The Rangers have reached an agreement with free-agent right-hander Jordan Lyles, pending a physical, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. It’ll be a two-year, $16MM contract for the Ballengee Group client, per Jeff Passan of ESPN. Lyles did not crack the top 50 of MLB’s best available free agents entering the offseason, making this significant payday all the more surprising.
This is the second major starting addition this offseason for the Rangers, who previously signed fellow righty Kyle Gibson to a three-year, $28MM deal. He and Lyles will presumably join high-end holdovers Mike Minor and Lance Lynn to comprise four-fifths of the Rangers’ rotation in 2020, while Kolby Allard figures to have the inside track on the last spot in their staff.
This type of deal for Lyles would have been unthinkable just a couple months ago. The 29-year-old struggled through the first half of 2019 as a member of the Pirates, with whom he posted a dismal 5.36 ERA across 82 1/3 innings. But Lyles turned his season (and maybe his career) around after the Brewers acquired him from the Pirates before the July 31 trade deadline. The Milwaukee version of Lyles put up a stellar 2.45 ERA over 58 2/3 innings, though the rest of his numbers weren’t really all that impressive. Lyles logged 9.8 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 4.79 FIP as a Pirate, and he recorded 8.6 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and a 4.42 FIP after heading to the Brewers.
Lyles will have to keep proving he’s for real, but his pact with the Rangers continues a nomadic career. A first-round pick of the rival Astros in 2008, Lyles pitched for five different major league clubs before agreeing to sign with the Rangers. As that fact suggests, Lyles hasn’t been particularly effective in the majors, but the Rangers are prepared to bank on him as a solid mid- to back-end starter over the next couple years. And the Lyles pickup further indicates the Rangers are hoping to break their three-year playoff drought in 2020, when they’ll open a new stadium. He and Gibson are now in tow, and Texas has shown interest in top free agents such as third basemen Anthony Rendon and Josh Donaldson. They were also part of the sweepstakes for Zack Wheeler, Cole Hamels and Howie Kendrick before they signed elsewhere.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Interesting pickup. Very up and down. Wonder if it’s a minor league or major league deal.
well considering its $16 mil for 2 years…I’m gonna take a wild guess it’s not a minor league deal…..
I posted this right when it came up which said more to come. I wouldn’t have given that much to him lol
Holy crap! What a ridiculously bad deal. Teams are just lighting money on fire this winter.
Lol
It’s part of MLB’s plan to eliminate 42 minor league teams so they can increase pay.
Its a record setting milb deal
It might as well be as it’s more than likely that Lyles will get injured or pitch like a AAAA pitcher than an $8M a year pitcher.
Are you being funny?
Great sign for rangers if he can be the man he was in 2nd half of the year
Terrible signing if he is the pitcher he was for the previous six or seven seasons before that. Sample size, my friend.
Trends?
Probably done adding starters. Lyles and Gibson in this market…not great
This is an overpay. I wouldn’t have given him $8 million over two let alone 16 for 2. I’d rather Teheran.
us Braves fans will let you have him.
Teheran is 10 times better than Lyles.
Probably more like 2x better, but still significantly better. Wonder what he’ll get
I think this was a good move by the Rangers. Unfortunately I was really hoping to see Brewers re-sign him. He was great for us down the stretch and would nicely replace the loss of Davies, Anderson and Nelson as a 3-5 starter.
As a Pirates fan that seems like a lot for a guy who had the wheels completely fall off.
Nvm didn’t know what he did for the Brewers, just remembered him being a disaster with us after a strong start.
not worth 8 million outside of Milwaukee
Because Milwaukee inflates pitchers’ values?
No because the only team Lyles doesn’t have an ERA above 5 with is Miluakee (2.64).
So you’re saying there’s Somethin’ in the water in Milwaukee…
Malted barley and hops
maybe that’s piped into the water lines in the opposing dugouts, leading to their hitters to swing at anything.
Seems like an overpay on the surface, but I think we are just not used to the new market. Money aside, I like the idea of taking a chance on Lyles.
Career -1.4 bWAR.
Because paying for what a guy has done rather than for what he is going to do is so smart?
I wouldn’t call willingness to take risks smart, and it can often be the opposite, but it’s something good owners have to do from time to time.
Yeah, but this is Davis and Simpson, not good owners.
So you would rather chase fools gold, than look at his 9 year mlb past? Or, you must be the ghost of Christmas future?
No. Again, I don’t love Lyles. But for the Rangers, they’re gambling that they can get him back to the form he was in in Milwaukee. I like that idea even though it’s a decent risk.
Yea that amazing 4.42 FIP form
Jordan Lyles attorney at law
Call for a free quote today!
Minor 2.0? Good pickup, he was solid for the Brewers.
