TODAY: The Rangers have officially announced the selection of Keuchel’s contract from Triple-A
AUGUST 26: The Rangers announced that Dallas Keuchel is slated to start tomorrow evening’s game against the Tigers. Texas placed southpaw Cole Ragans on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to August 23, due to a left calf strain. The Rangers already have a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so no additional transaction will be necessary to formally select Keuchel’s contract.
It’s a return to the big leagues for the 2015 AL Cy Young award winner, who will be on his third team of the 2022 season. Keuchel opened the year with the White Sox but was released in May after posting a 7.88 ERA over eight starts. The veteran southpaw signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks and made it back to the majors. He was tagged for 22 runs (20 earned) in 18 2/3 frames, however, and Arizona also let him go.
Texas rolled the dice on Keuchel last month, signing him to a minor league pact. He’s spent the past few weeks at Triple-A Round Rock, going 23 1/3 innings over four outings (just under six frames per start) with an excellent 2.31 ERA. Keuchel has walked an elevated 12.1% of batters faced there, but he’s induced ground-balls at a huge 64.9% clip. That’s more in line with the grounder numbers he racked up at his peak with the division-rival Astros than the even 50% rate (a strong but not elite mark) he’s posted with Chicago and Arizona this year.
Keuchel adds a veteran option with a lengthy track record of career success to the Texas rotation for the stretch run. The Rangers will only pay him the prorated portion of the $700K league minimum for any time he spends in the majors, with the White Sox otherwise on the hook for his $18MM salary this year (plus a $1.5MM buyout on a 2023 option in his original contract with Chicago). The 34-year-old will return to the free agent market this offseason, and a strong showing over the season’s final month could aid his efforts to find a big league deal over the winter.
Ragans was called up for his major league debut earlier this month. The former first-rounder has made four starts, allowing ten runs (nine earned) in 18 1/3 frames. Texas hasn’t provided any indication whether he’s expected to return before the end of the season. The 24-year-old is looking to carve out a back-end role in next year’s rotation.
Zoinks!
Is this a joke?
No, it’s a word often used by Shaggy of Scooby-Doo fame. A joke would require additional complexity.
dude just needs to retire!
Would you retire with and give up a guaranteed $18 million plus another $1.5 million the next year? Of course you wouldn’t. When teams stop paying him, he’ll retire.
This reply is getting old. Yes, if you believe in earning your paycheck then he should retire if he is performing so poorly. It doesn’t matter if he is making $15 or $15m. It’s called integrity. Something professional athletes are in short supply of these days. Let’s not forget that there have been examples in the past, like Gil Meche, who retired with another year and $12m on his contract. He felt he couldn’t earn the money and it wouldn’t be fair to take it. MLB needs to be able to waive huge contracts that don’t work out like the other sports do. Players are demanding more and more money without leaving the team any options if the player doesn’t perform. Imagine a team like the Royals or Cardinals getting stuck with a Jacoby Ellsbury contract. It’s the difference in spending money at the deadline for a playoff run or sitting on your hands because ownership is tapped out. Something needs to be done once the first half billion 12+ year deal gets signed.
Integrity? He signed a contract and is playing it out. There is nothing dishonest about expecting ownership to honor their end of it. How many times have players out played their contacts? Are the owners lacking integrity by paying them below market? Dumb comment of the day.
While I respect what Gil meche did, you’re citing an incident that was rare. While there is an integrity, there is usually a flare inside athletes that drives them to try and catch some of their old form back. It might sound like something simple to some, but it’s really not. Look at Pujols. People wre calling for him to retire for awhile, and yet he’s chasing down 700. I’ve never been a pujols fan. But good for him for sticking it out and going out on his terms, with a better story beyond just being toast.
Pujols was a horrible player for half a decade- a complete Zero. The fact that he’s doing fairly well this year doesn’t make up for that in any way, shape, or form.
Holy toledo where’s the popcorn.
Of course he’s doing well now with most of the season already past. Maybe he’s already been dropped the maximum amount of times. “Hey Barry – still got anyones number from the lab?”
Hahaha, yeah he should turn down 18 million dollars in the name of integrity, after all it took for him to climb to the top one percent of the top one percent in his insanely competitive career.
Thank you for making my day with that one!
Please provide the specific clauses in these contracts regarding player performance. We’ll wait.
Oh, there isn’t one? You mean both parties agreed to the terms of the terms understanding the risks involved?
