In the depleting free agency market, Yovani Gallardo might be the best starting pitcher left without a team, although the Texas Rangers would love to re-sign him, while the Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros are all after the right hander as well.
Gallardo played for the Milwaukee Brewers from 2007 to 2014 before a trade that saw the Rangers sending three players to Milwaukee sent him to Texas. He didn’t make the All-Star game (just once in his career so far) in Texas, but had his best season ERA-wise, going 13-11 in 33 starts with a 3.42 ERA through 184.1 innings, although his WHIP was the highest of his career (1.416) and he struck out 5.9 hitters per nine innings, the worst of his career as well. His playoff experience helps cancel out some of the issues with his dropping numbers.
It seems the Orioles, Astros and Royals are all going after the same players, but there’s nothing new with so little quality left to hunt for. Gallardo isn’t your lockdown ace, and hasn’t played a complete game since 2011, but for the later part of the rotation he’s still one of the better players you can add to your team, with some interesting stuff, although it doesn’t come with the speed it once had. Gallardo was an All-Star in 2010, and also a silver slugger (hitting .254 that season), but that doesn’t matter for AL teams.
He made $14 million last season, and it’ll be interesting to see what the market is for him. He’s not going to get Johnny Cueto money, but a long term deal for around $15 million a season, maybe a bit more? Four or five years? Sounds about right, and the question is who of these teams, not known to be huge spenders at the moment, is willing to give him that kind of money. He’ll probably be at his most useful in Texas, but they might not be capable of offering him the most money.