After a relatively quiet day on Monday in the wake of the Juan Soto news, the Winter Meetings have taken off on Tuesday night.
Max Fried, one of the best starting pitchers on the market, signed a $218 million contract with the loser of the Soto sweepstakes. Immediately after, the Blue Jays took no time licking their wounds, trading for Andrés Giménez.
Now, another top starting pitcher has been taken off the market: Nate Eovaldi.
BREAKING: Free-agent pitcher Nathan Eovaldi and the Texas Rangers are in agreement on a contract, according to sources familiar with the deal.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) December 11, 2024
Per ESPN's Jeff Passan, the contract is worth $75 million over three years. It's yet another in a long line of pitcher contracts this winter that have far exceeded expectations.
Rangers gamble big on 2023 World Series hero aging gracefully
Eovaldi, who will turn 35 in February, has been a solidly above-average pitcher over the last half-decade. In his two years in Texas, he's accrued a 3.72 ERA (3.86 FIP) in 314 2/3 innings, a 298-89 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and 1.122 WHIP.
His peripherals are similarly solid, with a 7.0% walk rate, 23.4% strikeout rate, and 49.6% groundball rate defining his time with the Rangers. The latter two metrics are better than his career norms, while his walk rate is right in line with it.
Of course, Eovaldi's shining moment with the Rangers was his dominant playoff performance in 2023 as the team made its run to its first-ever championship. Eovaldi went 5-0 across six starts and 36 2/3 innings, striking out 41 hitters while allowing just ten free passes. He was the rotation's leader (along with Jordan Montgomery) after the team lost Jacob DeGrom and Max Scherzer for the majority of the postseason.
Nathan Eovaldi escapes the bases-loaded jam.#WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/0lMw5qolGJ
— MLB (@MLB) November 2, 2023
Retaining Eovaldi was necessary for a team with an endless amount of questions in the rotation. DeGrom finally got healthy at the end of the 2024 season, but he hasn't pitched more than 100 innings in a season since 2019. Jon Gray is a fine middle-of-the-rotation arm, but his upside is limited after posting a 4.47 ERA in 102 2/3 innings last year.
After that trio, it's just blank spaces on the depth chart. Tyler Mahle and Cody Bradford have MLB experience (the former more than the latter), though neither is going to inspire much confidence. Top prospects Kumar Rocker, Owen White and Jack Leiter all made their MLB debuts in 2024, though none established themselves at the big league level.
The team did sign Adrian Houser to a minor-league deal in free agency, but he's just a flier after posting a 5.84 ERA in 69 1/3 innings with the Mets last season.
As such, the Rangers still have plenty of work to do in order to re-reach their 2023 heights, but signing Eovaldi was a good first step, even if handing a 35-year-old pitcher a $25 million annual salary rightfully makes fans feel uneasy.