining up as overwhelming matchup pieces.
Still, Gose being back in the big leagues is its own kind of victory. For a player who started as an outfielder, reinvented himself on the mound, and kept climbing back after surgery and minor league detours, this latest call-up says plenty about the persistence that has kept his career going.
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