Texas Rangers re-sign key member of pitching staff, acquire player from Miami Marlins
The Texas Rangers resigned pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, traded for Miami Marlins slugger Jake Burger and added free agent reliever Jacob Webb this week at the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings.
Eovaldi resigned on a three-year $75 million keeping the veteran 34-year-old right-hander in Texas. He became a free agent after declining his $20 million player option earlier in the offseason.
Eovaldi is headed to his 14th MLB season and his third with the Texas Rangers. He is coming off a season in which he went 12-8 with a 3.80 ERA and 166 strikeouts in 170.2 innings of work.
The Rangers celebrated the signing on X, formerly Twitter, with a post exclaiming that Eovaldi was back.
Eovaldi will join Jacob deGrom, Jon Gray, Cody Bradford, Dane Dunning, Tyler Mahle and Kumar Rocker on a pitching staff with proven production and depth.
The Rangers traded for Burger, acquired in exchange for minor leaguers Echedry Vargas, Max Acosta and Brayan Mendoza.
Burger has played four seasons in the MLB for two teams, the Chicago White Sox and most recently the Miami Marlins.
Last season he had a batting average of .250 with 29 home runs and 76 RBIs while leading the Marlins in hits (134), runs (68) and home runs. Over his last two seasons, he has hit 63 combined home runs and provides additional slugging for the Rangers.
Spotrac estimates Burger will receive $800,000 for the upcoming MLB season before entering his first year of arbitration eligibility.
The White Sox drafted Burger with the No. 11 pick in the 2017 MLB Draft out of Missouri State University.
With Burger’s addition, the Rangers have 39 players on their major league roster.
Webb to agreed o a one-year $1.25 million contract worth up to $1.5 million according to reports.
Webb is a right-handed reliever entering his sixth year in the MLB and is coming off one of the best seasons of his career while playing with the Baltimore Orioles.
Last season Webb went 2-5 with a 3.02 ERA with 58 strikeouts and two saves in 56.2 innings of work while setting a career-high in strikeouts, innings pitched and posting the second-best ERA of his career.
Webb joins a Rangers bullpen coming off a rough 2024 season where they posted the fifth-worst bullpen ERA (4.41) in the majors.
Drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 18th round of the 2014 MLB Draft out of Tabor College, Webb spent the first three seasons of his career with the Braves and was a member of their 2021 World Series Championship team.
This story was originally published December 11, 2024 at 10:17 AM.
