The Rangers have agreed to sign Roy Oswalt, Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News reports. The right-hander will earn a guaranteed $5MM salary plus $1MM in incentives, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports (on Twitter). The Rangers required ownership approval to sign Oswalt, a Bob Garber client.
The Rangers stayed in contact with Oswalt this past offseason, but didn't have an opening in their rotation at the time and none of his other suitors locked him up. Once Neftali Feliz hit the disabled list, an opening emerged in the rotation and GM Jon Daniels struck. Rangers CEO Nolan Ryan and pitching coach Mike Maddux appear to have helped convince Oswalt to pitch in Texas.
Oswalt made 23 starts and completed 139 innings for the Phillies last year, posting a 3.69 ERA with 6.0 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and a 45.1% ground ball rate. However, the 34-year-old's average fastball velocity dropped to 91.4 mph, and he had two back-related stints on the disabled list.
If the Rangers have five healthy starters when Feliz returns from the disabled list, they could use him out of the bullpen and rely on a rotation of Oswalt, Yu Darvish, Colby Lewis, Derek Holland and Matt Harrison.
Photo courtesy of US Presswire.
Well, I guess it was only a matter of time until we saw this.
Yeah, I’ll say it was:
* Step 1: Pitch
* Step 2: Jump back on tractor
* Repeat as needed until happiness has been achieved
Wow !
Wow ok then. Shake and Bake, that just happened
Looks like Feliz will be hitting the ‘pen when he’s back from the DL
That or Feldman
Both will be in the ‘pen. Feldman will stay in until Oswalt is ready to pitch, then go to the bullpen. When Feliz is off of the DL, he will be either in the bullpen (which is what I expect) or AAA as a starter. It sucks for Feliz, but it is probably best for the team.
Feldman and Feliz will go to the pen, Yoshi to AAA
So how do you add 2 (Feliz and Oswalt) and subtract one? Somebody else has to go down.
both will go back into the pen. As soon as Oswalt is ready, Feldman is back to the pen.
The rich get richer. I would love to see the Rangers finally take it down this year. Nice job Texas.
That’s what i’m saying. For a team that was one-strike away from a Championship i sure hope they get it this year finally.
oh well, dodgers will find someone.
Eovaldi
Angels winning some games, Rangers not messing around. He really would have been a better fit with dodgers, but if somebody doesnt want to be here the hell with him
The Angels winning a few games has no effect on this. Either way, Texas is still up on the Angels by a pretty comfortable margin at the moment.
Angels played the Mariners and just added 4 wins… I don’t think Texas is worried.
He wanted to be closer to home. Same reason why we always knew CJ would take the first plane to Anaheim.
Adding him in my fantasy league right now
He wont contribute before late June
Possibly by mid-June depending on his conditioning.
It’s a 16 team league…isn’t is safer to get him now and guarantee he’s on my team?
I’m in a 20 team league, and I did the same thing as soon as MLBTR announced he could be signed within a week. Going to the Rangers, and so soon, is icing on the cake.
Completely agree Moo
Welcome to the Rangers, Roy O.
Wow, really glad he didnt go anywhere in the NL East but I love watching this guy pitch, he is a bulldog.
Oswalt wanted to play close to home and for a contender. Just besause the Dodgers have new Owners, doesn’t every good player wants to play for them.
I have to say I am 50/50 on this as I think that is what his health is. I do like the leadership aspect though as I think the young guys could use somebody again who has been an established ace and how they go about their business. A post season rotation of Colby, Yu, and Roy could be awesome assuming Colby is his normal shutdown October self, Yu continues what he is doing and Roy is healthy. Holland and Harrison for that 4th spot in the 7 game series or to come save the bullpen if somebody falters early. Feliz, Adams, Uehara, Ogando as set up men with Nathan closing as he has been. Ok, getting ahead of myself but that is nasty.
man, texas is already a nasty team to deal with. now they just got better. hard to see them coming up short this year.
WooHoo! That puts me @ 14 correct on the Contest leader board!
around probably $4 mill for a veteran guy that still has good baseball left in him. He is only 34. There is a few years left. Oswalt has been to the WS and lost. He knows Ryan and Maddox well and vice versa. The Rangers are cautious when it comes to injuries, and wouldn’t have signed Oswalt if he wasn’t healthy. Not to mention, there are many teams in contention so the availability of a good starter will be low. Plus, Oswalt cost no prospects. This is a low risk, high reward sign. If it doesn’t pan out the Rangers lose some cash, if it does pan out the Rangers will look like geniuses having greatly improved the rotation giving up no prospects.
