SARASOTA, Fla. -- A familiar face is returning to Baltimore to provide the Orioles with additional pitching depth for the 2025 season.

Welcome back, Kyle Gibson.

The O’s announced the signing of Gibson to a one-year Major League contract on Friday night. The deal is worth $5.25 million and features up to $1.525 million in performance bonuses, according to a source. The club did not announce the terms.

Gibson, 37, is a 12-year big league veteran with a 4.52 ERA over 330 games (324 starts). He spent the 2024 season with the Cardinals, recording a 4.24 ERA in 30 starts.

Baltimore previously signed Gibson to a one-year, $10 million deal for the 2023 season. He became a valuable member of the team’s rotation that year -- posting a 4.73 ERA in 192 innings over an American League-high 33 starts -- and served as a mentor to the young pitchers on the staff of the Orioles, who went an AL-best 101-61 and won the AL East.

“Kyle was amazing for us a couple years ago -- what he did in the clubhouse, but also how he took the ball every five days and kept us in almost every game,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He’s an unbelievable leader, had a good year last year in St. Louis, and I’m really happy about adding him back.”

With the start of the season only six days away, Baltimore’s rotation is set to include right-handers Zach Eflin (who will start Opening Day in Toronto on Thursday), Charlie Morton, Dean Kremer and Tomoyuki Sugano. The fifth spot is expected to go to either lefty Cade Povich or righty Albert Suárez (who will shift to the bullpen if he doesn’t start).

Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (elbow inflammation) will start the year on the injured list alongside fellow righties Kyle Bradish (Tommy John surgery) and Tyler Wells (UCL repair surgery). Bradish was placed on the 60-day IL to make room on the 40-man roster for Gibson.

As for Gibson, he isn’t expected to be an option for the rotation by the start of the season after spending the majority of Spring Training as a free agent.

“He’s going to have to go through pretty much a whole Spring Training type of ramp-up, so it’s going to be a while,” Hyde said. “He’s not going to be ready for a long time. As you saw last year, it takes a lot of starters. We used a lot of starters last year. So just adding another rotation piece, we felt like, is important.”

On March 4, MLB Network’s Jon Paul Morosi reported that Gibson had been throwing in simulated settings and was up to 60 pitches/three innings while throwing live batting practice to college teams.

The Orioles will have two of the most experienced starters in baseball with Gibson and the 41-year-old Morton. Together, they have 29 combined years of MLB tenure and have amassed 3,991 1/3 innings over 713 appearances.

Gibson and Morton are among seven pitchers who have made at least 30 starts each of the past four seasons, a group that includes Blue Jays righties José Berríos and Kevin Gausman, Padres righty Dylan Cease, Rangers lefty Patrick Corbin and Phillies righty Aaron Nola.

While the Orioles enjoyed having Gibson in 2023 -- surely a factor in his return -- the veteran also thought fondly of his season in Baltimore, where he, his wife Elizabeth and his family ingrained themselves in the community. He was the team’s Roberto Clemente Award nominee that year.

When the O’s visited St. Louis for a series against the Cardinals last May, Gibson had only positive memories to share regarding his former teammates -- some of whom he’ll soon be reuniting with at Orioles camp in Sarasota.

“Watching young players be comfortable and really come into who they are on the field, and off the field, is something that I’ll remember from that [2023] team,” Gibson said at the time. “Just being able to watch -- not watch them grow up, because then I kind of play into this grandfather-, father-figure role that they had me in. Watching them have that success for the first sustained time at that level was something that was pretty special.”