Perhaps the biggest contract for a pitcher was given out by the Toronto Blue Jays to starter Dylan Cease. Although this contract seems insignificant in relation to Cease’s, Ryan Helsley joining another AL East team could weigh similarly in terms of importance to the organization that signed him.
The Baltimore Orioles feel they have a team that could make a postseason run, and are just a couple years removed from a 101-win season. Helsley provides the O’s with a potential lockdown closer, though the finish to his 2025 season casts doubt in the eyes of many. Time will tell, of course, how this contract plays out, but its short length indicates the risk won’t be too high for the potential reward of a shutdown, flamethrowing Helsley, who won the Trevor Hoffman NL Reliever of the Year Award in 2024.
Contract Details:
The Orioles signed 31-year-old right-handed CP Ryan Helsley to a 2-year/$28M contract. Per MLBTradeRumors, after the 2026 season Helsley will have the opportunity to opt out of the contract or else accept a $14M player option for 2027. This means he will be paid $14M in salary for 2026. Also in his contract is a $500k assignment bonus if Helsley is traded to another team at any point during this agreement.
Ryan Helsley, explained
Drafted in 2015 by the St. Louis Cardinals, Helsley started his professional career as a starting pitcher before being moved to the bullpen in 2019. 2019 also happened to be the year the Cardinals debuted Helsley, also from the bullpen. He would be a mainstay in that unit for 7 seasons.
His best seasons came in 2022 and 2024. His first All-Star campaign, 2022 saw him put up a 1.25 ERA (313 ERA+) and 2.34 FIP (60 FIP-) in 54 games and 64.2 IP. He had the 3rd-best K% (39.3%) and a decent BB% (8.4%) for the amount of hitters he was striking out. The 2022 season wasn’t just the surface level stuff for Helsley. Under the hood, his expected ERA (2.03) and expected FIP (2.60) played right alongside his .185 BABIP allowed. He had elite swing-and-miss stuff and it was usually weak, uncompetitive contact being made, if any.
In 2024, Helsley made his second All-Star team and capped the season off with the NL Reliever trophy. 65 games and 66.1 IP saw him total a 2.04 ERA (202 ERA+) and 2.41 FIP (61 FIP-). His K% (29.7%) dipped slightly, but he was able to control his BB% (8.6%) to atone for that. Helsley led the league in saves that year with 49, despite the Cardinals finishing just 83-79 and missing the playoffs.
Helsley has always been a flamethrower, averaging 99mph on his 4-seam fastball. His slider lags behind a decent amount at 89mph. These are his two pitches. He’s got a third pitch, the curveball, that he shows every so often to keep a hitter guessing, but not enough to make him expect anything other than the combo at the top.
In 2022, Helsley threw that fastball 57% and that slider 32% to absolute shutdown numbers (.212 wOBA against and .211 wOBA against, respectively). Hitters whiffed at the slider 53.8% of the time.
In 2024, the hierarchy flipped a bit. Helsley threw the slider 48.2% and the fastball just 45.4% (that trend continues in 2025). His fastball gave up a .321 wOBA, however the slider just a .183 wOBA against.
After 7 seasons with the Cardinals, Helsley was traded to the New York Mets at the 2025 trading deadline. In 22 games and 20.0 IP, Helsley pitched to a 7.20 ERA and 5.19 FIP. He struck out 23.2% of hitters and walked 11.6%, both in the wrong direction of where he formerly was. He gave up a .362 BABIP and allowed a HR/FB% (home run-to-fly ball rate) of 19.0%, numbers so flukey one could never expect them to stay there.
The Mets gave up 3 prospects to acquire Helsley, an impending free agent and hot commodity on the trading market. To state the obvious, they expected him to perform better than he did, however whether it was due to actual performance or his self-diagnosed pitch-tipping issues remains unclear for certain. However, looking at some numbers tells us that pitch tipping (when the opposing hitter notices a hitch or movement in a pitcher and can expect a certain pitch coming) could have occurred.
Because Helsley is a two-pitch pitcher (fastball-slider), if a hitter knows one is coming versus the other, they create an advantage so strong that even a pitcher like Ryan Helsley can be teed off against:
From 2022-2025, Helsley’s chase rates have been 34.7% in 2022, 33.0% in 2023, 37.8% in 2024 and 33.6% in 2025, including 36.9% before his trade to New York. With the Mets, Helsley only achieved a chase rate of 28.2%.
If a hitter knew the slider was coming, the slider that looks like a fastball until it dips out of the zone, then a hitter could lay off anything that starts at a certain point out of Helsley’s hand. The hitter is essentially turning Helsley into a fastball-only pitcher. It doesn’t matter how hard Helsley throws the ball at that point, he is at a severe disadvantage if this is the case. We see this ring true when we look at the numbers against his fastball in 2025: .422 BA against, .667 SLG against and .495 wOBA against.
Again, we don’t know and will likely never know for sure what the cause of this implosion was on the part of Ryan Helsley, but the numbers against a triple-digit fastball should never look like that, especially from a proven closer in the MLB.
Why the Orioles targeted Helsley
The Orioles badly needed bullpen help. For a team with high hopes this year, the bullpen should be high on the priority list because if a good team with a lead can’t close out the game, what’s the point?
Helsley feels like the perfect option here for Baltimore. With regular closer Félix Bautista out until at least August 2026 (shoulder surgery), Helsley slots right in as the 9th-inning/high leverage guy. Before him are the likes of Andrew Kittredge (whom the Orioles just traded back for after trading him at the deadline in 2025), Keegan Akin, Dietrich Enns and Yennier Cano (per FanGraphs). As it stands with this bullpen, I wouldn’t expect Baltimore to be done in this market, but barring the likes of Edwin Díaz or another star closer, Helsley should take the backend spot.
The Orioles saw an opportunity to pick up one of the top relief arms of recent years on a prove-it contract for a team that has postseason hopes. If it doesn’t work out? Well, they can either trade him or deal with just one more year of him. That’s not high risk, especially with the way some of these other contracts are being constructed these days.
In terms of relief contracts, he’s up there in terms of his average annual value (5th behind Hader, Scott, Williams, and Iglesias), but the O’s are probably thinking he should be much more expensive. In fact, compared to what other free agent closers might get, this number could be nothing. Devin Williams is coming off a tough year and, as I’m writing this, just signed with the Mets for $17M AAV.
In Baltimore’s eyes, they could’ve just stolen the best closer on the market to make a run at a World Series in 2026. Whether he is the Cardinals version or the Mets version of Ryan Helsley is to be determined.
Inner Half 