Rangers Sign Twins Starting Pitcher
The Texas Rangers signed free agent right-handed pitcher Tyler Mahle to a two-year, $22 million deal. The deal will pay Mahle $5.5 million in 2024 and $16.5 million in 2025. The Rangers have 38 players on their 40-man roster. Mahle, 29, is expected to miss the beginning of the 2024 campaign as he continues rehabilitation from Tommy John surgery in May of 2023. The surgery was performed by the Rangers’ team surgeon, Dr. Keith Meister. He went 1-2 with a 3.16 ERA and 28 strikeouts over five starts for Minnesota in 2023 before being placed on the 15-day injured list on May 3 with a right arm posterior impingement and flexor pronator strain.
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The right-hander was transferred to the 60-day injured list on May 5 and underwent the season-ending procedure on his throwing elbow on May 22. Dating back to the start of the 2020 season, Mahle is 22-18 with a 3.90 ERA and 424 strikeouts over 71 games (70 starts). He ranks among Major League pitchers with at least 350 innings pitched in that span in strikeouts per nine innings (17th, 10.20), strikeout percentage (20th, 27.1%), and opponent batting average (27th, .228).
According to Baseball Savant (Statcast), opposing hitters have batted .223 (157-704) against Mahle’s four-seam fastball over the last four seasons, the 13th-lowest opponent batting average allowed by any MLB pitcher with at least 2,500 four-seamers thrown in that span. Mahle spent parts of two injury-shortened campaigns with the Twins after being acquired from Cincinnati on Aug. 2, 2022, in exchange for infielders Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand, and left-handed pitcher Steve Hajjar. He combined to post a 2-3 record, 3.64 ERA, 40 strikeouts and nine walks in nine starts for Minnesota in 2022-23.
Mahle spent the first 10 years of his professional career in the Reds organization, including a 31-38 record, 4.35 ERA and 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings in 114 MLB appearances (113 starts). He produced career highs in wins, starts, quality starts (12), innings pitched, and strikeouts (210) in 2021, going 13-6 with a 3.75 ERA while ranking among National League leaders in starts (T1st), strikeouts per nine innings (7th, 10.50), strikeouts (9th), and wins (T10th). His 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings from that year remains the fifth-highest single-season mark in franchise history. The seven-year MLB veteran has a 33-41 record, 4.30 ERA and 677 strikeouts (9.6 SO/9) with Cincinnati (2017-22) and Minnesota (2022-23).
He was originally selected by the Reds in the 7th round of the 2013 MLB Draft out of Westminster (Calif.) High School.
