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The Baltimore Orioles will pick up the $1 million club option on reliever Luis Ayala, reports Roch Kubatko of MASN:
#orioles easiest decision this week: Picking up reliever Luis Ayala's $1 million option for 2013. Will make that announcement Wednesday.
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) October 29, 2012
Picked up by the Orioles on the cheap despite a stellar 2011 season in New York, Ayala was a huge asset to the squad’s bullpen in his first season in Baltimore. The 34-year-old right-hander put up a 2.64 ERA and 6.1 K/9 in sixty-six appearances, nearly matching a career-high with seventy-five innings on the year.
General manager Dan Duquette iterated to Kubatko that Ayala will continue to be a valuable asset to the club: "Ayala had a good year and he has a reasonable contract. There's value there to the team." Now an eight-year veteran, Ayala owns a career 3.35 ERA and 6.0 K/9 in nearly five hundred big league appearances.