For the Orioles, a new pitcher arrived just before a baseball lockout did.
It was just after midnight this morning when Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweeted that the Orioles were in agreement to add free agent right-handed pitcher Jordan Lyles on a one-year contract worth $7 million that includes a club option for the 2023 season.
Lyles pitched for the Texas Rangers the last two years. He signed a two-year deal with Texas for $16 million on Dec. 13, 2019. In 12 games during the shortened 2020 season he went 1-6 with a 7.02 ERA. In 32 games and 30 starts last season, he went 10-13 with a 5.15 ERA. Lyles was an innings-eater, throwing 180 innings, 33 1/3 more than John Means, who had the highest total for the O's in 2021. Lyles' innings total ranked 18th-most in the American League. He gave up 194 hits, including 38 homers, which led all of the big leagues. He posted 1.389 WHIP, allowing 9.7 hits per nine innings and 1.9 homers. He walked 2.8 per nine, with 7.3 strikeouts.
Lyles recorded a career-best 13 quality starts last season and pitched six innings or more 18 times. The Rangers went 13-17 in his starts. He pitched to a 4.86 ERA during the first half with 1.443 WHIP. In the second half his ERA was 5.49 and his WHIP was 1.327.
While Lyles, 31, had a 7.60 ERA in August, he pitched some of his best baseball of the year last September. He went 3-2 with a 2.87 ERA and 0.989 WHIP. He posted quality starts in four of five starts in the month, going seven innings three times.
Lyles was drafted in round one, No. 38 overall, by the Houston Astros in the 2008 First-Year Player Draft out of Hartsville High School in South Carolina. That was several years before current O's executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias joined the Astros in 2012. He was working with the St. Louis Cardinals when Houston drafted Lyles.
Lyles made his second-to-last start of the 2021 season for Texas against the Orioles. He threw 102 pitches at Oriole Park in a game where he took a 3-2 loss. Over 6 2/3 innings he allowed seven hits and three runs, all earned.
Lyles threw his fastball 49 percent of the time last season, according to Fangraphs.com, at an average velocity of 92.8 mph. He used his slider 26 percent, his curveball 18 percent and his changeup seven percent of the time. His groundball rate was just 37.6 percent, which would have ranked among the bottom half of O's pitchers last year, although Means was one of those with a lower rate at 32.9. Earlier in his career Lyles had groundball rates in the high 40's, even over 50 on occasion.
Meanwhile, a lockout is now in place in Major League Baseball as of 12:01 a.m. today. In a long statement, commissioner Rob Manfred said taking this move now was the best way to try to ensure that there will be a 2022 season.
Breakdown: $500K signing bonus, $5.5M base salary, $11M club option with $1M buyout. Lyles also will get $500K if he is traded at any time during the course of the deal. https://t.co/IrrFj0gGQq
-- Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 2, 2021
A lockout means:
-- Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) December 2, 2021
A freeze on trades & signings of major league players
No communication between teams and players on their major league rosters
No winter meetings
It doesn't mean games are canceled. The pressure won't mount until mid-to-late January. It'll get real then.