Free agent righty Kyle Kendrick has agreed to sign with the Rockies, sources tell Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). The deal is for one year and $5.5MM, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets. Kendrick, a client of Relativity Baseball, can earn an additional $500K if he logs 190 innings.
Colorado was said to be eyeing another starter addition, with Jayson Stark of ESPN.com tweeting earlier today that Kendrick remained a possibility. Though the Rockies added a rotation candidate recently via trade in David Hale, bringing in Kendrick should insulate the organization from feeling compelled to elevate any of its top prospects outside of its preferred timetable.
Still only 30, Kendrick has been a durable innings-logger over his career, missing only 15 games total on the DL. He has at times split time between the rotation and pen, but racked up 381 frames in 62 starts over 2013-14. Of course, the results have not always been there: he owns a cumulative 4.65 ERA over the past two seasons. More promisingly, Kendrick was good for a 3.61 earned run mark across 2011-12. But ERA estimators have consistently valued him in the low-to-mid 4 earned per nine range.
