8:10pm: Lyles will earn $1MM in guaranteed money from the deal, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports (via Twitter), with Heyman adding that the deal breaks down as $750K in salary and $250K as a buyout for the 2019 option. If Lyles’ 2019 option is picked up, Lin notes that the right-hander can also earn performance bonuses in that extra year.
7:10pm: The Padres have announced the signing of right-hander Jordan Lyles to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2019 season. Lyles’ deal is a Major League contract and FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman (Twitter link) reports that the deal is worth $750K. Lyles is represented by the Ballengee Group. In a corresponding move, the Padres also announced that lefty Travis Wood has been designated for assignment to create 40-man roster space.
Lyles signed a minor league deal with San Diego back in August and posted a 9.39 ERA over five starts for the Padres. That shaky stint underlined an overall rough year for the righty, as Lyles posted a 7.75 ERA over 69 2/3 IP with Colorado and San Diego. ERA indicators such as xFIP (4.64) and SIERA (4.37) painted a more flattering picture of Lyles’ 2017 performance, as he did suffer from an inflated .352 BABIP and a below-average 61.2% strand rate. On the other hand, Lyles also saw his home run rate balloon to a whopping 21.1%, an issue that hurt him both in Coors Field and Petco Park.
[Updated Padres depth chart at Roster Resource]
It’s worth noting that the Rockies exclusively used Lyles out of the pen over his 33 appearances in 2017 (and for 35 of his 40 games in 2016), while the Padres used Lyles only as a starter. Lyles’ MLB contract will ensure that he gets a shot at competing for a rotation job in Spring Training, though the Padres may also deploy him as a long man in the bullpen.
Despite his unimpressive numbers last year, the Padres clearly saw enough in Lyles to give him a big league deal, and it’s a fairly low-risk bet by the team that Lyles still has some untapped potential. He only just turned 27 in October, and Lyles does carry a pedigree as both a supplemental first-round pick in the 2008 draft and as a top-100 ranked prospect in his days in the Astros’ farm system.
It was just last February that Wood signed a two-year, $12MM (with an $8MM mutual option for 2019) contract with the Royals, with K.C. looking to reinforce its pitching depth by adding Wood as an option out of the rotation or bullpen. In either role, however, Wood badly struggled, posting a 6.91 ERA, 6.3 K/9 and 1.45 K/BB rate over 41 2/3 innings in a Royals uniform. Wood was dealt to the Padres as part of a six-player trade in July and he posted virtually identical numbers over 52 1/3 IP for San Diego, all of which came as a starting pitcher. Never a hard-thrower or a big strikeout-generator, Wood had traditionally found success by dominating left-handed batters or inducing a large number of infield pop-ups, though both skills seemed to evaporate for him in 2017.
The Royals are on the hook for Wood’s $6.5MM salary in 2018, and the $1.5MM buyout of his option will be split between the Royals and whichever team may next acquire his services. While his advanced metrics didn’t always reflect his on-field results, Wood posted good numbers out of the Cubs’ bullpen in 2015-16, so it seems like that teams in search of southpaw bullpen help will certainly consider him as a rebound candidate.
Wood could be claimed. Hes essentially free with KC paying his salary
If I remember correctly, the Padres took on his salary. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Nope. Royals paying his salary.
No. Royals are paying the full salary, they’re splitting the buyout, l mil or something
Nope, who ever takes wood next will split the buy out
The padres would have split it if they kept him so unless a team doesn’t take him, then the royals will pay everything
I can see the Cubs taking a chance on Wood again.
The cubs should take him
Baseball Reference says he was worth -0.8 WAR last season, and he’s got -3.1 WAR over his career. I’m not gonna be a pessimist and say that he shouldn’t have been signed at all, but I probably wouldn’t have signed him to a Major League Contract.
Just noticed that it actually changed to 1.2 And 3.8. Obviously WAR doesnt mean everything, but it does mean something.
Wood is a better hitter than pitcher.
Cubbie reunion ..? We could use some defensive help in LF!
Padres are paying it
Nope
Nope
Smells like a pirates claim
Touché
I agree. He pitches well against them at least
PRINT THE WORLD SERIES TICKETS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These appear to be some sort of cracker.
Hey… stop eating my tickets!
LMAO!!!
Wood should be a reliever, wouldn’t try to make him a starter again
Mark Polishuk who’s paying Wood’s contract, just wondering.
Royals.
I can see Travis Wood being a realistic FA option for both the Cubs and the White Sox.
Wood was excellent on the North Side as a swing-man under Joe Maddon through 2016. The Cubs currently have only Justin Wilson and Mike Montgomery as their likely bullpen southpaws come opening day.
As for the South Side, Wood’s last season as a full time starter came in 2014 under then Cub manager Rick Renteria. He wasn’t very good in that role as he also demonstrated in his 11 starts for the Padres this past season. The White Sox can use some veteran help in their bullpen in 2018. Wood might fill the bill with only Jace Frye and Aaron Bummer the only current southpaw relief options on their MLB roster.
Only? Teams generally don’t need more than 2 lefties anyway. It wouldn’t hurt, but I’m willing to bet most teams don’t have more than a couple lefties in their pen.
I assume he will be in the pen…
Wood to Braves?
Oakland will sweep up Wood
Reds could claim him since they are familiar with him and could use some cheap innings from either a starter or reliever.
I’d love to see Travis back in a Reds uni….
Wood is going back to the Cubs, it’s a no brainer
Ole shirt less Travis at the championship rally parade. We will take him back.
buccos need a lefty. and if someone else is paying the majority of salary, nutting will jump for joy.
