The Atlanta Braves signed 31-year-old left-hander Drew Smyly with a one-year, $11 million contract, announced the team on Monday.

The Braves fought the Los Angeles Dodgers, which later won the World Series title, for seven games in this season's National League Championship Series and lost only 3-1 in Game 7. They want to go further in the playoffs and signing Smyly only showed how determined the Braves are.

"This is an upside play, no doubt about it. Obviously, we'll find out eight months from now, 10 months from now how it worked out. But we think Drew has tremendous upside. He's only scratched the surface," said Alex Anthopoulos, general manager of the Braves.

Smyly joined the San Francisco Giants in January and was 0-1 with a 3.42 ERA in five starts and two relief appearances last season. He has played for five different teams in eight years. The Tommy John surgery he had ruled Smyly out of the whole 2018 season.

"We feel like he's just about to really emerge to have the best years of his career. Once we made that determination, we signed him to a healthy, strong deal. Hopefully all sides will win and he'll have a great year," said Anthopoulos.

The Braves are good in both batting and the bullpen but can use improvement with their starting rotation. They believe Smyly can be the answer. He will join Max Fried, Ian Anderson and probably Mike Soroka in the new season.

"They are such a young, energetic team with a ton of talent. It's a team that's just built to win. Once I became a free agent, I was interested in the Braves right away. Once they expressed interest in me, it made my decision kind of easy," said Smyly.