Joe Blanton resurrected his career as a reliever for the Royals and Pirates last season and now he’s signed a one-year, $4 million deal with the Dodgers, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports.
Blanton spent a decade as a durable back-of-the-rotation starter, but had a brutal 2013 season for the Angels and then didn’t pitch in the majors at all in 2014.
He made it back to the big leagues with the Royals and then joined the Pirates in late July, combining to throw 76 innings with a 2.84 ERA and 79/16 K/BB ratio while being used almost exclusively as a reliever for the first time in his career at age 34.
Blanton looked like a totally different pitcher working out of the bullpen and that’s the role he’ll fill with the Dodgers, who’re taking a relatively inexpensive one-year flier on his 2015 performance being the real deal.
