March 22: The Rangers have now announced the signing. Right-hander Jacob deGrom was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
March 20: The Rangers are in agreement with free agent starter Michael Lorenzen on a one-year, $4.5MM contract, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (X link). The deal, which is pending a physical, contains another $2.5MM in performance bonuses. Lorenzen is a client of CAA Sports.
Aside from Jordan Montgomery, Lorenzen was arguably the best starter still available. The right-hander had reportedly waited out the market in search of a multi-year pact. That evidently didn’t materialize, as he instead inks a one-year deal for the third straight offseason. After securing respective $6.75MM and $8.5MM contracts in the last two winters, he winds up taking a reduced rate for the 2024 season.
That’s certainly not what he’d been hoping for on the heels of the first All-Star nod of his career. Lorenzen appeared on his way to a two- or potentially three-year pact midway through the year. He turned in strong numbers over 18 starts with the Tigers, working to a 3.58 ERA across 105 2/3 innings. A sub-20% strikeout rate raised a question as to whether he could sustain that kind of run prevention, but he nevertheless was one of the better rental starters available at the deadline.
Detroit flipped Lorenzen to the Phillies for second base prospect Hao-Yu Lee. His initial two starts with the Phils couldn’t have gone better. He tossed eight innings of two-run ball in Miami during his team debut. In his first home appearance at Citizens Bank Park, he no-hit the Nationals. That he tossed 124 pitches in that game wasn’t ideal, but skipper Rob Thomson gave him the leeway to complete that historic outing.
Things quickly went downhill after that appearance. Nine days later, Lorenzen faced the same Washington lineup at Nationals Park. He was tagged for seven runs in 3 1/3 innings. That kicked off a stretch of six consecutive appearances in which he allowed at least four runs. That included a relief outing on September 19 in which Lorenzen retired one of seven batters faced against the Braves.
To his credit, Lorenzen finished the regular season with a trio of scoreless relief outings. He’d already fallen down the leverage hierarchy by that point though. The Phils used him just twice in their run to the NLCS. He worked 2 2/3 scoreless frames in mop-up situations during the postseason.
That Lorenzen moved to the bullpen wasn’t a surprise in itself. The Phils acknowledged at the time of his acquisition that they could eventually squeeze him out and go with a five-man staff of Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suárez, Taijuan Walker and Cristopher Sánchez. Yet there’s no denying the last six weeks didn’t go anywhere close to plan. He allowed 30 runs (27 earned) with an 18:15 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his last 30 1/3 innings.
Whether that finish was more a reflection of Lorenzen wearing down after the no-hitter or about his middling peripherals catching up to him, it was a sour conclusion to what was a solid season. His first 20 starts were strong enough that his overall line was right around league average. Lorenzen finished the year with a 4.18 ERA through a personal-high 153 innings. He’d posted a similar 4.24 mark over 97 2/3 frames with the Angels in 2022, his first season as a starter since his 2015 rookie campaign.
While last year’s 17.8% strikeout percentage and 9.4% swinging strike rate were each below average, he trimmed his walks to a modest 7.5% clip. He mixed five pitches, headlined by a four-seam fastball that sat a little above 94 MPH on average. Lorenzen’s aggregate production looked like that of a strike-throwing #4/5 starter. While that’s perhaps not the most exciting profile, it explains why his camp thought a multi-year deal should’ve been on the table. Within the past two offseasons, players like Drew Smyly ($19MM), Jordan Lyles ($17MM), and KBO returnee Erick Fedde ($15MM) secured two-year pacts.
It’s impossible to know whether that would’ve been attainable earlier in the offseason, but the market hasn’t been favorable for the players who remain unsigned deep into Spring Training. Lorenzen’s one-year deal trails those inked by Alex Wood ($8.5MM), Martín Pérez ($8MM), Jakob Junis ($7MM) and James Paxton ($7MM) earlier in the winter.
On the plus side, the 32-year-old gets an opportunity with a contender. He joins the defending World Series winners to help a rotation that’ll be without each of Max Scherzer, Tyler Mahle and Jacob deGrom for a couple months. Texas still has a solid front four of Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning and Andrew Heaney. Left-hander Cody Bradford struggled in a swing role last season but has pitched well this spring. GM Chris Young said last weekend that Bradford earned the fifth starter role, but it’s possible he’ll be nudged back into relief at some point.
Lorenzen might not be ready to step right into the Texas rotation. His extended free agent stay kept him from pitching competitively this spring. He has been throwing on his own, reportedly tossing 70 pitches earlier in the week, yet that’s not a perfect substitute for game action. Bradford may still take a turn or two through the rotation before moving to a swing role as the top depth option in case anyone ahead of him suffers an injury.
The signing pushes the team’s player payroll to the $224MM range, as calculated by RosterResource. They’re around $248MM in luxury tax commitments. Texas is set to pay the competitive balance tax for a second consecutive season. That means they’re taxed at a 30% rate on spending between $237MM and $257MM. Adding Lorenzen comes with another $1.35MM in CBT commitments, pushing the overall guarantee to roughly $5.85MM.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Steal deal!
Wow, I was not expecting the Rangers to sign Lorenzen. This clearly means now that Montgomery is not returning to the Rangers.
