Pineda signs for 2 years

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins have taken another step toward deepening their starting pitching.

This boost won’t take effect for a while.

The Twins signed former New York Yankees right-hander Michael Pineda to a two-year, $10 million contract Wednesday, a move made with 2019 in mind. Pineda is recovering from Tommy John surgery performed July 18, putting him on track to return to a major league mound possibly late in the 2018 season.

“We all know, when he’s healthy, what he can do,” Manager Paul Molitor said during baseball’s winter meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

For now, the focus will be on Pineda’s rehabilitation from the elbow ligament replacement procedure.

“Obviously, it’s going to run up near the end of the year,” Molitor said. “At the very worst, we’re hoping he goes into the next offseason being able to do his regular work and not worry about rehabbing and be ready for ’19.”

Pineda will make $2 million in 2018 and $8 million in 2019. He went 8-4 with a 4.39 ERA in 17 starts with 92 strikeouts in 961 /3 innings for the Yankees last year before being sidelined.

“Never having spoken to him until recently, just encouraged by his energy and desire to, when he gets healthy, come back and help a team,” Molitor said. “Thankfully, he chose us.”

The 6-foot-7, 260-pound Pineda began his career with the Seattle Mariners, making the American League All-Star team as a rookie in 2011. He was acquired by the Yankees the following winter in a four-player trade for catcher Jesus Montero, before a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder kept him out of action for two full seasons.

Upon his return to the Yankees rotation in 2014, Pineda was ejected from a late-April start and eventually suspended for 10 games by MLB for using pine tar on the mound to grip the ball. He went to the disabled list with a muscle injury around his shoulder and didn’t return until mid-August.

The 28-year-old posted a cumulative 4.56 ERA in 76 starts over his final three seasons with the Yankees, with 455 strikeouts in 4322/3 innings. In his second start of 2017, Pineda took a perfect game through 20 outs against the Tampa Bay Rays and compiled 11 strikeouts in 72/3 innings. He first complained of elbow trouble following a June 30 appearance and pitched only once more before the surgery.