The Orioles have agreed to sign Yovani Gallardo to a three-year, $35MM deal with a $13MM club option for 2019. He will be paid $9MM in 2016, $11MM in 2017, and $13MM in 2018. The 2019 option comes with a $2MM buyout, pushing the total guarantee to $35MM. The deal is pending a physical and does not include a no trade clause. The only incentives are small bonuses for awards (tweet).
Gallardo owns a career 3.66 ERA, 8.23 K/9, and 3.31 BB/9 across parts of nine major league seasons. After spending the bulk of his career with the Brewers, Gallardo was traded to the Rangers prior to 2015. He posted another solid campaign with a 3.42 ERA, although ERA estimators were less enthused by his work (4.00 FIP, 4.31 xFIP, 4.59 SIERA). It was his most contact oriented season – he had a career low 5.91 K/9 and 6.5 percent swinging strike rate.
The Orioles rotation was among the worst in the league last season, making Gallardo an important addition. While he’s not a traditional ace, he does have plenty of experience pitching in other bandbox ball parks. Milwaukee’s Miller Park and Texas’s Globe Life Park are two of the most home run friendly stadiums. So too is Camden Yards.
Interestingly, Baltimore inked Gallardo for substantially less than the Royals paid for Ian Kennedy. Both pitchers were expected to have similar difficulties on the free agent market. The former Padres starter is a year older than Gallardo. The two starters are comparably talented but Kennedy has the more inconsistent track record. Of course, Kennedy’s complicated deal is backloaded and includes an opt out after just two seasons, making an apples-to-apples comparison difficult. Kennedy also has a history of high strikeout rates while Gallardo is more of pitch-to-contact guy.
When the Rangers tagged Gallardo with the qualifying offer, some believed he should have accepted it. While the soon-to-be 30-year-old had a long wait to find a new home – pitchers and catchers have already reported to Orioles camp – Gallardo ultimately secured nearly three times the qualifying offer which was valued at $15.8MM this offseason. He’ll now be under contract through at least his age 32 season with a chance to return to the market in either 2019 or 2020.
Gallardo effectively replaces Wei-Yin Chen in the Orioles rotation. Chris Tillman, Ubaldo Jimenez, Kevin Gausman, and Miguel Gonzalez will undoubtedly form the rest of the rotation, although all four pitchers were disappointing in 2015. Jimenez’s 4.11 ERA was the best of the bunch while Tillman and Gonzalez finished with just under a 5.00 ERA. The club does have decent rotation depth including Odrisamer Despaigne, Tyler Wilson, Mike Wright, and out-of-options Dylan Bundy, but none of them offer a high ceiling. Gallardo is the de facto ace of this group.
The Orioles will lose the 14th overall pick in the 2016 draft as a result of the signing. The slot value of the pick is $2.97MM. The Orioles also have the 28th overall pick which they received as compensation for losing Chen. However, they would also lose that pick if they sign Dexter Fowler.
Eduardo E. Encina of the Baltimore Sun was the first to tweet the two sides were finalizing a deal as well as the specific year-by-year terms. Jon Heyman reported the three-year, $35MM base contract with deferrals (tweet) and fourth year option. Chris Cotillo of SB Nation added that the option was for $13MM (tweet).
Wow, sure did take awhile
Finally I got tired of hearing “Orioles and Gallardo discussing things”
Ok now what pick do the mets move up to for this.
20th, I believe.
With the price of pitching, this deal really isn’t all that bad. Gallardo’s problem never really was the long ball,
Hes going to play infront of a good defense in a hitters park, like he did last year.
Just think, 3 years of Gallardo cost the same as one of Grienke,
The difference will probably be about 1 million dollars per run allowed. Plus greinke will throw more innings.
With the same number of pitches
The problem isn’t the value of the contract. The problem is a team with a bad farm giving out the 14th pick (along with 11 mil aav) to a 30 year old average pitcher with declining k numbers.
