Veteran Pitcher Leaves Dodgers Organization in Surprise Move

The left-hander was 0-2 with a 4.19 ERA in eight games (two starts) this season, his third at the highest rung of the minor league ladder.

Gamboa, 28, might have figured his time with the Dodgers would have come in 2024, when the team used 40 different pitchers (17 starters). This season, the Dodgers have already used 11 starters among 24 pitchers — including position players — and will use their 12th on Saturday when Clayton Kershaw starts against the Angels.

Against this backdrop, Gamboa's big career move is not unexpected. Never a top-ranked prospect, he would join a long list of marginal American-born pitchers to try to increase their career prospects (and earnings) in Asia.

Gamboa was the Texas League Pitcher of the Week in May 2023 and a Dodgers organizational All-Star in 2021, when he went 4-5 with a 4.21 ERA for Class-A Great Lakes.

The Dodgers promoted Gamboa from Double-A to Triple-A in 2023, when he started the season 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA in 14 relief appearances (36 innings) with the Tulsa Drillers.

In 2024, Gamboa went 3-6 with a 3.30 ERA in 22 games (12 starts) with Oklahoma City. He walked 31 batters and struck out 51 in 73.2 innings for the Dodgers' top farm team.

Despite his uneven results this season, Gamboa proved himself capable of being a versatile swingman. He held the El Paso Chihuahuas scoreless for 3.2 innings in his last start, on May 4. Five days later he threw 2.1 innings out of the bullpen and allowed only one run against the Albuquerque Isotopes.

Now he'll take his talents to Korea, where several other former Dodgers have found employment over the last decade: Outfielder Yasiel Puig, pitcher Josh Lindblom, and first baseman Jose Miguel Fernandez, among others.

According to Dan Kurtz on Twitter/X, Gamboa's contract with Lotte pays $330,000, and it includes $30,000 in incentives and came with a $100,000 transfer fee.

Kurtz reported that Gamboa's roster spot came at the expense of Charlie Barnes, another American-born left-hander who topped out at Triple-A in the Minnesota Twins organization. KBO teams have limits on the number of foreign-born players they can roster at any given time.