Texas Rangers rumors: Team interested in reliever Joakim Soria

The Texas Rangers appear to have interest in a 36-year old reliever who has spent the last two years with the Oakland A’s.

Even through the thick of a rebuild, the Texas Rangers keep placing themselves in the middle of the churning rumor mill.

This time, Jon Daniels and Chris Young find themselves jockeying with AL West rivals for the services of veteran right-handed reliver Joakim Soria, according to MLB Network insider Jon Morosi.

Soria spent last season with the Oakland A’s, appearing in 22 games with an ERA of 2.82, a FIP of 2.97, and an ERA+ of 148 over 22.1 innings pitched.

He signed a two-year deal with the A’s prior to the 2019 season. Before that, he had stints in Kansas City, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and… Texas?

You read that right, Joakim Soria spent one and a half seasons in Arlington from 2013-2014, being traded to the Detroit Tigers around the trade deadline in 2014.

Joakim Soria was solid in his first stint with the Texas Rangers.

The 36-year-old was pretty effective during his tenure with the Rangers, compiling a 3.16 ERA and a 129 ERA+ in 57 innings pitched and 61 total appearances for the team.

So from a familiarity standpoint, the Texas Rangers’ interest in Soria makes some degree of sense.

However, he also make sense from a fit perspective.

As we discussed on Wednesday, the Rangers’ bullpen is stocked with young and hard throwing relievers. The only reliever in the unit with any significant MLB experience at the moment is closer Jose Leclerc.

With Leclerc likely to be traded at some point soon, the Rangers could use a pitcher like Soria for his leadership and experience, as well as for his ability to deliver quality innings in relief.

More importantly, though, Soria could become a mid-season trade piece for Texas, in which the team could flip him to a contender for prospects to push the rebuilding effort.

The one-time Ranger is not likely to attract a long term deal given his advanced baseball age, which could favor Texas in their pursuit.

At the same time, however, he’ll likely command decent money given his solid 2020 performance, perhaps to the point where he prices himself out of the Rangers’ price range.

In any case, Soria has his options of both contenders and middling squads, so we expect things to drag out for a little while.