He appeared in 407 Major League Baseball (MLB) games over 14 seasons (1950–1951; 1953–1955; 1958–1966) with the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Athletics, Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies.

[2] In 1951, he made the Tigers out of spring training and appeared in five early-season games, all in relief; he was the winning pitcher in four of those contests, and compiled a low 1.42 earned run average in 122⁄3 innings pitched.

He won 36 games while losing 40 for Kansas City (for a winning percentage of .474) before being traded to the first-division White Sox on June 10, 1961.

[1] Appearing in the second All-Star Game held that summer, on July 30, 1962, at Wrigley Field, Herbert hurled three scoreless innings of relief and was credited with the victory when the AL broke a 1–1 deadlock and went on to a 9–4 triumph.

Herbert was traded to the National League Philadelphia Phillies that offseason, where he worked as a spot starter in 1965 (notching four complete games) and as a reliever in 1966, his last year in baseball.

Herbert threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and weighed 185 pounds (84 kg).