The problem is the length of the contracts being handed out….. every free agent is presumably headed to the hall of fame
Just put a Jiffypop on the burner after opening this thread….
Yoooo, let’s not put the Cards and Royals in the same sentence when it comes to how to run an organization. Just sayyyyinnnnn….
Bravo!!
He gets his 2022 salary and 2023 buyout whether he plays anywhere or not.
Glad you have your head on straight, knuck.
MLB teams: stop rewarding over the hill grezers big contracts (I’m looking at you too, Arrieta).
considering how bad most huge contracts go, the Arrieta deal could have gone a lot worse.
Arrieta contract was bad for the money vs performance, but they overpaid for a professional pitcher. Jake:
2018 31st Pivetta Velasquez 3rd and 4th
2019 24st Efflin Velasquez as 3rd and 4th
2020 9st Wheeler’s 1st year
A lot of Philles’s fans were upset, but looking back, guy took the hill and threw…….complained about the D and off shifting, which we now see he was right.
Can’t whine about a guy who wanted to win….overpaid or not…
Idk about “retire.” The Angels could still use a guy like this. Better than trying to recruit the peanut vendors.
Thoughts and prayers on a speedy recovery
It’s just for the name
Any type of bean specifically or will all beans suffice?
Depends on the Jesus.
Maybe Keuchel will pitch better back in Texas.
I was referring to The Almighty in particular.
Rangers tanking now?
Might as well. Higher draft picks for the future. At least he’s a “name brand” in Texas
I mean, he’s facing the tigers. If there were ever a game to start him, that’d be it lol
Nigeria prince or human trafficker?
Next poster that refers to the as the ‘Trashtros’, there’s going to be a problem. Don’t do it.
Cheatro Banditros
Trashcanbangingstros
Houston Asterisks
Best team in baseball, hope they win the world series at Dodger Stadium and in celebration, buy a bunch of those metal trash bins and bang them all around field.
In the words of the great Cj from GTA 5 “Ah sh here we go again”
I loved how Tommy Vercetti said the name “LANCE” in GTA Vice City
Another four starts averaging four innings each with a total of 20 earned runs allowed.
Chicago White Sox – STRIKE ONE!
Arizona Diamondbacks – STRIKE TWO!
Texas Rangers – …………
Not a great look for Chris Young as his first move since Jon Daniels was fired. Bringing up a pitcher like Kuechel to a team that is going to miss the playoffs make ZERO sense for the Rangers. It’s not like they want to evaluate him for a potential major league contract next year either. I don’t understand why Young did this and why other teams do the same thing.
This is the perfect time to bring a young pitcher up and give him a taste of the majors. You just have to set the stage properly with him, letting him know that he might get knocked around a bit (and that is okay), but the main purpose is to get some major league experience and learn from that what he needs to improve on in order to become a regular piece of the MLB pitching staff. We’re at the point in the season where calling up a rookie does not impact his service time. Even if he’s struggling in the minors, this is the perfect time to get a rookie some no pressure experience in the majors.
Instead, opponents are just waiting to hit for the cycle off of Keuchel.
Nice rhyme, Dorothy.
There isn’t a single arm in the upper levels ready for a chance in the majors.
I’m shocked Spencer Howard didn’t work out. He looked like the top pitching prospect in baseball in spring training 2021. Darting all over the zone spotting everything perfectly
Didn’t really function well in real games though. Phillies may have mishandled him a little bit or he just can’t get it together under the lights
He’s been consistently inconsistent during his time in the majors. Bigly.
Phillies totally mishandled him, ty Klentak.
They tried to catch fire by bringing him up. Howard has the stuff, but the mental may be off….? He’s only 26, so maybe they move him into a longA role and hope he can become a set-upA then a closer….?
As us Chicago fans would say: ” Good luck wit dat”,
Product of Houston pinetar
Dallas Keuchel’s ERA of 8.53 is the 15th highest in a single season (min. 50 IP) since 1950.
48 earned runs in 50.2 innings woof
I fear this won’t end well.
But the fact that it will end is good enough for me.
I think this was Dallas last game as MLB player
Dallas gave up 7 earned runs in 5.1 innings this evening. (11 hits and one walk.) Not sure if that’s an improvement.
Vintage Kuechel
KOOOOCH!!!!!
This guy’s career has more lives than a cat.
Everyone knows he’s terrible, if Jerry Reinsdorf ate his contract, you know he’s brutal