Notes on Yovani Gallardo, Dexter Fowler, O's payroll and more

Are the Orioles going all-in on the 2016 season? First came reports yesterday of their pursuit of free agent pitcher Yovani Gallardo. His signing would cost them one draft pick. Then reports surfaced that if the O's signed Gallardo, they could then also sign free agent outfielder Dexter Fowler and lose a second draft pick.

The O's lost two picks for signing Ubaldo Jimenez and Nelson Cruz before the 2014 season. It was a season that ended with 96 wins and an American League East championship. With these two moves, the O's would boost their starting rotation and corner outfield and also add a likely leadoff hitter.

The switch-hitting Fowler turns 30 in March. Last year for the Cubs, he hit .250/.346/.435 with 29 doubles, eight triples, 17 homers, 46 RBIs, 20 steals and 102 runs scored. His career slash line of .267/.363/.418 could play real well atop the O's batting order.

The Orioles hold the 14th pick in the draft and it would have a likely slot bonus value of around $3 million for next June. The O's could then also give up their next pick at No. 28 (up one spot from No. 29 if they would lose the No. 14 pick) and its expected slot bonus value of a little more than $2 million.

This would leave the Orioles with remaining picks at Nos. 54, 69, 76 and 91 in the top 100 of the First-Year Player Draft in June.

Meanwhile, the Orioles payroll could be headed for $150 million or more. Counting Chris Davis at $17 million for 2016, the O's have signed 17 players for next year to total contracts worth around $126 million. Gallardo and Fowler, plus pre-arbitration eligible players like Kevin Gausman, Mychal Givens, Jonathan Schoop and Caleb Joseph, would bring that to the $150 million range. The O's began last year with a payroll of $118.9 million and ended it with obligations for $124.7 million.

Last year for the Texas Rangers, Gallardo went 13-11 with an ERA of 3.42. He was 7-8 with an ERA of 2.62 in 19 starts in the first half and 6-3 with an ERA of 4.69 in 14 starts in the second half.

More Gallardo notes:

* His career ERA of 3.66 ranks first among the projected five O's pitchers for the starting rotation if you factor him into the mix. Next is Miguel Gonzalez at 3.82, then Jimenez at 4.01, Chris Tillman at 4.20 and Gausman at 4.21.

* Gallardo's career .576 win percentage would rank first among the O's five starters, while his .249 career batting average against would rank second, only behind Jimenez at .242.

* Gallardo's strikeout rates have declined in recent years. He averaged 9.0 strikeouts for every nine innings in 2012 followed by 7.2 in 2013, 6.8 in 2014 and 5.9 in 2015.

* Gallardo has made 13 career starts against AL East teams, going 8-4 with an ERA of 3.54. Of his 33 starts for Texas in 2015, nine came against AL East teams. In those games, he went 5-2 with a 3.04 ERA. He went 2-0 with an ERA of 0.00 over two starts against Toronto. He pitched six scoreless innings in the Rangers' 2-0 win over the Orioles at Camden Yards on July 2.

* Gallardo features a solid career groundball rate of 46.7 percent. Those numbers the last three years starting in 2013 are 49.2, 50.8 and 49.3.

* On the plus side, Gallardo ranked 11th among AL starting pitchers in 2015 in ERA, ninth in groundball percentage and seventh in left-on-base percentage at 77.2. But on the down side, he pitched fewer than six innings in 14 of his last 16 starts after going six or more frames in 11 of his first 17 starts.