Texas Rangers' Jake Odorizzi Out for the Season

Jake Odorizzi was the first move the Texas Rangers made in the offseason to improve their pitching staff. He was traded for initially to join the starting rotation. As the offseason went on and the Rangers signed Jacob deGrom, Andrew Heaney, and Nathan Eovaldi he was moved into the swing role of long man/spot starter. Spring Training got started and he started feeling arm fatigue and was not able to ever take the mound in a spring training game. He was then moved from the bullpen to the 60-day IL to start the season. It was announced today that he will remain on the IL for the remainder of the season as he underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery.

The 33-year old Odorizzi came over in a trade with Atlanta back in November for Kolby Allard. Odorizzi had surprisingly picked up his 12.5 million dollar option for 2023. Atlanta decided to trade him rather than keep him at the price. Atlanta picked up $10 million of that contract leaving the Rangers to take on 2.5 million. He will now become a free agent after the season.

This means for Texas that Dane Dunning and Cole Ragans who were expected to be starting games in Round Rock will likely stay in Arlington and pitch out the bullpen for most if not all of this season. It is a hit to the Rangers' pitching depth to lose Odorizzi. The current top options at Triple-A Round Rock are Cody Bradford, Zak Kent, and Cole Winn. Zak Kent and Cole Winn are currently on the 40-man, and Bradford is not.

As long as the members of the rotation stay healthy the Rangers should be good. It starts to get complicated if pitchers start to have to miss starts. That will be a decision the Rangers make when they have to cross that bridge.