The Atlanta Braves have agreed to a deal with free-agent left-hander Dallas Keuchel, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Atlanta is 33-29 this season and entered Thursday night two games back of the first-place Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East.
Atlanta also had interest in signing All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel but wasn’t willing to be as aggressive as the Cubs were. Chicago and Kimbrel on Wednesday agreed to a three-year deal worth $43 million that includes a fourth-year option, sources said.
The Braves have an abundance of talented young starters — such as Mike Soroka, Max Fried, Kevin Gausman and Mike Foltynewicz — but if they finish the deal for Keuchel, he could be a stabilizer in their rotation.
Keuchel, the 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner, went 12-11 with a 3.74 ERA and 153 strikeouts in the 2018 regular season for the Astros and made two postseason starts with a 3.60 ERA and no record. He made $13.2 million.
The 32-year-old turned down a $17.9 million qualifying offer by the Astros after the season.
Keuchel is particularly reliant on the ground ball. Though his ability to change speeds and the movement of his slider are what propelled him to ace status, both his change and slider were below-average pitches in 2017. This at times necessitated an over-reliance on the cutter, now his best pitch, which got Keuchel into trouble in 2018, as he lost eight of his first 13 starts.
He rebounded with a 3.23 ERA over his final 20 starts.
“He got back to being himself,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch told reporters during the postseason. “He knows who he is, what he does best — attacking the game plan, improvising as the game goes along. He gets the ball on the ground. He gets soft contact. He got ultra-focused on just getting back to his strengths and being himself.”
Keuchel earned his second All-Star nod in 2017 and was 14-5 with a 2.90 ERA in 23 regular-season starts, helping lead Houston to its first World Series title. He struck out 10 in seven scoreless innings to get the win in the opener of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees and won Game 2 of the AL Division Series against the Boston Red Sox.
In seven seasons with the Astros, Keuchel was 76-63 with a 3.66 ERA. He was 20-8 with a career-best 2.48 ERA in 33 starts in 2015 and set a major league record by going 16-0 at home. He was the starting pitcher for the AL in the 2015 All-Star Game and won three Gold Gloves.
He also dazzled the Yankees over six shutout innings to win the 2015 AL wild-card game after helping Houston reach the playoffs for the first time since 2005.
Keuchel, a seventh-round pick in the 2009 amateur draft, made his major league debut in 2012, when he posted a 3-8 record in 16 games while striking out 38 batters.