Royals Make Jordan Lyles Signing Official, DFA Ryan O’Hearn
After a delay of more than a week, the Kansas City Royals' signing of Jordan Lyles is now official. The right-handed pitcher is joining the team on a two-year contract, although the terms of the deal weren't disclosed per club policy.
Lyles, who is now set to enter his 13th season in Major League Baseball, has a career 5.10 ERA but has pitched more than 1,300 innings over that span. In the last two seasons alone, he's worked through 359 frames of work and is beginning to establish himself as an innings-eater of sorts — something the Royals clearly coveted this offseason throughout their search for more starting pitching. Additionally, Lyles checks off another one of Kansas City's presumed boxes by being able to limit walks at a decent rate (2.61 BB/9 this past season).
In order to make room for Lyles on the 40-man roster, the Royals have designated first baseman Ryan O'Hearn for assignment. Just last month, the 29-year-old came to terms with the team on a one-year, $1.4 million contract to avoid arbitration and lock him in for another year in Royal blue. Before the calendar even flipped to 2023, however, that future is now in serious doubt.
As always with a DFA situation like this, the Royals do have seven days to work out a trade. If that doesn't happen and O'Hearn also passes through waivers, he'll become an outright free agent because he has more than three years of service time at the big-league level.
In parts of five seasons with the Royals, O'Hearn has slashed .219/.293/.390 in 342 games. His production at the plate fell way off following a stellar 44-game cup of coffee as a rookie, as his wRC+ totals in the following four years were 68, 64, 69 and 72, respectively. Despite the aforementioned guaranteed contract, it appears that Kansas City is fine with cutting ties here in order to officially bring Lyles into the fold.
