*Photo from the NY Daily News*
Quick PSA to all the readers. The CBA expired last night at midnight, and the MLB owners have instituted a lockout. Since there can be no transactions during a lockout and no signings or trades can happen, I'll be writing about the signings that happened before the lockout. Don't worry, there are still plenty of them coming, I've got you covered. Now here's the article.
With starter Michael Wacha off to the Red Sox, the Tampa Bay Rays needed a replacement for him in the rotation. They went the risky route. The Rays and RHP Corey Kluber have agreed to a one year, $8 million deal, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Rays have confirmed the deal.
Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said of Kluber's stuff that "The feel to pitch, the moxie, the guile, the cutter, the slider, the breaking balls, the feel for all of that is still very, very good. We saw it in our division last year that once he got rolling pretty good, there's more than enough there to compete at a high level."
Included in Kluber's contract as well are various performance incentives. According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, an extra $5 million can be earned by Kluber, pushing it up to $13 million. He gets an extra $500,000 if he reaches 10 starts, and another if he reaches 15. He'll make $1 million if he reaches 20 games started, and $1.5 million for both 25 and 30 starts.
Last season with the New York Yankees, Kluber had a 5-3 record with a 3.83 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP, striking out 82 hitters while throwing 80 innings, starting 16 games for the Yankees, including one no hitter. Kluber missed about 3 months last season as he was dealing with a right shoulder strain, limiting his action.
When he has been healthy, Kluber has had strong numbers, with a 103-61 record to go with a 3.19 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP, tossing 1,422 2/3 innings, making 220 starts and 5 relief appearances across 11 big league seasons, mixing in 3 straight all star game appearances from 2016 to 2018, all in a Cleveland Indians uniform.
This was not the first time the Rays had attempted to sign Kluber. Last year, coming off just a one inning pitched season with the Texas Rangers in 2020, the Rays had been in the mix for Kluber after trading Blake Snell and letting Charlie Morton go in free agency, only for Kluber to decide to sign with the Yankees instead, for an $11 million deal.
Despite lengthy injury problems in past seasons, Kluber is still not far removed from being his dominant "Klubot" self like he was in the middle of the 2010's. A resurgence can and could happen for Kluber in Tampa Bay, but it seems more likely that he'll be just a solid starter rather than the re-incarnation of Klubot. This is of course all dependent on if he can stay healthy.
Still, Rays manager Kevin Cash likes the depth in the pitching with Kluber signing, saying "You've got to feel good about the depth. I'll be the first to say you never can say that you have enough. We've seen it time and time again that we're going to continue to have as many pitching options, because we know it's a long season. And our track record has shown that we dive into our depth pretty hard on a yearly basis."
Kluber will add a veteran presence to a Rays rotation full of youngsters. The top 5 in the Rays rotation right now consists of Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen, Luis Patino, and Shane Baz, with Ryan Yarbrough and Josh Fleming able to start and come out of the bullpen. Yonny Chirinos and Brendan McKay are also likely to be in the mix for innings as they work their way back from injuries of their own.
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