Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Younger informed reporters (together with Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning Information) this morning that right-hander Nathan Eovaldi has declined his $20MM participant possibility for the 2025 season, making him a free agent. Younger added that the membership has “nice curiosity” in reuniting with him this winter.
Eovaldi, 34, simply wrapped up his second season in Texas. The veteran right-hander was stable however unspectacular for the Rangers this 12 months as he pitched to a 3.80 ERA (104 ERA+) with a 3.83 FIP in 170 2/3 innings of labor. On condition that relatively uninspiring platform season, Eovaldi’s determination to decide out could register as one thing of a shock at first look. A better look to the right-hander’s season and total physique of labor makes it clear why he would decide out forward of his age-35 season in hopes of in search of what might be the final multi-year pact of his profession, nonetheless.
An All-Star for the Rangers simply final 12 months, Eovaldi has pitched to a 3.72 ERA (110 ERA+) and a 3.86 FIP throughout his time with the Rangers. These outcomes are largely according to the numbers he posted throughout his ultimate three years with the Purple Sox, for whom he posted a 3.79 ERA (120 ERA+) with a 3.43 FIP from 2020 to 2022, together with a dominant 2021 season the place he was named an All-Star and completed fourth in AL Cy Younger award voting. These numbers solid Eovaldi as a stable mid-rotation arm, and his underlying numbers counsel he may proceed to be a high quality, playoff caliber arm at the same time as he ages.
His fastball velocity (which averaged 95.6 in 2024) stays robust at the same time as he enters his mid-30s, and he maintains that high-octane stuff regardless of boasting a 5.6% stroll price that stands because the fifth-best in baseball over the previous half decade amongst pitchers with not less than 600 innings of labor. Throughout his time with the Rangers, he’s tended to be a sufferer of excessive residence run charges, thanks partly to Globe Life Discipline being among the many most homer-friendly parks within the sport. That actuality along side his stable 7.7% barrel price with the Rangers helps to elucidate why superior metrics like SIERA assume so extremely of Eovaldi, whose 3.88 determine over the previous two seasons mirrors that of high free agent starter Corbin Burnes.
Extra to come back…
