Lions acquire new pitcher Garabito

New Samsung Lions pitcher Gerson Garabito poses next to the club's logo at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, Thursday. Courtesy of Samsung Lions

The Samsung Lions said Thursday they've acquired former major league pitcher Gerson Garabito.

Garabito, 29, will replace Denyi Reyes in the Lions' rotation. Reyes was released Saturday after suffering a stress fracture on his right foot for the second time this season.

The Lions said Garabito signed for $356,666 for the remainder of the season and they paid his former club, the Texas Rangers, $200,000 in buyout.

Garabito has 21 major league games under his belt, all of them with the Rangers in 2024 and 2025. This year, he pitched to a 9.00 ERA in eight innings across three outings with them.

In Triple-A this year, the Dominican right-hander went 0-7 with an 8.53 ERA over 31 2/3 innings.

The Lions said Garabito had drawn interest from other teams in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) and also clubs in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Per Baseball Savant, Garabito averaged 93.2 miles per hour with his four-seam fastball this year with the Rangers, and also threw curveball, slider, sinker and changeup.

Garabito played against the current Lions slugger Lewin Diaz in the Dominican Summer League in 2014.

The Lions are in fourth place in the 10-team KBO at 38-32-1 (wins-losses-ties). They lead the league with 79 home runs and rank second with 380 runs scored, but they have a middling pitching staff.