Rangers re-sign Cubs' roster casualty from Ryan Pressly trade on minor league deal

Everybody loves a good reunion in baseball, so when the Texas Rangers and Matt Festa reunited once more on Wednesday, the crowd undoubtedly went wild.

Festa, 31, has bounced around a bit over the years, but he spent the 2024 campaign in both the New York Mets and Rangers organizations. He was traded from the Rangers to the Chicago Cubs just under a month ago, but he quickly lost his hold on a 40-man roster spot in Chicago.

Once the Cubs swung a trade to acquire closer Ryan Pressly from the Houston Astros, Festa was the player that lost his roster spot. A trip through waivers that resulted in him testing the open market found him making his way right back to the Rangers, where he belongs.

Rangers re-sign Matt Festa to minor league deal

Festa has racked up over 100 big-league appearances since first debuting back in 2018, but only 18 of those have come in a Rangers uniform. In each of the four years, he's pitched in 20 or more innings (2024 included) and put up ERAs north of 4.00 as well as an ERA+ well below 100, which is considered league-average.

In an 18-game showing with the Rangers this past season, he posted a 4.37 ERA and 3.34 FIP through 22 2/3 innings of work. In that time, he struck out 23 batters while walking seven. In 2022, he struck out 10.7 batters per nine innings across 53 games with the Mariners, so it's not difficult to see why the Rangers are holding out hope he returns to that with their team.

Since Festa's new deal with Texas is of the minor-league variety, the club is able to stash him at Triple-A to open the 2025 campaign. In 33 minor league appearances last year, he had a 2.70 ERA with 10.8 K/9. If nothing else, he'll once again be a valuable veteran presence that can help complete Triple-A Round Rock's bullpen. However, he's out of options, so once the Rangers bring him back up to the big leagues, he can't freely be sent back down.