Rangers Meet With Free Agent Kodai Senga: Report

The Texas Rangers are targeting at least one more veteran free-agent pitcher for the 2023 season.

The Texas Rangers reportedly hosted free agent Kodai Senga recently, one of the pitchers the club could sign to help fill out its 2023 rotation.

But it’s not clear how much interest Senga has in the Rangers.

The Athletic, which reported the meeting, wrote that Senga wants to sign with a team that has an immediate chance to win. While Rangers general manager Chris Young has made it clear he’s building a team that can contend in 2023, there are at least two other teams in the running for Senga. Both made the postseason in 2022 — the New York Mets and San Diego Padres.

Senga has a high standard. In Japan he won five Japan Series championships and was a member of Japan’s gold-medal winning 2020 Olympic team.

The 29-year-old right-hander is dipping his toe into free agency after pitching for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks for a decade. He’s been one of the NPB’s most decorated pitchers during that time, with three All-Star Game appearances and leading the Pacific League in strikeouts twice. He was also on the 2017 World Baseball Classic All-Tournament team.

Plus, he and Padres starter Yu Darvish — a former Rangers starter — have a good relationship. So it’s possible the Rangers’ meeting with Senga may lead nowhere.

The Rangers have reportedly reached out to at least two other top-tier free-agent pitchers in Jacob deGrom and Carlos Rodón.

deGrom is widely considered the top free-agent starter on the market and could command more than $40 million per year. The life-long New York Met has won the NL Rookie of the Year and two National League Cy Young awards. But, he has made 15 or fewer starts in each of the last three season, the last two of which have been truncated by injuries. Plus, deGrom will be 35 next season.

Rodón, 29, just wrapped up his first season with San Francisco, where he signed a two-year $44 million contract, but opted out of the second season. He went 14-8 last season, as he set a career high for victories. Before landing in San Francisco, he spent his career with the Chicago White Sox. Rodón has a career record of 56-46 with a 3.60 ERA. He’s been an All-Star each of the past two seasons.

The Rangers have three veteran starters under contract for 2023 — Martín Pérez (who just signed the Rangers’ $19.65 million qualifying offer), Jon Gray and Jake Odorizzi. The Rangers are interested in at least one more veteran starter.

Plenty of movement could happen at the annual winter meetings, which will take place Dec. 4-7 in San Diego.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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