The Dodgers are signing right-hander Jordan Lyles to a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post on X. The veteran might need a bit of ramp-up time as he hasn’t pitched in official game action since April.
Lyles, 33, began the year with the Royals. He had signed a two-year, $17MM pact going into 2023 and pitched out of the Kansas City rotation in the first year of that deal. He took the ball 31 times for the Royals but finished the year with an unimpressive 6.28 earned run average.
Coming into 2024, he was nudged out of the rotation in Spring Training as Alec Marsh won the fifth starter’s job behind Cole Ragans, Brady Singer, Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. Lyles made five scoreless relief appearances to start this year but hasn’t pitched since. On April 22, he was placed on the temporarily inactive list to attend to a personal family matter and transferred to the restricted list the next day.
Whatever the personal matter was, it has apparently been resolved enough for Lyles to return to baseball. Just a few days ago, the Royals reinstated him from the restricted list but evidently didn’t plan on having him back on their roster, as they released him. That leaves them on the hook for what remains of his contract. If Lyles ends up being selected by the Dodgers, they would only owe him the prorated portion of the league minimum for any time spent on their roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Royals pay.
The Dodgers’ rotation has been through plenty of turmoil this season and it’s sensible enough for them to add a veteran innings-eater type like Lyles. Bobby Miller posted an 8.07 ERA and got himself optioned down to the minors. Walker Buehler struggled in his return from Tommy John surgery and is on the injured list with a hip injury. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a rotator cuff strain and is out until at least mid-August. Both Emmet Sheehan and Dustin May required season-ending surgeries.
Tyler Glasnow also had a brief stint on the IL but was reinstated yesterday. Clayton Kershaw has missed the entire campaign so far after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery, but he will be making his season debut today. While the return of those two was most welcome, it led to a roster crunch that resulted in James Paxton getting designated for assignment. Behind Glasnow and Kershaw, the Dodgers have rookies River Ryan, Gavin Stone and Justin Wrobleski filling out their rotation.
They will most likely find some kind of external addition to that group prior to next week’s trade deadline, but there’s no harm in having a veteran like Lyles getting loose in their system somewhere. He’s been pretty reliable in his career, as he hasn’t been on the 60-day IL since 2015. As recently as 2022, he was able to be a solid back-end rotation guy, as he made 32 starts for the Orioles that year with a 4.42 ERA. Once he gets back in game shape, he’ll give the Dodgers a bit of non-roster depth.