SEATTLE — You could argue they were just doing it by rote. Old habits are hard to break. The Rangers are in contention at the trade deadline? What do they need?
Pitching, pitching and more pitching.
Funny thing, though. As they approached Thursday’s trade deadline, they were in a position like never before, leading the major leagues in ERA and with the lowest ERA two-thirds of the way through a season in club history. So what did they do? Added pitching, pitching and more pitching.
In a three-trade flurry over the final two years before the 5 p.m. CT deadline, the Rangers strengthened their biggest strength, obtaining a trio of veteran pitchers to reinforce the rotation and bolster the bullpen.
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They got starter Merrill Kelly from Arizona along with veteran relievers Danny Coulombe, from Minnesota, and Phil Maton, from St. Louis, for seven total minor leaguers, including five ranked in their top 30, and a $250,000 international bonus slot. All seven players dealt were pitchers: Kohl Drake of Wylie, David Hagaman and Mitch Bratt in the Kelly deal, pitchers Mason Molina and Skyler Hales for Maton and pitcher Garrett Horn for Coulombe. When the deadline buzzer sounded, they’d not touched a major league team that was built to win from the outset and they’d decided going over the $241 million CBT payroll tax threshold wasn’t so taboo, after all. They’ll pay a 50% tax on every dollar they go over.
“This was a collective effort by so many people here to give this organization, and more importantly, our fans, another chance at the World Series,” visibly exhausted Rangers president of Baseball Operations Chris Young said shortly after the deadline passed. “That was in mind with everything we did today.”
Related:AL West’s busy deadline sets up a sprint to the playoffs between Rangers, Astros, Mariners
Or look at it another way: The Rangers have tried everything they can to get their oft-misfiring offense moving. And while the offense has shown some signs of improvement over the last month, it’s all about the pitching this year. It’s too precious to waste this kind of productivity – including an MLB-best 3.24 ERA going into Thursday’s showdown opener with Seattle. The offense is going to be what it’s going to be; the pitching staff must be protected, at all costs.
The moves help create a rotation built for a playoff series with Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Kelly in the first three spots. They’ve got to get there first, though. And the moves give the Rangers a hedge against injuries or fatigue in a group that is largely sailing into unfamiliar waters.
Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Merrill Kelly (29) delivers during the fourth inning in Game 2 of the World Series against the Texas Rangers, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, in Arlington.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
DeGrom, at 123 innings, is already at a level he hasn’t seen since 2019. Jack Leiter is 10 innings shy of his professional high. Kumar Rocker is already there. Eovaldi has spent a month on the IL with an arm issue and missed 10 days more with a cranky back. The rotation has been the backbone of this season. Can’t afford to let anything happen to that.
“You can make a team stronger by improving a weakness,” Young said. “But sometimes the best way to make a team even stronger is adding to a strength. Sometimes it’s also dictated by the market. And as we got into discussions, we felt the best thing to do was really attack pitching. We wanted to fortify our rotation, not just in terms of quality, but depth as well. We have to look at what could go wrong and consider all the things that could potentially limit us in terms of making the playoffs. And secondly, how to improve our bullpen. The more we got into it, it became clear that pitching was a way that we could really make this team better and we focused on it.”
There was another way to put this, too.
“You can never have enough pitching,” Eovaldi said, stealing an oft-cited Young quote. “And pitching wins championships. The moves definitely make us better. It shows the front office is preparing us for a big run down the stretch. All three of these guys have postseason experience and are extremely talented.”
Related:Who is Merrill Kelly? 5 things to know about the Rangers’ biggest trade deadline addition
Eovaldi and the Rangers got a first-hand view of that in 2023 when Kelly won Game 2 of the World Series at Globe Life Field with seven innings of three-hit baseball against the Rangers. He posted a 2.25 ERA in four postseason starts that fall. Coulombe has pitched in the postseason each of the last two years; Maton has 28 innings while appearing in the postseason in four of the last five years.
The moves also potentially allow the Rangers to perhaps realign the bullpen if they make the playoffs with Leiter or Rocker sliding down as a power arm. Neither Young nor manager Bruce Bochy committed one way or another on how the Rangers would sort through their pitching depth, but did acknowledge some similarities to 2023 when the manager was able to cobble together a dominant bullpen by shifting roles thanks to extra arms.
“There is strength in numbers,” Young said. “We saw this in 2023. We don’t take it for granted how hard it is to get there. But [Bochy] and our staff, they are tremendous at really deploying these guys in a number of different manners that allow us the chance to match up well with opponents. It’s really about creating flexibility and optionality.”
They’ve created a pitching staff built to dominate the playoffs.
Now the only thing they have to do is get there.
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