Dodgers sign pitcher Tyler Cyr to minor league contract, per reports

The Dodgers signed pitcher Tyler Cyr to a minor league contract, per multiple reports. The right-hander will be a non-roster invitee to major league camp at spring training, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.

Cyr was released by the A’s on January 13 to make roster room for new signee Shintaro Fujinami. After clearing waivers, Cyr was released on Tuesday.

The right-hander made his major league debut last August with the Phillies, but after one game was claimed off waivers by Oakland. Cyr, who was born in Freemont, pitched in 11 games for his hometown team. In all, he had a 2.70 ERA with 16 strikeouts and five walks in 13⅓ innings in his first year in the majors.

In 39 games in Triple-A for Lehigh Valley and Las Vegas in 2022, Cyr had a 2.85 ERA with 45 strikeouts and 23 walks in 41 innings.

In his brief time in the majors last year, he primarily used his fastball (47.3 percent of the time) and changeup (33.5 percent). Apparently this offseason he’s also been working on a slider, which he shared on Twitter this week.

The changeup that Cyr uses featured a split-fingered grip that he got, as a Giants fan, from Tim Linceum at a fan fest in 2009 or 2010. Kerry Crowley at the San Jose Mercury News wrote about the interaction in 2020:

“My junior college coach approached me and said, ‘Hey, what do you got on this changeup,’ ” Cyr said. “I was like, ‘That’s actually the changeup Tim Lincecum throws.’ He said, ‘Okay, let it rip.’ ”

Cyr was drafted by the Giants in the 10th round in 2015 out of Embry-Riddle in Florida. His climb up the minor league ladder was sidelined by a fractured elbow that required surgery in 2018.

In 2019, Cyr mostly pitched for Double-A but ended the season with Triple-A Sacramento, who won the Pacific Coast League that year. That October, he shared his final pay stub, helping to shine a light on the low wages earned by minor league players.

After leaving San Francisco as a minor league free agent after seven years in the organization, Cyr signed with the Phillies before last season, and debuted in August.

This offseason, Cyr pitched for Gigantes del Cibao in the Dominican Winter League — where he was a teammate of ex-Dodger Hanser Alberto, among others — allowing two runs in six innings over his six games.

Cyr has 34 days of major league service time and turns 30 in May. He was optioned while with Oakland last season but only for a total of 13 days, shy of the 20 days required to exhaust an option season. Should he make the Dodgers’ 40-man roster at some point, he has three option years remaining.

The first full pitchers and catchers workout in Dodgers camp is February 16 at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona.