The best seasons in Texas Rangers history don’t happen without Edinson Volquez
The threat of a third Tommy John surgery nearly sent Edinson Volquez packing for home early in 2019, but five months later he was pitching again for the Texas Rangers.
All he wanted was an appearance to prove that he could pitch in the major leagues one more before calling it a career.
But something pulled him back to baseball, even with his wife expecting and even after the coronavirus pandemic put the 2020 season in doubt.
Now, he is at another career crossroads.
Volquez was placed on the 45-day injured list on Thursday with a strained right oblique muscle. The Rangers replaced him on the roster on Friday with Juan Nicasio ahead of their weekend series against the Colorado Rockies.
Volquez is done for the rest of the 60-game season, and at age 37 and after 15 seasons and with injuries piling up, he might be done, period.
“I feel terrible because 45 days means pretty much until the end of the year,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “I hope it’s not the end for Eddie.”
If it is, if baseball can’t pull him back again, if it is time to watch his daughters grow up, Volquez would enter retirement after a fine career that includes two no-hitters and an All-Star appearance.
It also includes playing a pivotal role in helping the Rangers reach two World Series even though he never played for the 2010 and 2011 teams.
The Rangers sent Volquez and left-handed reliever Danny Ray Herrera to the Cincinnati Reds for a talented-yet-troubled outfielder named Josh Hamilton on Dec. 21, 2007.
“Josh was the most talented guy on our best teams,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “Others may have been more consistent or more durable, but Josh was just a special talent. When he got here, it elevated the team to a different level.”
The Rangers were starving for a homegrown pitching prospect to turn into a quality starter (and still are) but had traded away their best power hitter, first baseman Mark Teixeira, at the July 31 trade deadline for a series of prospects that included four future big-leaguers.
Volquez had appeared in 21 games from 2005-2007, with fairly unremarkable results. The best of his 17 starts came in 2007, when he tossed six scoreless innings on two hits and three walks Sept. 7 against Oakland. That came after he went to Class A ball early in the season to revamp his delivery.
Hamilton was coming off a rookie season in which he swatted 19 home runs after years of drug and alcohol abuse had put an end to his career. But the rumor was the extra layer of care the Reds afforded him to help keep him sober didn’t go over well with some of his teammates.
“It was tough to deal Volquez at the time,” Daniels said. “Cincy was insistent on him in the deal. We tried every way to sub some one else in. But, ultimately, we just felt that Josh was what we needed. We believed in his talent so much that, despite needing pitching, too, and having a potential homegrown starter, we did it.”
The Rangers embraced Hamilton, and he responded in 2008 by hitting 32 home runs, driving in a league-best 130 runs, and batting .304. He also became a star with his performance in the Home Run Derby at Yankee Stadium.
Volquez was also an All-Star in 2008, and he finished fourth in voting for National League Rookie of the Year after going 17-6 with a 3.21 ERA. The next season, though, he underwent Tommy John surgery for the first time.
Hamilton dealt with injuries in 2009, but in 2010 emerged as the best player in baseball. He was the American League MVP, batting .359 with 32 homers and 100 RBIs despite barely playing in the final month.
The Rangers won the AL West and knocked off Tampa Bay in the division series despite Hamilton struggling. However, he was the MVP of the ALCS win over the Yankees as he swatted four homers in six games to lead the Rangers to their first World Series.
Another injury sidetracked him in 2011, but he was still one of the game’s best players when on the field. Playing throughout the postseason with a sports hernia, Hamilton was nearly the hero of Game 6 of the 2011 World Series with a two-run homer in the 10th inning that appeared to rescue the Rangers after coming within strike of the club’s first world title in the ninth.
It just wasn’t meant to be.
Volquez, meanwhile, struggled to a 5.71 ERA in 2011 with the Reds, and was traded to San Diego in the offseason. He played for five teams in five years from 2011-2015, but in 2015 helped the Kansas City Royals win their first World Series in 30 years.
He tossed a no-hitter with Miami in 2017 a few weeks before his elbow gave out again. He signed a two-year minor-league deal with the Rangers the next spring even though he would spend the year recovering from a second Tommy John surgery.
Volquez was in the rotation to start 2019, but lasted only two starts before his elbow balked yet again. He was injured again Tuesday while recording one out in the Rangers’ 4-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
He was the winning pitcher.
It could very well be the final victory and final appearance of his career. Though he spent the bulk of it not pitching for the Rangers, his impact on the franchise’s glory years should not be overlooked.
This story was originally published August 15, 2020 at 4:31 PM.