Minor was a good starter got injured become a great reliever and then became a great starter. Little different career arc.
Wow 16 million for this guy? Ok
Don’t know if its just the market increasing, but every player who is in there last yr and wants a large contract should asked to traded to the Brewers lol
To the posters who are pro players just remember, you wanted this. Prepare yourselves, your team might be the next to overpay!
Just curious, what do you mean by “pro players”? Is the alternative pro billionaire?
He is addressing MLBTR commenters who play in the majors. There are quite a few of us .
Correct.
If you take away 6 bad innings that he had in the month of July over 3 starts where he gave up 19 runs, he had a pretty decent season.
25 starts with a 3.02 ERA if you take those 3 games out
Nothing to brag about, but could be a decent pickup.
Very interesting rangers92…..
Given the direction we’ve gone with pitching, I’m guessing we’re all in on Rendon. I’m also guessing our pitching staff is pretty confident they can get more out of Gibson and Lyles than they’ve shown in past seasons. We’ll see. Next year should at least be interesting.
Yes, and if we are rocking a rotation of Minor, Lynn, Gibson, Lyles, Allard, and a lineup with rendon, gallo, calhoun, choo, andrus, santana, solak, and then maybe chirinos, and cron, then that is a WC team with 90+ wins. Remember last year people were sleeping on the nats offense, but some of the key players like kendrick, and eaton stepped up when people least expected. Fun time being a rangers fan, especially with what is going on in H-town.
And I remember when the Padres signed Lyles as a FA hoping he could live up to his prospect hype and he sucked, even for a 5 inning guy. I see little reason to believe that he’s learned how to pitch at 29.
Good for you I guess? We’re hoping we see better performance in Texas. Given the relative success we’ve seen in rebounding pitchers (Minor/Lynn) as of late, we’re hopeful that our staff sees something in these guys that can help him develop and improve upon. Obviously it’s going to be a wait and see game for us but there’s nothing wrong with hopeful optimism.
If WAR is such a great stat, then why did Mike Minor and Justin Verlander have the same WAR? Why was Garrett Cole 4th in WAR behind JV, Minor and Lance Lynn? This makes no sense.
Melchez-concocted numbers to be used with caution.
I think it good generally to give a sense of benefit.
Explosion of real data is the most useful part of the statistics revolution and the ready access to it.
There was a great article earlier this year explaining your question.
JV has a great defense, neutral park, and pitched a lot against AL West lineups (weak offenses).
Lynn and Minor Had a bad defense, offensive park, and faced better offenses (mainly the Astros).
Everyone agrees JV is light years ahead of those 2, but for last year they both individually performed at a similar level to JV.
It’s a stat fans lean too heavily on.
Step 1: go to the Brewers
Step 2: perform well
Step 3: profit
lol something similar to this crossed my mind when I saw this signing. Brewers are like the Handsome Boys’ Modeling School of MLB
Very solid reference. Many might not appreciate it, but I do.
they made me take off my top!!
Phase 1: collect underpants
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: profit
Don’t forget that it was Miley’s trip to Milwaukee that led him to getting signed by the Astros. Everyone was so quick to say that Houston turned Miley around even though he put up better numbers the previous season in Milwaukee
I really hate this signing for the Rangers. Wouldn’t have given this dude half that money.
YEESSSSS!!! WE ARE GETTING RENDON!!!!
I think this signing means the rangers went a little cheap on the rotation, to spend big on the offense! RENDON IS HERE BABY!
BTW I love Lyles, and he will fit in the rotation great!
I guess he has solid upside in that if he can replicate his success he had in the second half of last season the Rangers could be looking at a ‘Frontline’ starter for back of the rotation $. But for $8M/season you’d think they could have signed someone more reliable than Lyles though again having said that – I suppose there’s the potential upside if he can replicate his success with MIL down the stretch last season.
redundant.
Teddy-plus he said the same thing twice
So what happens with all that pitching depth the Rangers have?
Jurado, Burke, Allard, Palumbo, Mendez, Hernandez, etc.
Also the Rangers have beefed up their bullpen with the additions of Herget and Goody.
Some interesting trade is going to happen it seems..
I’m hoping we can get Trey Mancini some how.
Maybe involve another team that needs Mazara and a reliever like Clase/Montero/Leclerc that can give up a prospect or two along with the Rangers giving up two pitchers and Guzman.
Or something along those parameters
Also
Sign Rendon
Sign Chirinos
If we can’t swing a trade for Mancini then Sign CJ Cron and platoon him with Guzman at 1B.
