In keeping with the unintentional theme of position players transitioning to pitchers, this week’s Monday spotlight is Jesus Gamez. Gamez is an incredible story, he was an outfielder in the Mexican pro league before signing with the Rangers for $10,000. He saw limited action in the field before transitioning to a pitching role. Gamez got a late start to pitching, but is clearly a quick learner as he’s now tallied 145 strikeouts in 92 professional innings. Walks are an issue for Gamez as he’s allowed 70 in those 92 innings, but given his late start to pitching I’m willing to take the bet that he’ll be able to tone that down with more innings under his belt.
Jesus Gamez
RHP | 6’0” | 190 lb | Age: 23
Pitch Usage:
- Fastball: 54%
- Slider: 24.7%
- Splitter: 21.3%
Gamez works with a 3-pitch-mix, and they’re all plus potential. Gamez’s fastball is what sets the table for him. He throws it 54% of the time, and has a ton of ride thanks in large part to his super high arm slot. Gamez’s fastball averages around 19” of vertical break, and has even hit 24” of vertical break on multiple occasions this season. It sits 95-96 and tops out at 99. It’s a very good pitch, but its main job is to pave the way for his two secondaries. His slider and splitter may not have objectively elite shapes, but his arm slot helps them play up tremendously.
Both of Gamez’s secondaries are his whiff pitches, but their usage is pretty split by handedness. Gamez throws his slider 40% of the time to righties and only 5% of the time to lefties, and he’ll throw his splitter 33% of the time to lefties and 12% of the time to righties. In his time in High-A Hub City this season, Gamez’s slider has a Whiff% of 59% this season, and his splitter has a Whiff% of 60%. They don’t even have exceedingly high chase rates, it’s just that the stuff is so good that if he just throws it in the zone, it’s a high likelihood for a swing and miss. Admittedly though, the issue is just that, finding the strike zone consistently.
I want to refrain from saying it’s a major concern for Gamez given his late start to pitching, but I would be disingenuous if I did not mention his command struggles. Gamez has never had any issues collecting strikeouts. He had a K% of 38.9% last season across 3 levels, and has a K% of 36.4% in High-A so far this year. After his promotion to Hub City to end last season, Gamez had a BB% of 25% in 15 innings. In 26 innings this season his BB% is 24%. Gamez was able to get away with it last year because of how unhittable he was. In 2025, he held opposing hitters to a batting average of .089. His issue this season is that number has risen to .178. Still an elite metric, but there’s just so little margin for error with Gamez when it comes to batting average against if he’s going to be walking the amount of hitters he has.
The start of the season was a little rough on Gamez’s ERA due to that increased amount of hits allowed. However, he’s settled into a nice rhythm and has posted an ERA of 1.69 in June. It really does come down to those hits allowed, since after allowing 13 hits in 15.1 innings in the first couple months of the season, Gamez allowed 3 in 10.2 innings in June. I do believe the walks will settle down as he gets more experience, but in the meantime his performance is going to be really reliant on limiting opposing base hits. He likely won’t ever have incredible command, but if he can eventually settle into a BB% of ~15% while maintaining his incredible strikeout rates, I think he can be a great back-end reliever.
The Rangers have a strong history of making smart cheap international signings, and turning them into great prospects (Winston Santos and Emiliano Teodo to name a couple). Gamez is yet another exciting story with potential to contribute to the big league club in due time. Gamez is a great athlete and has made great strides since transitioning to pitching. I’m willing to take that bet that he can make the improvements necessary, he just needs time.