Yup…
Agreed. Couldn’t they have kept the pick and offered the Brewers a low level lottery ticket type prospect for Garza? Going forward I think Garza has the better future and he doesn’t make much more than Gallardo and I am sure the Brewers would have picked up a couple of million. Plus, Garza has AL East experience.
As a Brewers fan, I would have taken that Garza deal in a heartbeat.
Mets pick 20th in first found now
It’s cool how they super imposed the uniform on him in the picture. Looks natural.
I was thinking that myself. Darn good photoshop
Agreed, but you gotta figure they’ve had time to work on this since its been almost done for a week. Good work nonetheless, probably see the same for Fowler.
Trust me, as someone who used to do this type of stuff all the time, the fact that they’ve had 2 weeks to make it perfect means nothing. It’s talent, not time, that makes these look as amazing as they do. I could never get it to look this good. Amazing work!
I’m oddly happy as a Jay’s fan
He dominated the Jays. Must admit as a Jays fan, I was at the game
Ya I know but I doubt that will last if he’s facing our lineup 4-5 times this year instead of just the twice last year
true
Hopefully your just as oddly happy when the Orioles win the division
Haha. Even with him, the O’s will still own the cellar in the east.
Im pretty confident that that wont happen. IMO they’re the fifth best team in the ALE
Guess we will see. Boston has one outfielder with a year under their belt weak at the corners and unproven catchers. Toronto lost their two bext starting pitchers and Yankees have to rely on their oldest players ro step up. Orioles got rid of Spud Norris who had highest era in baseball. Looks like a bunch of dogs with fleas and Orioles have the haartz dog collar.
With Machado, Davis and Britton i guess they do have a chance to compete. But this is going to be an extremly competitive division this year. And Buerhle was not Toronto 2nd best pitcher, that was definitley Estrada. For us we really need Stroman to keep progressing into an ace and for Hutch to finally break out
which two best pitchers are you talking about? price is one…who is the other? their rotation was price, dickey, stroman, estrada, buehrle/hutch down the stretch. if you’re talking about buehrle as being the second best pitcher in that group then you would be wrong. he was pitching so poorly that they couldn’t even put him on the playoff roster.
now i get that buehrle has been a pretty good major league pitcher during his career, but at this point he is not better than stroman nor dickey and estrada is probably better than him too.
And then there’s the Rays. Lots of good pitching and they did get a major upgrade to their OF by trading for Dickerson, but still that lineup looks really anemic. Unless of course you think that Brad Miller will have a breakthrough season at SS. I guess it’s possible he flashed power his first half season with the M’s.
Jays will be in it on the strength of that incredible lineup. And I’d disagree that they lost their two best starters.
Yes they lost Price, but Stroman with his exceptional command is very good and very well suited for that park with his heavy GB profile. And Estrada was very good too—it will be interesting to see if he can continue to induce lots of fly balls that aren’t struck very hard.. Is it a skill or he was he just lucky? We’ll find out.
Let’s not forget about the Rays pitching, defense and retooled offense. If the staff can steer clear of James Andrews this year then they’re clearly the team to beat in ALE
That’s lower than the reported prices over the past week and half.
If the Orioles were “expecting” to sign both Gallardo AND Fowler, abd understood they’d be losing both the 14th and 29th pick, you think they’d sign Fowler first ensuring that their 14th pick would be going to the NL(Cubs) and the 29th pick would be staying in the AL(Rangers). Then again maybe Tbe Orioles aren’t as sure as they once were in the ability to sign Fowker
Thats not how it works. Both picks just ‘disappear’ if you will.
The picks go to the end of the first round, so either way, both teams will get a pick around 25-35.
Thank you for clarifying
When a team signs a free agent with draft pick compensation, the team losing him (in this case the Rangers) doesn’t receive the other team’s pick, they get a compensation pick at the end of the first round. Meanwhile, the Orioles 14th overall pick just disappears.
Does the Rangers get the 14th pick ?
They do not.. As it stands right now, they’ll pick 31st.
