Club has deal to sign veteran ace Kluber

ST. PETERSBURG — Though Corey Kluber was coming off two seasons mostly lost to injury, the Tampa Bay Rays last winter made a strong run at the veteran starter right up until he signed with the N.Y. Yankees in January for $11 million.

Kluber seems less of a question mark now. He made 16 starts for the Yankees — though he did miss three months in the middle of the season with a right shoulder issue — posting a 5-3, 3.38 record and finishing the season healthy.

And the Rays appear to have gotten him on better terms, agreeing with the two-time Cy Young Award winner on a 1-year, $8 million contract, plus up to an additional $5 million in incentives based on games started.

The deal is pending a physical exam. Assuming all goes well, he will be announced in the next few days, ahead of the lockout and transaction freeze expected to be implemented with the Wednesday night expiration of baseball’s labor agreement.

Kluber, 35, gives the Rays the veteran, pedigreed starter they wanted to complement the quartet of young starter types they have returning in Shane McClanahan, Luis Patino, Drew Rasmussen and Shane Baz. (Michael Wacha, who served that role in 2021, just signed a one-year deal with Boston for $7 million.)

And Kluber gets an opportunity to pitch near his Tampa-area family home and for a team he got familiar with during last year’s negotiations. He is comfortable with the coaching, training and front office staff, and confident in the chance to contend for a championship.

The big question will be Kluber’s health, as he has pitched only 24 games and 116 innings over the previous three seasons.

He missed most of 2019 with Cleveland after a line drive broke his arm in a May 1 game, with a late-season return foiled by an oblique injury. He was traded to Texas after the season and lasted only one inning of one start in 2020 due to shoulder tightness that was then diagnosed as a small tear in his teres major shoulder muscle.