For parents and high school coach, Trey Gibson’s Orioles MLB debut is ‘amazing and crazy’

NEW YORK — In what became his last appearance for Grafton High School in 2020, there were scouts from almost every major league team in the stands. Trey Gibson pitched in the second scrimmage of the season for the Yorktown, Virginia, high school, and the imposing figure on the mound was receiving plenty of attention.

Scouts set up TrackMan technology. They went in the dugout to measure Gibson’s shoes. Then, in the second inning of that game, Grafton’s athletic director pulled aside coach Matt Lewellen. The coronavirus pandemic was about to cancel Gibson’s senior year.

“I went to Trey and said, ‘You’ve got another couple innings. You’ve got to show it,’” said Lewellen, who was at Yankee Stadium on Sunday with his family to see Gibson’s major league debut.

An Orioles scout was in the stands that day in 2020. If Gibson had had a full season, perhaps he would’ve been taken that summer in the draft. Instead, his path to the big leagues was unorthodox. He missed his junior year at Liberty University due to a suspension, and he went undrafted in 2023.

But, before Gibson took the mound for his debut with the Orioles, his parents and high school coach said those impediments may well be the reason the 23-year-old is here so quickly.

“There’s a reason for everything,” said JR Gibson, Trey’s father, “and things happen the way they do.”

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, to start your MLB career at Yankee Stadium,” added his mother, Karen Gibson.

They both hastily put on Orioles gear delivered by the team because they didn’t have time to bring their own. Before arriving early Sunday morning in New York, the Gibsons were with their daughter, Nikki, a senior softball player at Florida Gulf Coast. She stayed behind with her team in Jacksonville, Florida, preparing for the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament, while her brother pitches in the Bronx.

Nikki Gibson, they said, understood why her parents needed to leave in a hurry.

“We had kind of been anticipating it, but what’s happening today is amazing and crazy,” Karen Gibson said.

They knew, at some point, their son would break through into the majors. Although this is likely only a spot start before a return to Triple-A Norfolk, it doesn’t dim the majesty of the moment. JR Gibson, a coach for both of his kids as they grew up, offered his son advice.

“First, you’ve got to enjoy the moment,” JR Gibson said. “It’s a game. But then you have to trust your fundamentals, breathe, step and throw and let it happen. … Embrace the moment and have fun with it.”

The proud parents are hoping they can embrace and enjoy the moment, too, and not let nerves come in. After all, Gibson is facing one of the best lineups in baseball.

When Lewellen received the text message Saturday from JR Gibson that his former high school player would be making his big league debut, his eyes began to water. He turned to his kids and told them the news. Aptly, they said, “Oh my gosh, he’s pitching against Aaron Judge.”

“I said, ‘Yeah, and we’re going to make the trip,’” said Lewellen, who drove with his family to New York from Virginia on Saturday night.

JR Gibson pointed out another of his friends who made the trip, and the parents’ phones haven’t stopped buzzing from well-wishers.

Lewellen said Trey Gibson is the hardest-working player he’s ever coached, and that’s why he shot through the ranks and earned this opportunity. Baltimore’s top-ranked prospect pitches with the attitude of an undrafted free agent, said catcher Maverick Handley, who has caught him in the minors and is in New York as part of the taxi squad.

“He’s a big body,” Handley said. “When I look at him, I’m like, ‘You were undrafted?’ I think, for him, having that success helped him build some momentum, some momentum, being like, ‘Hey, I can be that guy.’ He’s really embraced that.”

With the help of a “death ball,” a pitch that spins like a slider but drops rather than runs, Trey Gibson impressed through the minors. Handley said Gibson reminds him of a 2022 Grayson Rodriguez because of the “mentality, like, I’m gonna go out there and shove it.”

On Karen Gibson’s phone at Yankee Stadium, she typed into her photo album’s search function the word baseball. A lifetime of images showing her son — the tall, gangly boy — filled the screen. Way down below on the field, her son had begun his warmups ahead of his debut.

There will be another batch of photos added shortly — their tall, gangly boy all grown up, wearing an Orioles uniform on a major league mound. Not bad for a pitcher who had a season canceled and went untaken in the draft.

“He was kind of a late bloomer in high school, and I knew he had the potential, the stuff, the size, everything to get a shot,” Lewellen said. “It was a shame, but you learn from it, you live with it, you go get it, and that’s what he’s doing.”