SAN FRANCISCO — Right-hander Ryan Vogelsong is staying with the San Francisco Giants, agreeing to terms on a one-year contract Friday.
Assistant general manager Bobby Evans said the deal is pending a physical, expected to happen later next week.
The Giants declined to exercise Vogelsong’s $6.5 million contract option for 2014 on Nov. 4, but the parties agreed to keep open the possibility of potential negotiations down the road during free agency. General manager Brian Sabean and Evans have been committed to keeping their pitching staff intact as best as possible, which they have done while also adding right-hander Tim Hudson on $23 million, two-year contract Nov. 19.
The 36-year-old Vogelsong is determined to come back strong in 2014 following a frustrating year.
He went 4-6 with a 5.73 ERA in 19 starts and 103 2-3 innings during an injury-shortened season. He broke two bones in the right pinkie area of his pitching hand and also dislocated a knuckle on a swing May 20 and underwent surgery the next day. He had five pins inserted in his hand.
Vogelsong won 13 and 14 games the previous two seasons. The journeyman pitcher became one of baseball’s feel-good comeback stories in 2011, when he made the All-Star team after joining the Giants’ rotation first as a fill in for the injured Barry Zito.
Vogelsong had toiled through three seasons in the Japanese League before Triple-A stints in 2010 for the Phillies and Angels. In the Bay Area with the team that originally drafted him in the fifth round in 1998, Vogelsong became a front-line starter at last.
Invited to spring training in 2011 on a minor league deal, he went on to win the team’s “Willie Mac” Award — named for Hall of Famer Willie McCovey and is voted on by players, coaches and training staff for the most inspirational Giants player on the field and in the clubhouse. Vogelsong set a career high for wins while going 13-7 with a 2.71 ERA in 30 games and 28 starts.
He then received an $8.3 million, two-year contract in January 2012.
Vogelsong won three games during the 2012 postseason for the eventual World Series champion Giants, including one during a 4-0 sweep of the Tigers for the team’s second championship in three years.
The Giants signed two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum to a $35 million, two-year contract last month. Lefty Madison Bumgarner and right-hander Matt Cain are signed to long-term deals along with catcher Buster Posey. In addition, right fielder Hunter Pence received a $90 million, five-year contract before the season ended. He played every game this year.
Zito’s tenure with the Giants ended when the club declined to exercise his $18 million option for next year.
