The current state of Rangers pitching: Too much to squeeze onto one 40-man roster, not enough yet to fill out a major league rotation.
On Tuesday, the Rangers set their 40-man roster ahead of the winter meetings by retaining Martín Pérez, trading reliever Dennis Santana for cash, adding three highly regarded prospects to the roster … and leaving two potentially exposed to be plucked in the Rule 5 draft next month.
Pérez accepted the club’s one-year, $19.65 million qualifying offer, giving the Rangers three members of a starting rotation locked up for a commitment of $37.1 million in 2023. It leaves them still flush with cash to pursue other top-end free agent pitchers.
GM Chris Young confirmed that Pérez’s decision does not impact the Rangers’ previous potential free agent targets. Translation: It does not take them out of the top tier of the free-agent market, where Jacob deGrom and Carlos Rodón live. Or it could make two more from the next tier possible, where prominent names include Nathan Eovaldi, Jameson Taillon and Chris Bassitt.
“We are focused on continuing to add,” Young said. “We’re going to look at the same the targets that we were at all ends of the market. I think we’ve got a solid foundation and the versatility and flexibility to continue to add.”
Pérez, coming off the best year of his career, joins Jake Odorizzi, acquired from Atlanta for Kolby Allard at a net salary addition of $2.5 million, and Jon Gray, who will make $15 million in 2023.
The Rangers have Dane Dunning, who is recovering from hip surgery, Glenn Otto and Cole Ragans as possibilities for one spot, but there is no guarantee Dunning, the most developed of the trio, will be ready. It might make pursuing two more pitchers from the second tier more attractive than only one from the top.
Pérez, 31, went 12-8 with a 2.89 ERA in 196 1/3 innings for the Rangers. He posted an ERA+ of 136, topping his previous best of 114 set in his first full season in the majors. He had signed for $4 million as a free agent after the lockout.
Pérez has been clear since the middle of the season that he wanted to return to the Rangers, the organization which first signed him and with whom he has spent 12 of his 15 seasons as a professional. The Rangers and his agents talked about a multiyear deal before the trade deadline and shortly after the season but could not come to an agreement.
The qualifying offer provided the Rangers an attractive alternative. While it is likely $4 million to $5 million more than he would receive in terms of average annual value on the free agent market, it also doesn’t tie them down to a multi-year deal with a pitcher in his 30s.
The Rangers believe their pipeline of minor league talent, ranked sixth among talent bases in all of MLB, will soon start producing major league starters. On that front, the Rangers added pitching prospects Cole Winn, Owen White and Zak Kent to the 40-man roster Tuesday. They also added infielders Luisangel Acuña, Jonathan Ornelas and Dustin Harris. The Rangers needed to move Santana in order to create a roster spot for one of the six prospects.
But it still left right-hander Mason Englert of Forney, who had a breakout year in 2022, and lefty Avery Weems, acquired along with Dunning from the Chicago White Sox in the Lance Lynn deal, exposed to potential selection in the Rule 5 draft. Also left exposed: Infielder Davis Wendzel, one of the Rangers’ two first-round selections in 2019.
“We had some tough decisions,” Young said. “There were other [pitchers] who probably deserved it equally. I think that’s a function of the depth of our minor league system. We have elevated the floor.”
The floor has been raised. Now the Rangers can get back to work on the rooftop.
