Unrestricted free-agent starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo is continuing to garner some interest on the market this offseason.
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2 Teams Most Interested in Gallardo
Friday, Dec. 18
According to FoxSports.com’s Jon Morosi, the Baltimore Orioles and the Houston Astros are the “most aggressive suitors” for Gallardo’s services.
The 29-year-old is preparing for his 10th campaign in the majors in 2016, after going 13-11 with a 3.42 ERA with the Texas Rangers last year, his only season with the team. He was traded to the Rangers from the Milwaukee Brewers for the final year of his five-year, $30.1 million deal he signed back in 2011, per Spotrac.com.
Gallardo has proven to be a consistent arm to have in a rotation, having started 30 or more games with 180.0 or more innings in each of his past seven years. He doesn’t necessarily have overpowering stuff, with a fastball that can hit 92 miles per hour.
He isn’t as much of a strikeout pitcher as he was earlier in his career. From 2009-2012, he recorded 200 or more strikeouts each season. Since then, he’s averaged just 137.
But it’s the movement he’s able to put on his pitches that makes him such a tough customer to figure out. His fastball has the ability to tail away from left-handed batters, while his secondary pitches can cross up the opposition.
MLB took a look at just how well things can go when all of his pitches are working, even if he isn’t getting strikeouts:
For the two teams interested, this is a starter that could bolster their rotations.
The Astros, despite having five solid arms in their rotation at the moment, are looking for more, as owner Jim Crane told Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle:
We’d definitely like to bring in another good starter. Certainly, I’ve told Jeff (general manager Jeff Luhnow) since I’ve got here, being an old pitcher, there’s three things in baseball: pitching, pitching and pitching. You saw that in the playoffs again. Teams with the dominant pitching seemed to go a little bit farther, particularly the Mets, (who) had a great starting rotation. Kansas City had a back-end bullpen which was pretty much unhittable.
Gallardo would be a nice No. 3 in the Astros’ rotation, giving 22-year-old Lance McCullers time to mature as the team’s fourth starter. His signing would allow Houston to let Scott Kazmir go if other teams are offering bigger money in free agency.
Pitching is just as an important need for the Baltimore Orioles. Last season, no regular Orioles starter recorded more than 12 wins and only one of them had an ERA under 4.00.
According to Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun, the Orioles were not going for the top of the market pitchers like David Price and Zack Greinke, but it’s the second tier that is more their speed. The team has expressed interest in Gallardo as early as Dec. 7, per Encina.
Gallardo could very well be a No. 1 starter in the Baltimore rotation, given the team has a prospective rotation of Ubaldo Jimenez, Chris Tillman, Miguel Gonzalez, Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy, according to RotoChamp.com.
Bringing in Gallardo would add a consistent arm that could also eat up innings at the top of the rotation. It could also give a break to a bullpen that was ranked fifth in the league in ERA but pitched almost 520 innings last season.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
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