Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Younger instructed reporters (together with Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning Information) this morning that right-hander Nathan Eovaldi has declined his $20MM participant possibility for the 2025 season, making him a free agent. Younger added that the membership has “nice curiosity” in reuniting with him this winter.
Eovaldi, 34, simply wrapped up his second season in Texas. The veteran right-hander was stable however unspectacular for the Rangers this 12 months as he pitched to a 3.80 ERA (104 ERA+) with a 3.83 FIP in 170 2/3 innings of labor. Provided that moderately uninspiring platform season, Eovaldi’s resolution to choose out might register as one thing of a shock at first look. A more in-depth look to the right-hander’s season and total physique of labor makes it clear why he would choose out forward of his age-35 season in hopes of looking for what could possibly be the final multi-year pact of his profession, nevertheless.
An All-Star for the Rangers simply final 12 months, Eovaldi has pitched to a 3.72 ERA (110 ERA+) and a 3.86 FIP throughout his time with the Rangers. These outcomes are largely in keeping with the numbers he posted throughout his ultimate three years with the Pink Sox, for whom he posted a 3.79 ERA (120 ERA+) with a 3.43 FIP from 2020 to 2022, together with a dominant 2021 season the place he was named an All-Star and completed fourth in AL Cy Younger award voting. These numbers forged Eovaldi as a stable mid-rotation arm, and his underlying numbers recommend he might proceed to be a high quality, playoff caliber arm whilst he ages.
His fastball velocity (which averaged 95.6 in 2024) stays sturdy whilst he enters his mid-30s, and he maintains that high-octane stuff regardless of boasting a 5.6% stroll charge that stands because the fifth-best in baseball over the previous half decade amongst pitchers with not less than 600 innings of labor. Throughout his time with the Rangers, he’s tended to be a sufferer of excessive residence run charges, thanks partially to Globe Life Discipline being among the many most homer-friendly parks within the sport. That actuality along side his stable 7.7% barrel charge with the Rangers helps to elucidate why superior metrics like SIERA assume so extremely of Eovaldi, whose 3.88 determine over the previous two seasons mirrors that of high free agent starter Corbin Burnes.
After all, Eovaldi absolutely gained’t come particularly near matching Burnes or the opposite high pitchers in the marketplace this winter when it comes to assure. That’s each as a result of Eovaldi’s total outcomes (115 ERA+ from 2020-24) have fallen properly in need of that higher echelon of pitching expertise in recent times, and likewise as a result of he’ll already be 35 years previous when pitchers and catchers report back to Spring Coaching in February. Whereas it appears affordable to anticipate Eovaldi to earn a wholesome common annual worth, it will be shocking to see him land greater than two or three years in free company. That makes him a very attention-grabbing free agent as a doubtlessly impactful rotation piece who could also be extra enticing to groups that are likely to hesitate on prolonged contracts, just like the Angels, Cubs, and Orioles, along with the Rangers’ aforementioned curiosity in a reunion. Sean Manaea, Nick Pivetta, and Luis Severino are among the many different gamers who determine to occupy the center tier of the free agent rotation market this winter.
