Another look at left-hander Wade LeBlanc

When the Orioles agreed to a minor league deal Tuesday with lefty Wade LeBlanc, they added a veteran with good command and an ERA that from 2016-2018 was just a bit better than league average.

The Orioles assume little risk here with a minors deal and one that will reportedly pay LeBlanc $800,000 in the majors. The Athletic reported he has an opt-out clause for March 19. On that date he can ask for his release and the Orioles would have 48 hours to add him to the 40-man roster or release him.

Since that is just one week before opening day, the club should have a pretty good idea by then how they feel about LeBlanc and if he is going to make their rotation.

LeBlanc, 35, posted a 3.91 ERA over 292 combined innings from 2016-2018 with a rate of 2.1 walks per nine innings and 1.4 home runs per nine. For that three-year time frame his ERA plus of 105 was five percent above league average.

But LeBlanc's performance fell off significantly in 2019, when he went 6-7 with a 5.71 ERA with the Mariners. Over 121 1/3 innings his WHIP was 1.451 and he allowed 2.1 homers per every nine innings. While his homer rate in Seattle of 1.5 was lower in spacious T-Mobile Park, where he had a 4.00 ERA, LeBlanc gave up 2.9 homers per nine on the road last season with an 8.21 ERA.

Yikes, that is a lot of homers, and we all know the challenges of pitching at Oriole Park and in the American League East generally. But again it's a low-dollar and thus low-risk deal for pitcher who looked decent on the stat sheet for three seasons previous to 2019. He's been around, having pitched for seven teams over 11 seasons with a career mark of 45-47 with a 4.46 ERA.

LeBlanc made 18 relief appearances and eight starts last summer. In the 18 bullpen outings he was 4-3 with a 4.57 ERA. But this can be deceiving because 13 of those outings were as the bulk pitcher following an opener and not as true bullpen arm. He pitched often in the early innings, he just didn't start those games. He threw to a 4.09 ERA in those 13 games.

In fact, LeBlanc made five relief appearances of at least six innings and gave up one or no earned runs in each. That was the most such outings by a Mariners pitcher in club history and most by any pitcher in Major League Baseball since Boston's Bob Stanley, who did that five times in 1982. He is only the sixth pitcher in the majors to accomplish this feat since 1919.

The Orioles most likely want LeBlanc as a traditional starter, but for whatever reason he did better last year when he pitched second, after an opener.

On June 3 he set a Seattle club record with an eight-inning relief outing at home versus Houston. He gave up just three hits and one run. On June 20, LeBlanc followed an opener and while he allowed two inherited runs, he got the win 5-2 over the Orioles in Seattle. Over 6 1/3 scoreless he gave up four hits on 92 pitches as the Orioles suffered a ninth straight loss.

LeBlanc certainly falls in the soft-tosser category. Last year he threw his changeup 31 percent of the time, his cutter 30 percent and his fastball (mostly two-seam sinkers) 29 percent, and he mixed in curves 10 percent. His average fastball velocity was in the 86-87 mph range. His secondary pitches were most effective in 2019. He gave up a batting average of .244 off his changeup and .253 on the cutter. It seems at that lower velocity he needs to locate and keep hitters from attacking his fastball so he can get ahead and put the secondaries to work.

Yes, the joke has been made that LeBlanc could fill in one of the blank spaces in the O's rotation. If he can limit homers he might be able to improve on his 2019 ERA and he could leave Florida with a rotation spot.