Veteran reliever Trevor Gott has inked a minor league deal with the Padres, per his MLB.com transaction tracker. The righty spent the first half of the season in the Nationals organization. He’s been a free agent since early July. San Diego assigned Gott to Triple-A El Paso.

A pair of righties with MLB experience, J.P. France and José Leclerc, were released by the Padres yesterday. Gott will step into one of their vacated roster spots with the Chihuahuas. The 34-year-old posted a 3.55 ERA across 26 appearances at Triple-A Rochester this year. His ERA estimators were much higher, including a 5.16 FIP and a 5.75 xFIP. That’s likely because his 19% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate were both poor figures. The ERA was kept down because his .272 batting average on balls in play and 80.2% strand rate were both to the fortunate side.

Gott last pitched in the majors in 2023. He tossed exactly 29 innings with both the Mariners and Mets. The righty struck out 23.8% of batters faced with a middling 4.19 ERA, though it came with a solid 3.49 xERA. After hitting free agency that offseason, Gott had a chance to contribute in the majors, but those plans were nixed by Tommy John surgery. He spent the year on the A’s 60-day IL and did not pitch at all. Gott later landed in Seattle via a minor league deal and posted an 8.20 ERA in Triple-A last year.

Once upon a time, Gott was a serviceable big league pitcher, posting a 4.65 ERA in 243 2/3 innings spread across eight seasons. But he had mostly been injured and/or ineffective for the better part of three years now. The Padres will add him as veteran non-roster depth but he won’t be eligible for the postseason since this deal was signed after September 1.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images