Chris Bassitt entered the spring of 2026 as one of the few notable starting pitchers left on the free agent market. He’s now off, as the Orioles reportedly agreed to sign Chris Bassitt to a one-year deal to remain in the AL East.
A Look at Bassitt
The Blue Jays got their money’s worth with Chris Bassitt, the 36-year-old who spent the last three seasons after a stint with the Mets.
Bassitt was a workhorse for the Orioles for each of the last three seasons. The right-hander logged at least 170 innings with the Jays in all three years he spent with Toronto. His most was 200 innings, his career-most that came in 2023 (his career high wins are 16, also in 2023).
With Bassitt, opposing teams receive a lot of different looks. The veteran right-hander used eight pitches at least 3% of the time, with the bulk of his usage coming by way of a heavy sinker that sat in the low-90s this past season. That’s roughly where he has been for most of his career.
The new Oriole has never been a big chase pitcher, as he’ll regularly work inside the zone with his sinker.
Aside from that pitch, Bassitt will work in a slower curveball, a sweeper, a cutter, as well as a splitter and a four-seamer. Roughly league-average groundball rates over the past few seasons.
He worked ten postseason games between 2022 and 2025. However, seven of those appearances came this past postseason, as Bassitt worked as a reliever for the Blue Jays. Bassitt struck out 10 over 8.2 IP for Toronto.
He was dealing with a back injury late in the year.
Per ESPN, the Orioles will give Chris Bassitt a one-year deal worth $18.5MM. It comes with a $3MM signing bonus and a $500K signing bonus should Bassitt make at least 27 starts.
Analysis
The Orioles have focused much of their attention on the rotation this winter & into the spring, one year after Baltimore had struggles trying to fill out the rotation aside from Trevor Rogers and Dean Kremer.
Now, the O’s have a much deeper rotation, one that includes Bassitt, the two names mentioned above, plus a healthy Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz, with Tyler Wells and Cade Povich as depth options.
Given how much teams must dip into the reserves over a full season thanks to injuries, having more depth certainly can’t hurt.
Check out more of our MLB coverage.