Pretty much every AJ move this off-season has me shaking my head (or in the case of overpaying for Galvis, my fist). A team that suppose to approach .500 seems intent on adding players that are not the part of winning teams
Preller wanted Mitchell and headley can be dealt elsewhere like mets or they deal solarte and play headley at 3rd. if headleys playing well he can be dealt at the trade deadline. once moustakas finds a home itll open up solarte and headley deals.
galvis is a stop gap for tatis jr. again, if hes playing well and hitting well flip him at the deadline. we know his defense is elite.
dfa wood to sign lyles i mean pick and choose as neither was going to contribute much. richard perdomo lamet mitchell so its really pick and choose your 5th starter between wood and lyles.
Answer this question who was more likely to contribute to the next good Padres team: Galvis or De Los Santos?
Exactly. And Enyel probably would’ve debuted by the ASG.
You nailed it. I wonder if ownership is budding in again on baseball decisions. (As was rumored when Pads pursues Sandoval and Kemp a few yrs back.) Ron Fowler has made some stupid comments about being a .500 Team next year.
That’s the vibe I’m starting to feel regarding all of these recent transactions.
I remember when Fowler made those comments about being a .500 team in some interview a while back. I thought that it seemed like he was getting impatient and trying to rush the rebuild, which is would definitely be a red flag.
Answer- neither is likely to make contributions when padres are ready to compete.
Santos would have to hop over Lamet, Perdomo, Quantril, Gore, Lucchessi, Allen, Lauer, Morejon, Espinoza, Baez, maybe Nix for a rotation spot
His shot at the pen was also dimmed by the presence of yardley, wingenter, wieck, strahm, torres, and whoever doesnt crack the rotation.
Trading Santos is simply a gamble by preller to see if they can flip galvis for a decent prospect if he can have a good season at the plate come july. If he can he made a brilliant gamble. If not he made a poor gamble. But dont act like santos was sure going to be a stallwart for years to come with the padresor even contribute. Too many better pitchers ahead of him.
I think Galvis has more value giving these [kid] pitchers confidence to pitch-to-contact more than trade bait. Just look at what happened when we gave Shields a crap defense and he spent his time trying to strike everybody out and started walking people in the process. You need to know the guys behind you will catch the ball, and Galvis is a guy who can do that, whether it’s for 2018 or through 2020.
Neither.
The thing is De Los Santos could have been traded when the Padres are on the cusp of contending for a player who WOULD be around when the Padres are contending. Instead we trade him for someone who won’t. And as for trading Galvis in July, there has to be demand for a trade to occur and we were the ONLY team who needed a shortstop this offseason. Our only hope of getting something for his is if some contender’s shortstop goes down with an injury and even then the prospect we get back will probably not be much better than De Los Santos.
Mmhm. And what will happen when he leaves after 2018? our pitchers will just go back to trying to strike everybody out because they can’t rely on their infield defense.
DLS could have contributed by either pitching for the next good Padres team or, more likely, by being traded as part of a package for a controllable SS or SP.
answer this question: does a baseball team need a shortstop?
Sign Erick Aybar or Alcides Escobar. Done.
Well then maybe Rondon finds his glove by then
He has the speed and range
Just not the accuracy
Bat at the big league lvl unknown
Galvis entrenched at SS
You brain dead
Lyles was once viewed along with Altuve, Springer and Keuchel as part of a good up and coming young group for the stros. Fortunately the others did well and we added McCullers, Correa and Bregman to that group but sad that Lyles never panned out. He had a few good games, but mostly bad, and never showed anything to indicate he could consistently put together a string of good appearances. Here’s hoping he finally puts it together.
He’ll be next year’s Jered Weaver in the Padres rotation.
I don’t know about that one
But Lyles might be heading to the pen
seems like wood, is a no brainier claim for the pirates.. lefty, did semi decent previously in the central and cheap. duno if it would be good but probably worth a shot at 750k
Another head scratching move by Preller to say the least..
First the Galvis trade, then this signing? If we are signing lame duck pitchers like this to ML deals then why are we even wasting time on Hosmer?
I would have entertained bring back either one of Cashner/Ross before giving Lyles an MLB deal. Very disappointed in the Padres offseason thus far.
Cash is a power pitcher who struck out 4.6/9 last year. Buyer beware. I’d swerve hard to stay out of his way, since it appears that anything he’d gained has been lost.
Ross hasn’t done jack squat in two years, either in IP or what he did when he got back on the mound. I’d be more inclined to bring him back on account of maybe he’ll bounce back from an injury woe, but why?
Lyles looks like hot garbage, except A- he’s going into his year-27 season (as opposed to year-31 like those other guys), B- his walks dropped and his strikeouts improved last year, C- he’s getting out of Colorado for the first time since he was a kid, D- his FIP was quite favorable (although by no means were his FIPs *good*), and E- and F- he only costs $1M. If he stinks in Peoria, we cut him. No big deal.
I’m not doing jumping jacks about Galvis, but I think it will be a nice ripple effect on a guy who was leapfrogged in the organization and would’ve been eligible for Rule V next year. Better to get something now.
Does Preller know what he is doing? How could he even have traded for him
This is either Preller, Welke or Logan White hoping one of their once-scouted, highly-touted prospects catches lightning in a bottle (a la Drew Pomeranz, un la Zach Lee).
For $1M? Okay. Have at it, Balsley!
Keep in mind: we have no idea what’s been going on behind closed doors or over the winter. He could easily be trash, or he might tap into the potential that had him pegged as a prospect years back. At age 27, this is a great year for a breakout.