The Kansas City Royals announced this morning that they have signed right-handed pitcher Jordan Lyles to a two-year deal. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. In a corresponding move, infielder Ryan O’Hearn was designated for assignment.
Lyles, 32, is a 12-year Major League veteran who has pitched for seven different teams, including Houston (2011-13), Colorado (2014-17), San Diego (2017-18), Milwaukee (2018-19), Pittsburgh (2019), Texas (2020-21) and Baltimore (2022).
Last season with the Orioles, Lyles set career highs in wins (12, tied) and starts (32), and he recorded 179.0 innings, which fell just shy of his career high (180.0) set in 2021. Lyles’ 32 starts in 2022 tied for the 3rd most in the American League, and his 359.0 innings pitched over the last two seasons are the 5th most in the American League, trailing only Robbie Ray (382.1), Gerrit Cole (382.0), José Berríos (364.0) and Cole Irvin (359.1).
After going 4-7 in 15 starts through the first three months of last season, Lyles went 8-4 with a 3.95 ERA (41 ER in 93.1 IP) in 17 starts from July 1 through season’s end. His 8 wins over the final three months matched Dylan Cease, Shohei Ohtani and 2022 American League Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander for the 5th most in the AL during that time, trailing only Cal Quantrill (11), Shane Bieber (10), Luis Garcia (9) and Framber Valdez (9). Lyles induced a career-high-tying 18 groundball double plays in 2022, which matched Lucas Giolito for 5th most in the American League.
Lyles was a 1st-round pick by Houston in the 2008 Draft out of Hartsville High School in South Carolina and made his Major League debut less than three years later at the age of 20. Through the first eight seasons of his career, only 115 of his 217 appearances (53.0%) were starts. But since the 2019 season, 99 of his 104 appearances (95.2%) have been in a starting role.
