Jeanmar Gomez, who was once one of baseball’s more intriguing and puzzling closers, has reportedly joined the Texas Rangers on a minor-league pact.
According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, the Texas Rangers are signing right-handed pitcher Jeanmar Gomez to a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training; CBS Sports also confirmed Grant’s earlier report. The Rangers also added Phillips Valdez and Ariel Hernandez, both on minor-league deals as well.
Gomez, 30, broke into the big leagues in 2010 as a member of the Cleveland Indians. In parts of three seasons with the Indians, he pitched to an ERA of 5.18 in 206.2 innings, striking out 112 and walking 71 in 38 starts. In January 2013, he was designated for assignment and was then traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
With Pittsburgh, Gomez enjoyed a nice stretch of two years in which he pitched to a cumulative 3.28 ERA in 142.2 frames, striking out 91. He kept his FIP to a reasonable 4.08 and finished 26 games from 2013 to 2015 with the Pirates.
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After being signed by the Phillies in January 2015 as a minor-league free agent, the native of Caracas, Venezuela slid into the closer’s role in 2016, saving 37 saves while carrying an oddly high 4.85 ERA. Still, his 2016 season, which saw him boast a WAR of -0.2 and a FIP of 3.96, marks the campaign for which he is probably best known.
Following an abysmal start to the 2017 season with the Phillies, he was designated for assignment then released in June. Though he logged innings with the Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Mariners organizations (2.16 ERA in 8.1 IP with Triple-A Colorado Spring of MIL org.; 1.59 ERA in 5.2 IP with Triple-A Tacoma of SEA org.), he signed on with the Chicago White Sox in January 2018.
In 26 games for the White Sox in 2018, Gomez pitched to an ERA of 4.68 in 25.0 innings, striking out 27 and walking 10 while finishing five games. He also logged 40 innings with Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate, the Charlotte Knights.
An eight year MLB veteran, Gomez is 51st among active pitchers in saves and 52nd in games finished. If Gomez manages to make the team out of spring training, he could be a formidable depth reliever who could eat up some innings for a middling Texas Rangers squad in 2019.