Texas Rangers adjust Edinson Volquez’s contract
Though starting pitcher Edinson Volquez was already with the Texas Rangers organization, the team has adjusted his contract to reflect his current situation.
As Jon Heyman of Fancred first reported, the Texas Rangers have signed right-handed pitcher Edinson Volquez to a $2 million contract. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic expanded upon that by confirming that the Rangers have adjusted his deal to be a one-year, major league deal as opposed to the formerly signed two-year, minor-league deal. Heyman also reports that the deal comes with $5 million in incentives in the new deal.
Contrary to these reports, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News says that the new deal isn’t “new” at all, but is instead a triggered deal that came to be when the Rangers added Volquez to their 40-man roster earlier last week. According to Grant, the deal originally contained a “split” that would be activated in a situation such as this. Still, the transaction has the same effect for both sides.
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At the surface, this doesn’t appear to be an overly surprising move by the Rangers. As Rosenthal points out, Volquez, who’d signed with the Rangers in mid-February, underwent Tommy John surgery causing him to be unable to pitch this season. With the injury and surgery behind him, the Rangers feel confident enough to offer him a major league pact.
In his last full season in the bigs, Volquez, a former Kansas City Royal, pitched to an ERA of 4.19 in 92.1 innings for the Miami Marlins. Prior to that, in 2016, he pitched to an ugly ERA of 5.37 over 189.1 frames, striking out 139 and allowing a league-high 1123 earned runs.
An All-Star in 2008 as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, Volquez, 35, is currently 24th among active pitchers in games started, 27th in innings pitched, 30th in strikeouts, and 32nd in wins. While occasionally inconsistent, this could end up being a fruitfully efficient deal for the Rangers, although it’s unlikely they’ll be able to turn the deal into much value.
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Regardless, it’ll be interesting to follow Volquez’s career as it expands into the final years of his productivity as a big league pitcher. One of the anchors of early-2000s baseball, he’ll try to revitalize his career as a member of the new and changed Texas Rangers.