Brett de Geus thought his career was over. Now he’s riding MLB’s relentless roster carousel: “Hell of a position"

“I think you definitely learn that stability is probably the number one luxury in baseball,” de Geus said, nearly an hour into a wide-ranging interview in early July.

A former Dodgers prospect and Rule 5 pick, Brett de Geus has bounced between eight MLB organizations—enduring the instability that comes with life on the edge of a 40-man roster. [Photo: Cheryl Pursell/Lehigh Valley IronPigs]

Inside a coffee shop in York, Pennsylvania, Brett de Geus was more focused on closing costs than closing innings.

In the summer of 2022, de Geus was less than a year removed from his first big-league season. Now, he was suiting up for the York Revolution, an independent league team offering him a chance to keep playing — and a reason to question if it was still worth it.

“Probably the worst three months I’ve ever had playing baseball,” de Geus said during a recent phone interview, reflecting on a season when he was studying for his real estate license.

“You go from, ‘Okay, I’m good. I’ve got the safety net,’ to, ‘Holy shit — maybe it’s not the end of the road, but I better have a backup plan outside of baseball.’”

After working his way up the Dodgers' system, de Geus got his break through the Rule 5 Draft — a precarious pipeline that offers opportunity but almost no margin for error.

The process allows teams to poach unprotected minor leaguers from other organizations—but only if they keep them on the big-league roster all season. Otherwise, they must be offered back to their original team.

Suddenly, a roster loophole gave de Geus – a 33rd-round pick in the 2017 draft – a shot to earn the MLB minimum ($575,000 in 2021), establish himself at the sport’s highest level and fulfill his edict.

“I’ve been at least trying to tell myself that I’m a big leaguer since 2019,” de Geus told the Dallas News in 2021.

His journey was already atypical. He had three stents placed in his heart in 2017 to correct a murmur and a coarctation of the aorta. He struggled in 2018, then rebounded in 2019 with a 1.75 ERA across two minor league levels. But the 2020 COVID shutdown stole a critical development year.

Still, in 2021, de Geus — who had never pitched above High-A — broke camp with the Texas Rangers.

“He’s like super intense,” then-Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “Very, very knowledgeable. Very in tune with what’s going on in the new age and all the different pitch metrics and analytics.

“He’s got a lot of swing-and-miss potential and he could be a really good major league pitcher.”

It didn’t go as planned.

de Geus struggled in 19 games with Texas, posting an 8.44 ERA — a brutal welcome to the big leagues. He was designated for assignment on June 23.

“I do believe in the kid. I think he’s got good stuff,” Woodward said. “It was just one of those things where it put a little stress on our roster, as far as pitching goes. We didn’t want to expose him to too many difficult scenarios. We wanted to help him get through. It got to the point where it was too difficult at times to not use him. It hurt the rest of our staff.”

_brettford_

A post shared by @_brettford_

Before the Dodgers could have the Pleasanton, California, native back in their mix, the Arizona Diamondbacks claimed him off waivers. He pitched better in the desert — but not by much. In 28 games, he registered a 6.56 ERA and was DFA’d in the offseason.

After struggling with Arizona’s Double-A team to begin 2022, he was released and latched on with the Revolution.

At 24 years old, de Geus spent his mornings and early afternoons sipping black iced coffee and chatting up baristas, inching toward a real estate license.

He spent his nights as a pitcher whose on-field struggles mirrored his off-field frustration: In 33 games with York, he posted a 6.43 ERA.

If baseball would not pave the way to finding a long-term home, he’d sell them instead.

“Honestly, some days going to the coffee shop and just studying for real estate were like my favorite days or like the favorite parts of my days,” de Geus admitted.

“I was just going to go to the field and… headache is the wrong word, but sometimes it would just be so depressing in that clubhouse.”

In that same clubhouse, de Geus channeled his frustration into a road back to the majors.

‘IS THIS A DEAD END?’

York served as a fitting backdrop for de Geus’ lowest point in pro ball.

The small city, roughly two hours west of Philadelphia, sits at the heart of Pennsylvania’s so-called “Snack Food Capital of the World,” home to companies like Utz, Martin’s Potato Chips, and Snyder’s of Hanover.

de Geus, seen here delivering a pitch during an August 2022 game, registered a 6.43 ERA in 33 games with York. [Photo: Joe Doll/York Revolution]

In 2022, de Geus shared one unfortunate trait with many of those snacks.

“I definitely maybe got too salty,” de Geus said. “Feeling like I was owed something or deserved something.”

But you wouldn’t have known he was frustrated from the way he carried himself.

