The Baltimore Orioles have agreed to a four-year/$60 million deal with free-agent starting pitcher Alex Cobb, according to Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and MASN Sports’ Roch Kubatko.

cobb and orioles have agreement on terms. four years. believed to be close to 60M. @Ken_Rosenthal and @masnRoch are on top of it.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 20, 2018

After pitching to a 12-10 record, 3.66 ERA and 1.221 WHIP in 179.1 innings in 2017 with the Tampa Bay Rays, Cobb stayed on the market for quite a considerable amount of time, considering his stats. The 30-year old and his representatives looked for a long-term deal and waited until March 20, but still received more years than Lance Lynn, who received a one-year/$17.5 million deal.

Of course, there was a thought that the Orioles and other organizations were cautious when it came to signing Cobb, due to his injury history. The former Ray missed the entire 2015 season with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. When he returned in 2016, Cobb only pitched in five games, with a 1-2 record, 8.59 ERA and 1.773 WHIP in 22.0 innings.

Outside of that particular season, Cobb has been a steady starting pitcher, posting and ERA of 3.21 from 2011-2014. His consistency and ability to keep the ball on the ground. Cobb has a career groundball rate of 54.0%, which should play well in Camden Yards. Cobb pitched to an ERA of 4.14 in 2017 against AL teams and in 2014, it was 2.97.

Obviously, the deal still is pending a physical and he will still have to ink the dotted line. In a recent article, I detailed Baltimore’s situations with pitchers Grant Balfour and Yovani Gallardo. Both players failed their physicals and their deals fell through. In Cobb’s case, he pitched the entire season with no known ailments, after having his right ulnar collateral ligament repaired.

With the addition of Cobb, Baltimore’s rotation would look like this:

1. Kevin Gausman

2. Dylan Bundy

3. Andrew Cashner

4. Alex Cobb

5. Chris Tillman

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(Photo Credit: Bob Levey/Getty Images North America

Kyle Andrews

Born in Norfolk, VA, raised in the Baltimore area and currently living there. Originally pursuing a degree in exercise science at McDaniel, Andrews became interested in sports writing. He was the sports editor of McDaniel's newspaper in 2014 and became an English major, and hasn't looked back since.

Bylines at Fox Sports 1340 AM, Bullets Forever, Baltimore Beatdown, Underdog Dynasty and many other sites.