Even if they had to pay the entire $6 million, I guess I look at it like this, when you’re spending $120 million already, if you think adding a pretty solid arm, one with a heck of a lot of success on his track record, is enough to put you over the top for the World Series championship, you just do it. No regrets. If you’re concerned about payroll, drop some money off the rolls next season to make it up. For this little amount of money, you have to do whatever it takes to go for it. The Rangers have made it twice to come up just a hair short now and for them this is going for it. You have to make moves like this when you can. I also don’t doubt Oswalt’s price was much lower for Texas than what he was quoting Boston so they likely got a discount.
All said and done, great move by Texas. If he doesn’t pan out, he’s not going to cripple the payroll. If he does, it was a genius move. Even if you don’t win one for a couple years afterward you just go for it when you get the chance. Good GMs on winning clubs eat a little extra payroll when they need to if they think it will put them over the top. So as a Red Sox fan who wanted Oswalt, I congratulate Texas fans on a nice acquisition.
Its a great time to be a ranger fan. Oswalts a 5th starter, Nelson Cruz and Mike Napoli bat 7-8th and Alexi Ogandu and Uehara are set up men.
can you say depth?
depth
Can you say choke?
choke
not in that weak division they ain’t.
(and i’m not a ranger fan).
Least surprising story of the decade.
Good thing the cards didnt get him we’re already going to have trouble when Carpenter gets back.
No trouble at all if you’ve seen Westbrook pitch recently.
In the end I m just glad he made a good solid decision based on family …..and the fact that the Rangers are running away with it didnt hurt I guess. Carpetbagging at its finest. Wouldnt expect anything less from a guy like that.
The best just got better. Big Oriole fan here, so things just got really tough; however, living in Houston I was always a big Astros fan too. Rangers just picked up a tough competitor and good clubhouse guy.
They should just mail the Rangers the Commissioner’s trophy and send the other 29 teams a letter saying “better luck next year.”
It’s not a bargain obviously, but the deal is good value, if Oswalt can stay healthy. The warm weather should help his back issues, as should the prolonged off season.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Oswalts velocity come back up a few mph’s either, could touch 94-95 IMO. I think he’s gonna be great, if used limited.
The Rangers pitching staff is loaded.
Y’all think Feliz will return to the role as closer when he comes back from injury or will he go into the rotation? That’s one interesting decision for Maddux and Ryan.
Not with the way Nathan is pitching. Best bullpen in the majors by far with Feliz, Adams, Uehara, Ogando, Ross, Tateyama/Feldman and Nathan. Just sick and we have plenty in the minors in reserve.
That’s just straight up frightening. How in the world did Jon Daniels put that together and still have a solid farm?!
It blows our minds too. I’ve been contemplating getting a Jon Daniels jersey for a while now.
I wonder if they’ll send Feliz to AAA to stay stretched out as a starter…
This is why I respect the way the Rangers are run despite how much I despise them on the field. They make all the right moves, and always seem to have several promising minor leaguers. Oswalt at that price is very safe, and he will probably, much to my chagrin, be well worth it. A front office that is perpetually looking for ways to improve an already elite team, I wish my team had that too.
I respect you for praising our organization even tho as a rangers fan, we have our rivalry but you guys have a good team and will definitely be on the run. Albert and wilson have already improved your team and Dipoto will definitely make a great GM. You guys have good ownership to back it up, so long as he dosent play GM.
I respect you for praising our organization even tho as a rangers fan, we have our rivalry but you guys have a good team and will definitely be on the run. Albert and wilson have already improved your team and Dipoto will definitely make a great GM. You guys have good ownership to back it up, so long as he dosent play GM.
Your team went out and signed the two best FA on the market. They got Ernesto Frieri for marbles. Why would you say they do not look to improve? There isn’t anything else they can do. The players have to play.
Completely agree. And I absolutely love the way Dipoto is running things so I was mainly criticizing the Reagins administration. I still stand firm on player scouting though, the Angels without Mike Trout have produced few standout prospects like the Rangers have. Hopefully that too changes with the new scouting director we brought in.
Man I can remember when signing Steve Howe was the big thing, I like the move the Rangers have made for the most part, I watched a lot of bad Ranger baseball over the years and making sure to enjoy all this……
Now that the final ranked player has signed, The free agent contest is officially over, congrats to the winners.
Massive gut punch to the phillies
He was just spotted riding his tractor down I-20, heading toward Arlington.
Phillies should go after Jason Vargas ha.
Why couldn’t the Orioles sign him? honestly he’d be a great fit.. at least making the play offs run exciting!
Chances are that he didn’t want to go to Baltimore. He made it pretty clear that Texas and St. Louis were his only two options.
Funny how all of are talking so highly of the Rangers.. The team that got to the WS twice and choked to worse teams than them…