“He’s a pretty chill guy,” said now-retired outfielder Troy Stokes Jr., who was teammates with de Geus in 2022. “His demeanor, whether he pitched good or pitched bad, no matter what the results were, he was always the same guy.

“As far as his ability, I always looked at him as really, really good. We all kind of joked sometimes about like, ‘Why are you even here?’

“He threw hard, he had a weird little arm angle that looked like a hitter’s nightmare. It was weird he was there.”

Dozens grind through independent ball each year, hoping to claw their way back to the majors—and several were on the Revolution.

Stokes Jr., who also made his MLB debut in 2021, couldn’t secure a deal after the lockout and turned to the Atlantic League to keep his career alive.

“As far as his ability, I always looked at him as really, really good,” de Geus’ 2022 teammate Troy Stokes Jr. said. “We all kind of joked sometimes about like, ‘Why are you even here?’” [Photo: Joe Doll/York Revolution]

York offered a lifeline, but not a glamorous one. The Atlantic League could feel isolating—small-town stadiums, sparse media attention, and, at times, even less hope of catching an MLB team’s eye.

“I think it was like two games where I saw a scout,” Stokes Jr. said.

“When you’re in indy ball and you were in the big leagues the year previous and you see nobody getting signed, it’s like, is this a dead end?”

York limped to a 56–76 record with little fanfare and even less pay. A 2015 York Daily Record report noted that starting pitchers made about $2,500 a month.

It was a fraction of what de Geus earned during his 2021 MLB season, when the minimum salary of $570,500, spread over the league’s 187-day pay schedule, amounted to more than $3,000 a day.

“A week in the majors pays for an entire indie season!” Stokes said. “After taxes and everything, a single week in the majors covers the whole independent ball season.”

With an ERA over six, de Geus’ real estate venture suddenly felt closer than his dream of staying in baseball.

de Geus, in a Diamondbacks hoodie with “Revs” taped over the logo, laughs with teammates before a September 2022 game — a snapshot from a chapter that helped him “appreciate the jersey.” [Photo: Joe Doll/York Revolution]

Still, de Geus knew baseball was a grind. As a low-level Dodgers farmhand, he once juggled offseason workouts with 35-hour workweeks as a busboy in Los Angeles to make ends meet.

That grind gave him perspective and purpose.

“What snapped me back into it was thinking about what else I would do,” de Geus told The Athletic in 2020.

“I would be of absolutely no benefit to society at all if I did anything other than play baseball. That’s what brought things back for me, realizing, no, there is nothing else for me. I was born to do this. I have to commit. This is what I do. This is what I am.”

A similar moment in the York clubhouse sparked a renewed drive to make it back to the majors.

With about a month left in the season, one teammate called it quits—tired of losing, scraping by, and feeling invisible.

“Instead of seeing it out, he retired and he's like, ‘I'm going to go work at Bass Pro Shop. I'd rather work at Bass Pro Shop than be with his team right now,’” de Geus recalled.

“Something like that just really stuck with me. Like, all right, you got to appreciate wearing the jersey.”

de Geus finished the season and wasted no time getting to work in the offseason.

This wasn’t future realtor Brett de Geus. This was the guy who bought a self-help book on mental toughness after his toughest pro season. The guy who struggled academically but signed up for an offseason class to prove he wasn’t “lazy” or “unmotivated.”

After two stints with independent teams, the Royals purchased de Geus’ contract in May 2023. He split the year between the organization’s Double and Triple-A squads. [Photo: Minda Haas Kuhlmann/Flickr - Wikimedia Commons]

This was the guy who, no matter if he made it back to the majors, put forth his best effort to do so.

“I had the same sort of come-to-Jesus, recommitment process that I went through in 2018 going into 2019,” he said. “It was, ‘All right, put your head down. Am I really going to do this?’ I’m sure a lot of guys ask themselves at some point: ‘How bad do I want it? Is the end of the road coming up, or am I going to fully commit myself and have that singular focus?’”

de Geus returned to independent ball for the 2023 season with the Spire City Ghost Hounds – but this time, he didn’t have much time to find a nearby coffee shop.

“HELL OF A POSITION”

“I think you definitely learn that stability is probably the number one luxury in baseball,” de Geus said, nearly an hour into a wide-ranging interview in early July.

It’s a truth he’s lived. Just weeks earlier, de Geus had been called up as the 27th man for the Philadelphia Phillies’ May 29 doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves.