Gallo needs to be in RF and Calhoun in LF
I dont know where Mazara fits in anymore
Tons of trade-able depth from the rangers, yes I’d also like to see mancini, or maybe even go trade some of that depth to the cubs for contreras… but i’d like to see chirinos end his career a ranger, so yeah i’d go mancini.
Gallo is a very good CF…..
Gallo did really well in center for sure.
But it seems like they want to keep him in a corner outfield slot to keep him healthy and fresh. CF will beat him to death. He’s a big bodied dude.
His arm would play well in RF imo.
Him or Josh Bell he’s from the area. Then sign Pillar to play CF. AND go hard after Donaldson on a 3 year deal while Jung and Wendzel get ready for Arlington.
5.11 career ERA? Tough luck Chris Volstad xFIP 4.30 would have been a better signing
Jordan Lyles had a good first month with Pittsburgh but seemed to blossom again with Milwaukee.
I presumed that he would go back there as that is the only team who unlocked his skills but there is no way that he is worth this much annual salary let alone for two years.
Rangers aren’t done yet. Maybe these pitching moves make a higher level FA that’s still out there take a 2nd look at joining Texas.
As a Jays fan, his name was thrown around locally as a fit here but for this amount of money and term I’m not sure it would make any sense.
It’ll turn, good signing
Not surprised on the amount. This is the same team that signed Jeff Mathis last year for 2 years 6MM
Maybe it’s time to look at what the Brewers have been doing to make everyone who has recently played for them worth a hell of a lot more money than anyone thought they’d be worth a short time ago. This isn’t happening by accident or coincidence.
Pitchers getting paid
That money for Lyles and Gibson could’ve been spent on a better pitcher all together
Like who?
Yeah, you’d almost have half the signing bonus for one of the top pitchers. If they flop, they can cut their losses and not worry about the long term effect of a Pujols type deal.
It’s amazing how much the market has swung back in favour of the players this offseason. I wonder if teams and owners were beginning to really anticipate a player strike if they kept getting cheaper and cheaper every offseason. This might stop that aha.
MadBum is definitely getting 100 million. Would anyone be surprised if Cole got 300 million in this market?
Brewers lose another important player from last season. The dismantling of last year’s team continues. Brewers too cheap to retain their good players. They are waiting for the Baseball Dollar Store in February.
Do the Brewers have any starters left from last year? Seems like they’re headed in the wrong direction.
It’s become a dumpster fire. No free agent has stayed because they are too cheap. On top of that they non tendered six guys. Unbelievably they have six guys under contract from last year’s closing 25. Who woukd have predicted this flux and dismantling?
They have so many spots to fill now that with their cheap ways they have no chance at bringing in enough quality talent. I see them finishing at best 3rd in NL central whatever they do.
Maybe Stearns will surprise us but this roster is gutted presently.
Relax, pitching depth was not a problem. The Brewers lack TOR arms not backend question marks. They’ve lost 9 players who actually contributed meaningful playing time last year (Anderson, Thames, Grandal, Moose, Pom, Lyles, Guerra, Claudio, and Grisham). Davies was replaced by Lauer in the trade. And they’ve already got a catcher. This is far from a dumpster fire. Being cheap is different than resourceful. Grandal, Moose, Pom and Lyles all got contracts way above their projected value.
Maybe the farm is ready to produce some major league ready ball players to replace those that were jettisoned.
This season’s Joe Kelly?
Cole gonna get 40 mill a yr the way this markets going.
The Brewers have Brandon Woodruff and Adrian Houser from last year’s rotation.
They have Brett Suter, who was solid down the stretch this yr in relief after recovering from TJ. I believe plans will be to jave him in the starting rotation in 2020.
They have Brett Suter, who was solid down the stretch this yr in relief after recovering from TJ. I believe plans will be to have him in the starting rotation in 2020.
What did the Brewers know that the other four major league teams didn’t know about this guy? A 1.4 Whip everywhere else but Milwaukee? A Five plus ERA everywhere else but Milwaukee? It doesn’t make sense. The only club that should have offered him that $$$ is Milwaukee.
Exactly. They likely offered 3 a year.
Lol, just pulling numbers out of this air?
I like the idea of signing Lyles but 2/16 is too much JD.
So which is it? Did the Rangers grossly overpay or are the Brewers cheap for not out bidding the Rangers?
Was it an overpay? Yes. Will he pitch as well as he did in Milwaukee? Maybe, probably not. He has 2 jobs in Texas; stay healthy and stay below a 5 ERA. The remaining starting pitchers should be excited at the possibility of signing at a rate much higher than expected.
Lyles = Mike Pelfrey Tigers signing from a few years ago
IF Rendon and Donaldson sign elsewhere, the Rangers still need a 3B.
What about signing Keuchel and Castellanos for the money, then moving a SP to the Yankees for Andujar?