A take on the Orioles' restructured deal with pitcher Yovani Gallardo

While the deals are not officially completed, it sure looks like this time we can safely say the Orioles have indeed added a starting pitcher and outfielder.

For the second night in a row, MASNsports.com's Roch Kubatko was the first to report an agreement. This time he reported it is a two-year deal with a team option for a third season with pitcher Yovani Gallardo after last night's three-year agreement with outfielder Dexter Fowler.

Whatever the Orioles' concerns were or are about Gallardo's shoulder led to a restructured deal of two years with an option rather than a straight three-year deal.

These two contract agreements nicely round out an Orioles offseason that saw them as one of the biggest spenders in the sport. Now does all that translate into a contending team and/or an American League East division winner?

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. He pitched six innings or more 11 times in his first 17 starts, but went less than six innings in 14 of his last 16 regular season starts.

In nine starts last year against the other four American League East teams, Gallardo went 5-2 with a 3.04 ERA. That included a 2-0 mark and 0.00 ERA in two starts against Toronto. He pitched 13 2/3 scoreless innings against the Blue Jays, the majors' highest-scoring team, and then also beat them in Game 1 of the AL Division Series.

On the plus side, the Orioles are getting a pitcher that is experienced, durable and coming off a season where he posted a career-best ERA. Last year, he ranked 11th in the league in ERA among starting pitchers, seventh in left-on-base percentage and ninth in groundball percentage.

But there are concerns that his velocity is down somewhat from a few years ago and that his strikeout rate has decreased since 2012. It has gone from 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings in 2012 to 7.2, then 6.8 and last year 5.9.

Some fans see his poor second half last year along with the strikeouts decreasing as a sign that his pure stuff is not as good as it once was and a red flag going forward.

Gallardo does feature 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 percent. His career ERA of 3.66 ranks first among the projected five O's pitchers for the 2016 starting rotation. Next is Miguel Gonzalez at 3.82, then Ubaldo Jimenez at 4.01, Chris Tillman at 4.20 and Kevin Gausman at 4.21.

Gallardo is reported to get $20 million over the next two years with a team option for $13 million for the third season or a $2 million buyout. The guaranteed money of $33 million for Fowler and $22 million for Gallardo leaves the O's total winter spending spree at $269.8 million.

Biggest winter spenders:

$276.25 million - Cubs
$272.25 million - Tigers
$269.8 million - Orioles
$251 million - Giants
$230 million - Red Sox
$218.75 million - Diamondbacks

In the end, the Orioles can have Gallardo for three years if they want him. Also, their projected five-man opening day rotation is all under team control at least through the 2017 season.

So if Reggie Jackson is Mr. October, is Dan Duquette Mr. February?