Robert John Gsellman ( ; born July 18, 1993) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or dr ...

for the

Yokohama DeNA BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its curren ...

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

(NPB). He has played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major lea ...

and

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

Early life and amateur career

Gsellman is the son of Bob Gsellman, a former

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the cat ...

drafted by the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

in the 23rd round of the

1984 MLB Draft First round selections The following are the first round picks in the 1984 Major League Baseball draft. Other notable players * Jeff Blauser†, 1st round (secondary phase), 4th overall by the Atlanta Braves *Greg Maddux‡, 2nd round, 31st ...

from Culver City High School in California. Gsellman attended Westchester High School in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, where he played both

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and baseball. He was a

California Interscholastic Federation The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have a ...

state champion in basketball as a junior and voted team captain as a senior. As a junior baseball player, he had a .649

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

and 1.67 ERA. He was also named to ''

ESPN RISE ''ESPN HS'' was a high school sports magazine published monthly during the school year in 25 markets around the United States. Founded as ''SchoolSports'' magazine in 1997, the publication changed its name to ''RISE'' in 2006 and was purchased b ...

s Underclassmen All-California team. As a senior, he finished with a .608 batting average with eight

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

and a 1.70 ERA. He verbally committed to

Los Angeles Harbor College Los Angeles Harbor College (LAHC) is a public community college in Wilmington, California. It is one of two community colleges serving the South Bay region of Los Angeles. LAHC serves mainly students from Harbor City, Carson, San Pedro, Ga ...

as a senior.

Professional career

New York Mets

Gsellman was drafted by the

in the 13th round of the

2011 Major League Baseball draft The 2011 Major League Baseball draft was held from June 6 through June 8, 2011, from Studio 42 of the MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Gerrit Cole out of the University of California, Los Angeles, with the fir ...

. He signed with the Mets and made his professional debut with the

Gulf Coast Mets The Florida Complex League Mets are a Rookie-level affiliate for the New York Mets, competing in the Florida Complex League of Minor League Baseball. Prior to 2021, the team was known as the Gulf Coast League Mets. The team plays its home games a ...

. From 2012 to 2015 he played for the

Kingsport Mets The Kingsport Mets were a Minor League Baseball team of the Appalachian League from 1921 to 2020. They were located in Kingsport, Tennessee, and were last named for the team's major league affiliate, the New York Mets. The team played its home ga ...

Brooklyn Cyclones The Brooklyn Cyclones are a Minor League Baseball team of the South Atlantic League and the High-A affiliate of the New York Mets. They are based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, and play at Maimonides Park, just off the Coney Islan ...

Savannah Sand Gnats The Savannah Sand Gnats were a minor league baseball team based in Savannah, Georgia. They were a member of the A-level South Atlantic League. The Sand Gnats were an affiliate of the New York Mets in their final nine seasons. The team relocated ...

, St. Lucie Mets and

Binghamton Mets The Binghamton Rumble Ponies are an American Minor League Baseball team based in Binghamton, New York. The team, which plays in the Eastern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the New York Mets major-league club. The Rumble Ponies play in Mirab ...

. During 2015 with St. Lucie, he was named to the FSL mid-season All Star team, however, did not participate due to his promotion to Binghamton. The Mets added him to their 40-man roster after the season. Also, the team announced that Robert Gsellman was named the Sterling Organizational Pitcher of The Year. For the year Gsellman went 13-7 with a 2.89 ERA in 24 combined starts for St. Lucie and Binghamton. He led the organization with 13 wins and was third in the organization in ERA among qualified pitchers. Gsellman began the 2016 season with the Las Vegas 51s of the

Class AAA Triple-A (officially Class AAA) has been the highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States since 1946. Currently, two leagues operate at the Triple-A level, the International League (IL) and the Pacific Coast League (PCL). ...

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Ba ...

. The Mets promoted him to the major leagues on August 22 when

Steven Matz Steven Jakob Matz (born May 29, 1991) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played for the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays. Matz was born and raised on Long ...

was placed on the

disabled list In Major League Baseball (MLB), the injured list (IL) is a method for teams to remove their injured players from the roster in order to summon healthy players. Before the 2019 season, it was known as the disabled list (DL). General guidelines ...

. Gsellman made his Major League debut on August 23, 2016. Taking over for Jonathan Niese, who had left the game with left knee pain after pitching of an inning, Gsellman pitched 3 and innings, racking up 2 strikeouts, giving up no runs, and earning his first Major League win, the second Met rookie to do so in his debut in 2016, after

Gabriel Ynoa Gabriel Ynoa Gómez (born May 26, 1993) is a Dominican professional baseball pitcher for the Pericos de Puebla of the Mexican Baseball League. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles, in N ...

. Due to an injury to his labrum, Gsellman was unable to swing the bat during his 2016 Major League stint. Nevertheless, on September 25 at

Citi Field Citi Field is a baseball stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York City, United States. It opened in 2009 and is the home field of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. The stadium was built as a replacement for the adjacent ...

, Gsellman picked up his first Major League hit on a bunt off of Phillies pitcher

Jake Thompson Jacob Keith Thompson (born January 31, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Leones de Yucatán of the Mexican League. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies and for the Lotte Gian ...

. Gsellman began the 2017 season as a member of the Mets starting rotation. He was 8-7 with a 5.19 ERA. Batters reached base against him on errors 16 times, tops in the major leagues. In the 2018 season, Gsellman pitched exclusively out of the bullpen for the Mets. He was 6-3 with a 4.28 ERA and 13 saves. On May 20, he picked up five outs against the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The ...

and recorded the first save of his major league career. In 2019 for the Mets, Gsellman pitched to a 4.66 ERA in 63.2 innings across 52 appearances before suffering a partially torn right lat in August that would cause him to miss the remainder of the season. Gsellman opened the

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of in ...

shortened 2020 season on the injured list due to right triceps soreness. On September 8, 2020, Gsellman suffered a fractured rib in an appearance against the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

, and missed the remainder of the 2020 season. On the year, Gsellman had pitched to a ghastly 9.64 ERA in six appearances, four of them starts, to go along with 9 strikeouts in 14.0 innings pitched. On June 23, 2021, Gsellman was placed on the 60-day injured list with a right lat strain. On November 30, Gsellman was non-tendered, making him a free agent.

Chicago Cubs

On March 17, 2022, Gsellman signed a minor league contract with the

. He was assigned to the Triple-A

Iowa Cubs The Iowa Cubs are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. They are located in Des Moines, Iowa, and are named for their Major League Baseball (MLB) affiliate. The Cubs play their h ...

to begin the season, pitching to a 1.17 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 5 appearances. On May 3, Gsellman was selected to the active roster. In 8 appearances with Chicago, he posted a 4.70 ERA and 1.30 WHIP in 15.1 innings pitched. He was designated for assignment on May 30. He cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Iowa on June 2. He was released on July 13, 2022.

Yokohama DeNA BayStars

On July 28, 2022, Gsellman signed with the

. He re-signed a one-year contract extension for the 2023 season on November 26, 2022.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gsellman, Robert Living people 1993 births Baseball players from Santa Monica, California Major League Baseball pitchers New York Mets players Chicago Cubs players Gulf Coast Mets players Kingsport Mets players Brooklyn Cyclones players Savannah Sand Gnats players St. Lucie Mets players Binghamton Mets players Las Vegas 51s players Binghamton Rumble Ponies players Westchester High School (Los Angeles) alumni