Three years removed from questioning his future in an independent league clubhouse in York. Two years after the Kansas City Royals purchased his contract. One year after clawing his way back to the majors. He stood on an MLB mound —again—this time in a Phillies uniform.

de Geus, serving as the Phillies’ 27th man on May 29, pitched in the nightcap, allowing one run over two innings. [Image via NBC Sports Philadelphia]

He pitched in the nightcap, working two innings and allowing one run. By rule, he was optioned back to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after the game.

No fanfare. No certainty. Just another sentence for his transactions log, which, since his return to affiliated ball in 2023, has cemented him in the same DFA-scarred fraternity as Oliver Drake.

“It's a hell of a position to be in,” de Geus said, “basically having your life uprooted three, four times a year…kind of being at the mercy of 30 front offices.”

Since April 8, 2024—when he returned to the majors with the Seattle Mariners—de Geus has been DFA’d five times, bouncing between four organizations, including two separate stints with the Miami Marlins.

“It’s a roster management timing mechanism in a lot of ways,” former Boston Red Sox assistant general manager and acting-Mets GM Zack Scott said of DFAs. “It allows you to make a move and delay a final decision but then has different details depending on a players status.”

Entering play on Saturday, de Geus sports a strong 3.30 ERA in Triple-A with the IronPings. But during our interview, he admitted that he was going through a “rough patch” as he sought to find a consistent release with his curveball. [Cheryl Pursell/Lehigh Valley IronPigs].

It’s one of MLB’s unique middle roads – good enough to be in the majors at any moment, disposable enough to get the infamous tap on the shoulder the next.

His repeated brushes with limbo stem from a mix of limited track record, inconsistent results, and undeniable potential.

In de Geus’ view, one major culprit—at least in 2024—was his inability to make a strong first impression. In every first outing with a new team, he allowed at least one earned run. That doesn’t buy much grace in an already fragile role.

“Those are usually my worst innings. You give it a month, though, and things settle—I start throwing the ball well again,” de Geus said. “By then, it’s like, ‘Well, we’re going to send you down again because we want to see what this next guy’s got.’

“I think it's just a reality…it's a coveted position to be in the big leagues. There's not enough spots for guys that are worthy or capable of being in the big leagues, you know? It's just kind of the nature of the beast.”

But de Geus, who is still just 27 years old, has cultivated interest throughout the league. On the surface, teams fighting for a pitcher with a career 7.39 ERA can seem puzzling – until you look under the hood.

Remi Bunikiewicz, a pitching consultant at Loyola Marymount University, has gained attention online for deep dives on pitchers stuck in DFA limbo. In an August 2024 thread, he broke down de Geus’ arsenal: a 98 mph fastball and a swing-and-miss changeup.

“There are so many things that go into it,” Bunikiewicz, 21, said. “It can go from contract to option status, to whether the coach likes you or not. These guys have tantalizing stuff, they’ve been good in the minor leagues, there have been signs of guys with similar arsenals being good at the major league level and that’s why teams want to give them chances."

That is, until, a better option comes along.

In the offseason, de Geus was DFA’d twice—first by the Blue Jays on January 10 to make room for closer Jeff Hoffman, then by the Pirates on February 22 after they signed Andrew Heaney.

“OK, Jeff Hoffman—can’t really argue with that one. Then you go to the Pirates, feeling pretty good. Oh, they sign Heaney—can’t really argue with that either,” de Geus said. “It's unfortunate, you always want to be the guy that, push comes to shove, teams want to keep around. But you just understand there's just so much more to it than just yourself. You're just a small piece in the whole system.”

Recent history has shown that it’s still possible to break free from DFA purgatory — even after multiple extended stays.

Reed Garrett, a fellow Rule 5 flameout, went to Japan and endured three career DFAs before he broke out with the New York Mets in 2024. de Geus’ former Arizona teammate Luke Weaver, cast off twice after a 6.40 ERA season, became the Yankees’ unlikely closer during their 2024 World Series run.

de Geus isn’t naïve to the grind. He knows that sticking in the majors usually takes a “perfect storm” — the right mix of timing, execution, and perception. That kind of break can be the only thing separating a stable job in the big leagues from another trip around the carousel.

“I think I've just always been like one piece away, personally,” de Geus said. “I think for as good and up and down as my career has been, I've always probably been landing the curveball, in the zone, 3-2, strikeout away from sticking around.

“But I’ve accepted it because I’ve seen it happen both in my own career and so many other guys. As much as we want to get to the big leagues, I’m okay with being on the carousel because it means that at least one other team likes me enough to have them tell me I’m worth being on their 40-man [roster].”