Orioles re-sign Chris Tillman to a one-year, $3 million deal with incentives (also add OF Alex Presley on minors deal) - BaltimoreBaseball.com
Dan Connolly

Orioles re-sign Chris Tillman to a one-year, $3 million deal with incentives (also add OF Alex Presley on minors deal)

After months of conjecture, the Orioles have re-signed right handed pitcher Chris Tillman to a one-year, big-league deal worth $3 million with incentives that could reach up to $10 million, according to a source.

Tillman, who turns 30 in April, has never pitched a major league game for any other team besides the Orioles in his nine seasons in the majors. For a chunk of that time, he was the club’s best starter, but he had an injury-riddled disaster of a season in 2017 – going 1-7 with a 7.84 ERA in 24 games (19 starts). He didn’t begin his season until May due to a right shoulder injury.

A free agent at season’s end, Tillman, like most major league free agents this offseason, had to endure a waiting game before finally re-signing a one-year, make-good pact with the Orioles. Tillman, who lives in Sarasota, had been working out at the Orioles’ organization’s facilities in Florida while awaiting a 2018 deal.

In his career — which started with the Seattle Mariners before he was dealt as a minor leaguer in 2008 as part of the Erik Bedard trade — Tillman is 73-55 with a 4.43 ERA in 203 major league games (198 starts).

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He worked out for the Detroit Tigers on Saturday and was choosing among offers from the Tigers and Orioles and one other team.

He now joins a rotation that includes holdovers Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy as well as newly signed Andrew Cashner – all right-handers. The Orioles have one rotation spot open, and that presumably will be a battle among right-handers Mike Wright, Miguel Castro and Gabriel Ynoa and lefty Rule 5 pick Nestor Cortes.

The Orioles also announced on Monday that they have signed left-handed hitting outfielder Alex Presley to a minor-league deal with an invitation to spring training. Presley, 32, hit .314 with a .354 on-base percentage in 71 games with the Tigers last year. He is a career.263 hitter with a career .306 on-base percentage in eight seasons with five different big league teams.

The Orioles have been looking for a left-handed-hitting right fielder that can also play every outfield position.

FanRag Sports first reported Tillman had re-signed.

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