Angels sign starting pitcher Trevor Cahill to one-year deal worth $9 million guaranteed

The Angels have added to their rotation in once again, in Trevor Cahill. Ken Rosenthal first had the scoop.

The deal is for just one-year and Cahill’s base salary will be $9 million, with playing time incentives (based on the number of starts, I imagine) that can max out the deal to $10.5 million.

Cahill, now 30, was a workhorse once coming into the league, making 153 starts in his first five MLB seasons. Injuries and ineffectiveness followed, but Cahill turned it around in San Diego, where in 2017 he threw 61 innings (11 starts) and striking out over 10 batters per nine innings with a respectable walk rate, and limiting home runs. It didn’t last in the second half of the year with the Royals, though.

Fast forward to 2018 and Cahill performed well once again with the Athletics, to the tune of 21 starts, an 8.18 K/9, 3.35 BB/9, and a 3.54 FIP, with just a 0.65 HR/9 allowed. While the durability of Cahill is certainly in question, there’s reason to believe Cahill is effective (when healthy) as a mid-to-back of the rotation arm.

The Angels rotation now looks as follows:

(1) Andrew Heaney

(2) Tyler Skaggs

(3) Trevor Cahill

(4) Matt Harvey

(5) Jaime Barria

(etc.) Felix Pena, Nick Tropeano, J.C. Ramirez

(Minors) Griffin Canning, Jose Suarez

I’m surprised that Cahill’s cost was this low considering his 2 fWAR this past season, and 1.3 fWAR with the Padres. The Angels are clearly going after performance rather than durability at an acceptable cost here. In the fly-ball haven that is the AL West, that’s not an awful strategy to employ.

More details to come on Cahill’s playing time incentives, should they be released.