The Royals announced Wednesday that they’ve signed left-hander Dallas Keuchel to a minor league contract. ESPN’s Jeff Passan notes that Keuchel held a workout for clubs last week, which the Royals attended. He’ll earn a prorated $2MM salary for any time spent on the major league roster.
Keuchel, 37, has pitched in parts of 13 big league seasons and was one of the top lefties in the sport at his peak. The 2015 American League Cy Young Award winner with the Astros, Keuchel starred for Houston from 2014-18 when he pitched a combined 950 1/3 innings with a 3.28 ERA, a 20.2% strikeout rate, a 6.5% walk rate and a mammoth 60% ground-ball rate. He had a solid partial season with Atlanta in 2019 and signed a three-year pact with the ChiSox spanning the 2020-22 seasons. The first year of that contract played out wonderfully, but Keuchel was ineffective in 2021 and pitched poorly enough in 2022 to be released before the contract had concluded.
Since his career began trending downward with the South Siders, Keuchel has slipped into journeyman status. He’s pitched for the White Sox, Rangers, D-backs, Twins and Brewers in the past three years and also had a stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Keuchel started four games for the 2024 Brewers and yielded a 5.40 ERA with 11 strikeouts against eight walks in 16 2/3 innings pitched. He also made 13 solid starts for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma last year.
More to come.