19 and 31
Do the Rangers get the 14th pick ?
No, they get a pick near the end of the first round
This guy is over rated
If the Orioles go on to sign Fowler as well, they will still have have four picks in the top 100. 54th, 69th, 76th, and 91st.
The Orioles will go from a Pool Bonus of $10.4MM to probably under $7MM for the 2016 draft if they lose both the 14 and 29th overall picks,
If Gallardo becomes a FA in 3 years, after the 2018 season, he is going to find himself struggling to find a home again with all the at this point expected “quality” F starters projected to hit the market. I just don’t see this move by the Orioles as a needle mover for them going forward and not sure it was worth giving up the 14th draft pick.
correction: “FA” starters.projected…..
Gallardo can at least hold his own. Wich with the orioles bullpen is all they need. While Tillman should bounce back im not as sure about Gonzalez. To make a long story short they needed rotation depth, and they got it pretty cheap by todays standards
“cheap by todays standards” …probably an accurate statement. But like I said previously I don’t think he moves the needle for the Orioles and that in my opinion calls into question was he worth the 14th overall pick and the loss of almost $3MM in slot money. In my opinion no but we’ll see how he does pitching in the AL East and in the AL for more than one season with the DH.
Gallardo will be 33 years old. If he’s smart, he’ll take the qualifying offer at that age.
If the Orioles are smart, they won’t offer it.
Double yup…at least the contract is a lot more reasonable than the $40 to $45 million range first reported. If the Orioles are out of it around the trade deadline, and some contender is desperate for a starter, the contract won’t scare them away. And we may get a decent prospect.
But with Buck probably doing his usual fantastic job no matter what he has to work with, I don’t see the Orioles being completely out of it by late July.
Now: can Duquette talk Fowler down to a more reasonable price?
Final note: kiss that beard goodbye Yovani. Orioles have a no beard policy.
The QO after the 2018 season will probably be close to $20MM if it is under the same parameters as it is currently.
34 million deferred till 2015? Seriously you have to defer money on a 13 million a year contract? What a joke
$35M is not nearly three times of $15.8M. #math
I think the implication was if the 4th year option happened. His deal would be for $47MM.
If u add the option it is
the o’s must me near cap so I’d doubt they will sign flower too. but good job on gettin it done
Deferred money on a $35 million contract? What a joke of an owner, what is it 34 million deferred tax free till 2045?
I’m thrilled, what a steal for the Orioles.
Good move For the O’s!
happ 36? and 3? and this…
nice shopping Baltimore Orioles …as a Toronto Bluejays fan I admit this was well played… if they get fowler for 2 and 20 well this team will have an impact
it’s a 5 team race in AL east..,
can’t wait…
go jays go
We didnt have to give up a draft pick to get Happ though. Dont forget this is 35 million plus the 14th overall pick
I am ecstatic with this signing. We definitely needed a decent veteran SP and managed to get Gallardo on a 3yr/35 mil contract. This is a team friendly deal and while he isn’t going to vie for the Cy Young pitching at Camden Yards he will eat up innings and keep us in the game. Now bring Fowler on board and let’s play ball.
Wasn’t Dylan Bundy supposed to be the next O’s ace? Surprised to read that his ceiling isn’t high anymore.
his ceiling is probably lower now because he hasn’t pitched in like 2½ years due to injury so he hasn’t progressed or developed from where he was 2½ years ago. in fact he’s probably worse than he was back then since he’ll be coming off surgeries and will need time just to get back to the level he was at.. he’s young so he has time to recapture his potential but at the same time, numerous surgeries could mean you’re not able to do stuff that you were doing before or were projected to be capable of doing. that’s probably why scouts would consider his ceiling to be lower now than it was before.
this is all it took to sign gallardo? what was the hold up lol?
he should have just taken the QO this year and again next year if they offered it. he would have basically made the same amount of money without the 3rd year.
