Starting Pitching No Longer ‘Top Priority’ For Rangers

The Texas Rangers have three new starting pitchers to pair with holdovers Martin Perez and Jon Gray for 2023.

The Texas Rangers aren’t looking to take a bow, but Chris Young believes the team has satisfied what was its top priority this offseason — starting pitching.

The Rangers executive vice president and general manager said as much during Andrew Heaney’s introductory press conference.

“(Starting pitching) was a top priority,” Young said. “I think we've addressed it in a lot of ways that it gives us great comfort going into the season. We know that things happen and we can never have enough starting pitching, but I wouldn't say it's our top priority at this point. But we'll always stay open minded on any way we can to improve our club.”

The Rangers entered the offseason with just one veteran starting pitcher under contract — Jon Gray. He signed a four-year, $56 million deal last offseason.

Texas traded one of its bullpen pieces, Dennis Santana, to Atlanta for Jake Odorizzi, a 32-year-old starter who went 6-6 last year with Houston and Atlanta while spending two months on the injured list.

Shortly after, the Rangers re-signed Martin Perez to a qualifying offer contract worth $19.65 million, ensuring they would have their best starter from 2022 for another season. Pérez, 31, went 12-8 in his return to Texas.

Just before the Winter Meetings in San Diego the Rangers landed the top free-agent pitcher on the market, Jacob deGrom, as the 34-year-old signed a five-year, $185 million deal. He’s fought injuries the past two seasons and went 5-4 with a 3.08 ERA in 2022.

Heaney was the final piece, signed during the Winter Meetings. The 31-year-old went 4-4 last season for the Los Angeles Dodgers but missed a considerable portion of the season to an injury.

This gives the Rangers a rotation that features five pitchers with at least five years of experience in the Majors. It also slides the younger members of last season’s staff into either relief roles or to the minors.

That list includes Glenn Otto, who won as many games last season as Gray (seven); Dane Dunning, who won four games and had hip surgery at the end of the season; Spencer Howard, a young starter acquired as part of the Kyle Gibson trade in 2021; and Cole Ragans, who made his Major League debut last season after two Tommy John surgeries but failed to win a game.

Beyond that, the Rangers have a stacked minor league system that includes their last two first-round picks in Kumar Rocker (2022) and Jack Leiter (2021), along with another former first-rounder in Cole Winn and the rapidly ascending Owen White.

To Young, the initial stage of the Rangers’ offseason mission is accomplished.

“We set out this offseason to improve our starting pitching and we feel like at this point, going into the end of the 2022 and into the beginning of 2023, that we have accomplished that,” Young said.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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