Gabe Speier

Speier attended Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, California. As a senior, he had 87 strikeouts in 57+2⁄3 innings and also had a .412 batting average and helped Dos Pueblos win its league title. He committed to playing baseball at UC Santa Barbara^[1] but did not end up attending.

The Boston Red Sox selected Speier in the 19th round of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft, and he signed, receiving a $200,000 signing bonus.^[2][3] After signing, Speier pitched four innings for the Gulf Coast League Red Sox in 2013. He returned to Florida in 2014, where he went 3–0 with a 1.55 ERA in nine games, six of them starts.^[4]

As a minor leaguer, Speier was included in several trades for notable MLB players. On December 11, 2014, the Red Sox traded Speier, Yoenis Céspedes, and Alex Wilson to the Detroit Tigers for starter Rick Porcello. Speier played for the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps in 2015^[5] where he compiled a 4–2 record and 2.86 ERA in 33 relief appearances. On November 20, 2015, the Tigers traded Speier and Ian Krol to the Atlanta Braves for Cameron Maybin.^[6] On December 9, the Braves traded him and Shelby Miller to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Dansby Swanson, Ender Inciarte, and Aaron Blair.^[7]

Speier spent 2016 with the Kane County Cougars, AZL Diamondbacks, Visalia Rawhide, and Mobile BayBears, pitching to a combined 4–2 record, 2.62 ERA, and 1.20 WHIP in 39 appearances out of the bullpen. In 2017, he pitched for the Jackson Generals, collecting a 2–6 record and 4.30 ERA in 69 innings. He returned to Jackson to start 2018.^[4]

 

On June 6, 2018, the Diamondbacks traded Speier and Elvis Luciano to the Kansas City Royals for Jon Jay.^[8] He was assigned to the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. In 46 relief appearances between the Generals and Naturals, he went 1–0 with a 3.39 ERA. He began 2019 returning to Double-A for the third season in a row before being promoted to the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers at the end of May. He had a 1–5 record with a 4.48 ERA in the minors in 2019.^[4]

On September 3, 2019, the Royals selected Speier's contract and promoted him to the major leagues.^[9][10] He made his major league debut on September 5 versus the Detroit Tigers, pitching a scoreless seventh inning with two strikeouts and one walk. He pitched nine times for the Royals in September, allowing 6 runs in 7+1⁄3 innings and collecting 10 strikeouts.^[11]

With the 2020 Kansas City Royals, Speier appeared in 8 games, compiling a 0–1 record with 7.94 ERA and 6 strikeouts in 5+2⁄3 innings pitched.^[12] On November 20, Speier was designated for assignment,^[13] and the Royals sent him outright to Omaha five days later.^[12]

Speier pitched in 45 Omaha games in 2021, going 3–0 with a 2.98 ERA with 57 strikeouts. Speier was called up to the Royals on September 15, driving three hours from Omaha to Kansas City while the Royals were playing, ultimately pitching in the seventh inning that night.^[14][15] He pitched in 7 games for the Royals, allowing 1 run in 7+2⁄3 innings. Speier split time between the Royals and the Storm Chasers again in 2023, also hitting the injured list for two weeks at the end of May. He had a 2.33 ERA in 17 games in the majors, picking up 1 loss and 14 strikeouts in 19+1⁄3 innings.^[12]

On November 9, 2022, Speier was claimed off waivers by the Seattle Mariners. Speier was optioned to the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers to before the 2023 season began^[16] but was called up before the third game of the season. He pitched in 69 games, by far the most in his career and in the top 15 in the American League.^[17] Speier threw a first pitch strike to 78 percent of the batters he faced, the most by any pitcher since at least 2002, when the statistic was first tracked, and up significantly from Speier's 45 percent the previous year.^[18][19] Speier said Mariners coaches told him to throw more strikes and also to throw more sinkers to left-handed batters and more sliders to right-handed batters.^[20] He earned his first MLB save on August 20, coming in after closer Andrés Muñoz pitched in the 8th inning.^[21][22] He was 2–2 with a 3.79 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 54+2⁄3 innings in 2023.^[12]

Speier remained a bullpen regular for the first two months of 2024, pitching in 22 games by the end of May.^[23] However, he was placed on the injured list with a strained rotator cuff in his pitching arm.^[4] He would pitch in just seven more games for the Mariners in 2024, only one of them a close game while the Mariners were still playing for a playoff spot. Several ugly innings before his injury hiatus ballooned his ERA from 2.31 on May 7 to his season-ending line of 5.70, to go along with 2 losses and 33 strikeouts in 23+2⁄3 innings.^[23]

Speier is the great nephew of former MLB infielder Chris Speier and the first cousin once removed of Chris Speier's son, former pitcher Justin Speier.^[24]

Speier and his wife Megan were married in November 2020.^[25][26] They have a dog, Dax.^[15] Speier has a child.^[27]

• Career statistics from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
• Gabe Speier on Instagram