Well, he was seeking closer to 4 years, $50 million at the start of the offseason. Both he and his agents probably realized that was a pipe dream at this point and continually lowered their asking price until it got to where it is now. Also, I agree that he should have probably taken the QO this year seeing as how the market was quite literally flooded with pitching, but have you even seen NEXT year’s free agent pitching class? It’s abysmal. Gallardo would be the second best pitcher on next year’s market, behind only Stephen Strasburg. He’d never accept the QO next year because the 4 years, $50 million that he couldn’t get this year, would have been very attainable next year.
In a vacuum the deal isn’t bad, but the problem is the Orioles still have a very bad rotation, and once they sign Fowler. They will spend 20+ million a year on moderate players with quite a bit of risk, there is little upside to Gallardo but given the strikeout rate and periphals there is risk he is bad, even in year 1 of the deal. On top of that you are going to give up 2 top picks for a terrible farm system, and while you aren’t a total non contender, you will need quite a few things to go optimistically well to finish with 85+ wins and be a legitimate playoff contender.
Quite frankly I think the Fowler/Gallardo moves would be fine if they used Chris Davis’s money much more smartly and not on Davis
Really!? I’m not so sure that last years version was the real O’s. They had a good bit of bad luck with injuries and under performance. Both Tillman and Gonzalez under performed their career numbers to go along with just about everyone they put in LF and RF. Schoop and Wieters missed a good portion of the beginning of the season. Hardy played most of the year hurt and Adam Jones missed the whole last month of the season.
I think the real O’s team rests in between the 2014 and 2015 team. Probably 87-90 wins.
There is no way you can look at this years team and think it is on paper a 87-90 win team, a lot would have to go right for that to happen. The only difference Tillman and Gonzalez did with there career numbers is they both actually pitched to there periphals. They didn’t have a ton of injuries to important players (Machado and Davis combined to miss 2 games). And lets not act like nothing went right for them, Machado and Davis both blew any reasonable expectations out of the water.
They look like a 76-79 win team with that rotation
Well I didn’t include Machado and Davis because they were things that went right. Hence not bad luck. O’s also had good luck with Givens and Brach in the bullpen.
As far as Gonzalez and Tillman go. They are both fly ball pitchers who rely on good outfield defense. O’s pretty much had a keystone cop thing going on in the corners last year. Even Parra looked pretty bad on defense playing for them.
No team in the AL East is a complete team. Every one of them has holes. I’ll take my chances in a shootout.
Lets take a look at the O’s lineup if they sign Fowler… Your looking at one of the best lineups in baseball… 230 homers and guys who get on base. Extremely dangerous. Also, multiple Gold Glove type guys… Probably one of the best defenses in baseball.
Fowler .360 OBP 20 Homers
Manny .300 35 homers
Jones .280 30 Homers
Davis .260 50 Homers
Schoop .300 20-30 homers
Trumbo .250 30 Homers
Wieters .260 20 Homers
Hardy .280 15 homers
Kim .280 hitter with a .360 OBP 10 Homers
Lets take a look at the Pitching staff now…
Gallardo- Innings eater- 3.50 ERA
Gausman- Poise for a breakout season-3.50 ERA 180 innings plus.
Gonzalez- Had a down year-4.00 ERA
Tillman- Had a bad year vs the Jays- 6.00 ERA vs the Jays alone and a sub 3.50 ERA vs everyone else. 3.50 ERA
Ubaldo- 3.80 ERA- Looking like the old Ubaldo again.
Lets take a look at the depth in case Tilly, Gonzo struggle…
Worley
Bundy
Chris Jones
Multiple minor league options.
There bullpen is probavly 2nd to the Yanks for best bullpen in baseball…
Givens-1.80 ERA
Oday-1.50 ERA
Britton-1.90 ERA
Bottom line- The O’s are looking to be a 90 win team… They have one of the best lineups in all of baseball… One of the best Bullpens and one of the best defenses… Rotation has great depth. They will be a true contender.
Basically you are projecting the 90percentile of every player, that is pretty much the definition of delusional