TAMPA — If Nathan Eovaldi returns to his 2015 form after recovering from last August’s Tommy John surgery, the Yankees may come to regret giving up on the right-handed starter.
Eovaldi eventually could be seeing a lot of the Yankees because the hard-throwing free agent appears headed to one of their AL East rivals.
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According to the Buster Olney of ESPN.com, Eovaldi agreed Sunday to a one-year, $2-million contract with a club option for 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Eovaldi is expected to be spend the entire 2017 season on the disabled list rehabbing and be ready to pitch again the following campaign.
The Yankees released Eolvaldi in November, and their decision was seemed to be a no-brainer because he would have been eligible for salary arbitration and likely would have received a big raise from the $5.6 million that he earned last season.
This signing could be a low-risk, high-reward payoff for the small-market Rays because Eovaldi is still young at age 27 and has the makings of an ace.
The 6-foot-2 Texan whose fastball has hit triple digests was the Yankees’ winningest pitcher in 2015 when he was 14-3 with a 4.20 ERA and 121 strikeouts over 154 1/3 innings. He was inconsistent last season before suffering his season-ending elbow injury in August, going 9-8 with a 4.76 ERA in 24 outings, 21 as a starter.
For his career, Eovaldi is 38-46 with a 4.21 ERA in six big-league seasons with the LA Dodgers (2011-2012), Miami Marlins (2012-14) and Yankees (2015-16).
Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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