MLB Rumors: The Texas Rangers are signing free agent starting pitcher Chris Paddack to a major league deal, per reports.
We have known how desperate the Rangers are for starting pitching depth now that Jack Leiter is out until at least August deal to ankle surgery, but this really drives the point home.
The Rangers would be Paddack’s third team this season, and his fifth team since the start of the 2025 season. He was traded by the Minnesota Twins to the Detroit Tigers at the trade deadline last season due
to the Tigers being almost as desperate for starting pitching as the Rangers are now, and he made six starts for the Tigers, allowing 17 runs in 24 innings, before being relegated to mop-up duty and getting to start the 2025 finale. For the 2025 season he put up a 5.35 ERA, 5.03 FIP and 5.01 xERA.
This year, he signed with the Miami Marlins on the eve of camp, was released by them in May, latched on with the Cincinnati Reds, and was released by them last week. For the 2026 season he has a 6.96 ERA, 4.78 FIP and 4.89 xERA.
Paddack had a great first 18 starts to his major league career for the Padres in 2019. Since then, he has largely been either bad or injured. That is not normally what a major league team with playoff aspirations is looking for in a starting pitcher, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
The Rangers have an open 40 man roster spot, so won’t need to make a move there. They will need to clear out a spot on the active roster, and I’m guessing that Winston Santos, called up as an emergency length arm, and likely being thrown out to try to soak up some innings against the Guardians today in a game Tyler Alexander is starting, will be sent back to AAA when Paddack is officially activated.
One can only hope that Paddack is a temporary stop-gap measure. Jordan Montgomery is on a rehab assignment for the Rangers currently, and hopefully will be ready to pitch in the majors by the end of July, which would mean Texas, with the upcoming off days and the All Star break, may just need two or three starts from Paddack.
Of course, that assumes that no other member of the rotation gets hurt, which, well, you know…
