Just two years after winning the first World Series in franchise history, the Texas Rangers finished as a .500 team last season. Heading into 2026, the biggest threat to the Rangers’ ability to improve on their 81-81 mark remains their bullpen. On Thursday, according to a report by Andrew Parker of SoxProspects.com, Texas turned to the Boston Red Sox organization for help with a pitcher still on the comeback trail after Tommy John surgery.
Less than two weeks after signing minor league veteran left-handed reliever Blake Townsend out of the Pittsburgh Pirates system, Texas made another move to add bullpen depth, adding Red Sox righty Zach Bryant, according to Parker’s report.
Players who have spent at least six seasons in the minor leagues and are not on a team’s 40-man roster at the end of a season may elect free agency, allowing them to sign with any other organization.
That is exactly what the 27-year-old Bryant did, after five seasons in the Red Sox system and another with the Chicago Cubs. Bryant chose to become a free agent on November 6, the first day that eligible minor leaguers were allowed to do so. It took until February 5 for him to find a new baseball home with the Rangers.
Missed 2023 With Tommy John Surgery
Drafted by the Cubs in the 15th round in 2019 and signed with a $125,000 bonus after pitching one season at Jacksonville University in Florida, Bryant’s minor league career got off to a solid start.
Between the Cubs Rookie League and Low Single-A levels, the right-hander recorded a sparkling 1.27 ERA in 12 games, all in relief. In fact, Bryant has always been a relief specialist, going back to his days at Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange, Florida, where he served as the team’s closer.
But he missed an entire season in 2020 as the minor leagues closed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then before he had a chance to get back to the Cubs, in February 2021 Chicago traded him to the Red Sox as a player to be named later in a deal for veteran lefty pitcher Josh Osich.
Bryant pitched well enough in 2021 to earn a promotion to the Portland Sea Dogs, the Red Sox’s Double-A affiliate, but his 2022 season was limited to just 33 innings with a 7.64 ERA thanks to an elbow injury. Tommy John surgery followed, and Bryant missed the entire 2023 season.
Comeback Proceeding in Bumpy Fashion
Bryant returned to the mound on May 21, 2024, with the Rookie-level Red Sox of the Florida Complex League, finally returning to Portland one month later.
Last season was Bryant’s first full campaign since his surgery, and it did not go according to plan.
“Bryant, who is in his age-27 season, has had an up-and-down campaign that has featured more downs than ups,” wrote Nick John of TalkSox.com, reviewing the pitcher’s season. “August was his worst month of the season, however, as he struggled in 10 1/3 innings pitched. In that span, he surrendered 15 runs, 11 of them earned, on 14 hits and nine walks for a 9.58 ERA. His WHIP in that span was also 2.23. The only positive for him in August was striking out 12 batters, but otherwise, there wasn’t much to write home about for Bryant.”
Finishing the season with a 6.14 ERA over 48 1/3 innings in 32 games, the comeback season was a disaster for Bryant.
Though Bryant, despite growing up entirely in Florida, is a lifelong Red Sox fan, he apparently saw that his time with the team was at an end and now will get another chance — one more year removed from Tommy John surgery — in Texas with the Rangers.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
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