BALTIMORE – The Baltimore Orioles has agreed to sign veteran right-hand Felix Hernandez for a secondary league.
Hernandez won an American League Cy Young Award, two ERA titles and made six All-Star teams over 15 seasons with the Seattle Mariners before becoming a free agent last season.
The 34-year-old signed a secondary league contract with Atlanta and looked sharp during spring training, but ended up choosing not to participate in the pandemic’s 60-game season.
In his most recent major league action, Hernandez was 1-8 with an ERA of 6.40 in 2019. He has not ended with an ERA below 4.00 since 2016, and his last participation in the All-Star was in 2015. He won 169 games and has a career ERA of 3.42.
Hernandez can win a place of rotation with the Orioles reconstruction, which has the 2019 All-Star southpaw John Means as a starter, but not much else. They traded Alex Cobb with the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday, leaving Keegan Akin, Dean Kremer, Jorge Lopez, Wade LeBlanc, Thomas Eshelman and Bruce Zimmermann as the only players back to start at least one game in 2020.
Baltimore also announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to minor league deals with field players Seth Mejias-Brean and Malquin Canelo, right-handed Dusten Knight, Konner Wade and Spenser Watkins, and southpaw LeBlanc.