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MLB free agency: Orioles met with Andrew Cashner

Baltimore has been eyeing the right-hander all offseason to possibly be a plug in its rotation.

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MLB: Seattle Mariners at Texas Rangers Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

The Orioles have met with free agent Andrew Cashner to discuss the possibility of signing the right-handed starter, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

Baltimore has been looking for three starters to fill its rotation without handing out long-term contracts and has had great interest in Cashner for a couple of months now.

Cashner is coming off one of his best seasons of his career, going 11-11 while posting a 3.40 ERA and a career-high 4.6 WAR across 28 starts for the Rangers. His WAR tied for the eighth-best in the American League and his ERA ranked ninth among AL pitchers. He has also started at least 27 games in each of the last three seasons after having a ton of injuries in the early part of his career with the Cubs and Padres.

However, the 31-year-old Cashner had his struggles, as he struck out only 4.6 batters per nine innings, while walking 3.5, making for a 1.34 strikeout-to-walk ratio — the lowest of his career. In addition, he logged only 166 23 innings and Rosenthal says that most analysts believe Cashner is “a candidate for regression” this season because he also “benefitted from a .267 batting average on balls in play, the second-lowest in the AL.”

Cashner made $10 million last year in Texas, so the Orioles may try to sign him to a short-term deal similar to that annual payout or slightly above it.