{"id":113938,"date":"2026-02-11T21:55:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T02:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=113938"},"modified":"2026-02-11T21:55:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T02:55:36","slug":"veteran-pitcher-chris-bassitt-signs-one-year-deal-orioles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/02\/11\/veteran-pitcher-chris-bassitt-signs-one-year-deal-orioles\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Veteran Starter Bassitt Signs One-Year Deal with Orioles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Baltimore Orioles reportedly signed veteran pitcher <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bassich01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Bassitt<\/a> to a one-year deal on Wednesday evening, further upgrading their rotation.<\/p>\n<p>The deal, pending a completed physical, is worth approximately $18.5 million, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. It also comes with a $3 million signing bonus and a $500,000 incentive if he starts 27 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 610px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBpxfsPjrm\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3072px; aspect-ratio: 3072\/2191;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h2>Report: Orioles Sign Chris Bassitt to One-Year Deal<\/h2>\n<p>Bassitt last pitched with the Toronto Blue Jays, finishing with an 11-9 record and a 3.96 ERA in 2025. Despite slowly declining following his 2021 All-Star campaign with the Oakland Athletics, he&#8217;s started in over 30 games per season in the last four years.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Chris Bassitt\u2019s deal with the Orioles, which is pending physical, includes a $3 million signing bonus and $500,000 in incentives if he starts 27 games. Which he has done each of the last five seasons, during which his 880.1 innings rank eighth among all MLB pitchers.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/2021758883379700016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 12, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Baltimore&#8217;s signing of Bassitt comes after the team announced earlier on Wednesday that second baseman <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hollija01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jackson Holliday<\/a> would undergo <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/02\/11\/jackson-holliday-set-to-undergo-hand-surgery\/\" target=\"_self\">hand surgery<\/a>. He is expected to return after Opening Day, starting the season on the injured list.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Bassitt Still Has Something Left In The Tank<\/h3>\n<p>The 36-year-old right-handed veteran offers a <a  href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/chris-bassitt-605135?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vast arsenal<\/a> of eight different pitches, including a primary sinker and cutter combo. Bassitt does struggle with chase rates, registering a low 25% chase rate on top of a below-average 23% whiff rate.<\/p>\n<p>He holds a strong groundball ratio, with 46% of all balls hit into play finding the dirt. It&#8217;s accompanied by a 7% walk rate and a respectable 23% strikeout rate. The downside for Bassitt is that he holds one of the largest ranges of maximum exit velocity against batters, sometimes hitting 117 mph.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran is primarily a sinker-ball pitcher, throwing it over 40% of the time, but does hold a .297 average and a .431 slugging percentage. His cutter fares better, holding a .205 average, but still a home-run risk with eight.<\/p>\n<p>Bassitt&#8217;s arsenal holds two effective offspeed pitches: a curveball with a .172 average and a developing sweeper that acts as a secondary put-away pitch. It&#8217;s led to a strong weak contact rate at 5%, along with a groundball average that doesn&#8217;t dip below 40%.<\/p>\n<h3>Where Does Bassitt Fit?<\/h3>\n<p>The problem with Bassitt&#8217;s signing is that the team now has <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/roster-resource\/depth-charts\/orioles\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">six<\/a> starting pitchers. It&#8217;s unlikely the team will stick with that going forward, prompting a move to the bullpen for one of these pitchers.<\/p>\n<p>Fangraphs currently lists Bassitt as the third starting pitcher in the rotation, pushing <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kremede01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dean Kremer<\/a> to the sixth slot. The issue is that neither Kremer nor <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/eflinza01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zach Eflin<\/a> has worked out of the bullpen before. It&#8217;s also very unlikely <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bazsh01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shane Baz<\/a> works out of the bullpen, but they could put <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bradiky01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-11_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Bradish<\/a> there if they feel unsure about his workload.<\/p>\n<p>Any moves or changes to the rotation with the addition of Bassit will likely be made clear during camp.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Baltimore Orioles reportedly signed veteran pitcher Chris Bassitt to a one-year deal on Wednesday evening, further upgrading their rotation. The deal, pending a completed physical, is worth approximately $18.5 million, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. It also comes with a $3 million signing bonus and a $500,000 incentive if he starts 27 games. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5304,"featured_media":103241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1071,35],"tags":[4223,2057,5780,3251,1333,6077],"class_list":["post-113938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orioles","category-mlb","category-news","tag-chris-bassitt","tag-dean-kremer","tag-jackson-holliday","tag-kyle-bradish","tag-shane-baz","tag-zach-eflin"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5304"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113938"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113945,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113938\/revisions\/113945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}