Twins sign Mike Pelfrey to 1-year deal

The Minnesota Twins have signed free-agent right-hander Mike Pelfrey to a one-year, $4 million contract, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. The deal includes up to $1.5 million in performance incentives that could push the deal to $5.5 million in total.

The 28-year-old Pelfrey is currently on the comeback trail from Tommy John surgery, but is expected to be ready to go by the time Opening Day rolls around. The tall right-hander pitched for the New York Mets for parts of the last seven seasons, and owns a 4.22 ERA and a 5.0 K/9 rate in 132 starts since jumping into the Mets' rotation on a full-time basis in 2008.

Pelfrey is yet another in a long line of starters the Twins have placed in their rotation over the past year that has failed to strike out a high number of batters in his career. Pelfrey, Kevin Correia, Scott Diamond, Liam Hendriks and Cole De Vries all have career strikeout rates under 6.0.

While the club does have a few interesting prospects -- Alex Meyer, Trevor May -- that could help their lowly K numbers down the road, only new addition Vance Worley -- who owns a 7.7 K/9 rate -- is set to help the club's strikeout numbers in the near future.