Really? That hadn’t occurred to you yet?
Nothing takes the Rangers out….
Rangers have been clear since the offseason started that they could not afford to be in the market for Montgomery. Would have liked to have him back, but with the situation around their TV rights deal it just wasn’t feasible.to ownership.
Yeah the Rangers already have a lot of money on the books. They need to focus more on their farm now if they want to remain in contention for years to come.
it wasn’t the TV deal asuch as it was the luxury tax penalties. if Montgomery signed for $30 million a year, Texas would have been paying over $40 million a year for him because of the stupid, stupid tax penalties
No not a steal it’s MSRP. Ridiculous anybody thought he was worth 10M+
Yankees miss out on another SP. I guess Cashman is sleeping
I’m starting to think that they prefer Will Warren as their #5.
I like the kids like Warren, Beeter, and Gil, but adding Lorenzen on a $5-$8 million deal would’ve done a lot to solidify the back end of the rotation. Plus you can bring the youngsters up later as injury replacements.
Maybe Cashman is working something out with Montgomery though.
He isn’t what you think he is. He a little above average at best
A little above average at best is exactly what I thought he is. I’m expecting him to potentially be a 5th starter in NY
Yankees going cheap and are done! Considering how low Lorenzen’s price is if Cashman passed on that that means he is done with signing another player including a 3B. It’s hilarious cause Yankee fans are going to be very disappointed when Soto walks after season as no way does Hal go near another $40 million yr contract
Yankees aren’t going cheap. They just have already spent their money. I know it’s a hard concept to grasp but there are limits to spending for everyone.
Nah yall will sign monty now. It’s our gm that’s playing games here in Texas. I mean I guess at least he signed somone but damn…
Excellent add. It was only his second year as a starter so the workload caught up to him. Expect the Detroit version.
You just won a World Series. Not much to complain about
@Stymeed. Well I wouldn’t rule out his workload, his stats while with Tigers are rather deceptive. Look at his game log and the teams he faced that bolstered his stats. He fared much worse against all average or better teams. The lone exception was pitching a good game against BAL in April.
More like Will Robinson. Danger!
More like Will Robinson. Danger!
=========================
Dude, you old!
Yankees could have matched or beaten this, even with the tax penalty, so I doubt it was about the money. Could be they weren’t quite so interested in Lorenzen as it seemed and wanted one of the prospects to get an extended look, or could be that Lorenzen knows he needs a long leash and plenty of starts to rebuild value for his next contract and he was less likely to get that on the Yankees. We saw a couple of veteran infielders make that decision.
Hal. It’s a money call.
Ohhh boy here we go! Maybe just maybe Lorenzen wasn’t taking such a sweetheart deal from the Yankees? Could that be the case or maybe the Yankees are getting ready to sign Montgomery. I’m starting to feel some not all but some of these anti Cashman comments are from bots looking to create traffic.
More like Lorenzen wanted no part of cutting his hair too!
7mil lol Yankees can’t afford that. They want freeereeeeeee
Good move Chris Young.
Lorenzen took a bath on that contract.
Michael seems like a great guy, glad he gets to pitch for Texas… I know he’s been throwing, wonder how long till he’s game ready
I have no idea what AAV he’d been looking for, but I’ll guess it was roughly $15M. Rangers get the bargain of the spring.
The money seems right, just thought he could get two years.
He was over $8MM last year. He pitched the most innings of his career and made the all star team. He threw a no-hitter. And you think a pay cut was called for?! Lynn got $12mm and he pitched batting practice.
Lorenzon is a 5th starter on a second division team, and a 6th on a good team. Everyone has been expecting a little more out of him for a few years now, and it just has not occurred.
As a swingman, I would have loved to have him back on the Phils – but that is about all. And contracts for guys like him are quite variable depending upon the demand at the time.
I agree that Lorenzen is much better than Lynn. Lynn was a shocking overpay to me. I saw Lorenzen as maybe two years and 13-14 million.
@MannyBeingMVP It’s not really a ‘shocking overpay’ considering it’s 1/13m for a pitcher who finished 6th, 5th, and 3rd for the Cy Young in 2019, 2020, and 2021—who then put up a 3.99 ERA in 2022, and who returned in 2023 to his previous level of durability, ie missing no starts, and finished out the year with Los Angeles with a 4.36 ERA.
His one weak area was his HR% allowed rate on fly balls. Granted that’s a bad, bad area to be unlucky, but overwhelmingly it WAS bad luck in that regard. Lynn wasn’t getting hit harder than usual. His EV against was actually a hair below the MLB average.
Distinguishing between bad luck and eroding skills is something the average fan is simply bad at,
1/13m? Consider that very average pitchers like Walker and Taillon who have trouble staying on the mound got 4/72m and 4/68m. Anything close to a normalized fly ball rate makes Lynn a steal. Or if he’s tipping, or just needs to junk a pitch or alter it to reduce his HR/allowed, it’s a steal.
My primary concern isn’t the HR rate, it’s that it continued after he went to a team that had a very good chance of fixing what ailed him if it was other than bad luck. Still, he’s had all offseason to investigate, and with the Cards he has as good a chance as anywhere else to figure it out. 1HR / 9.1 ip this ST isn’t a cure, but it’s faintly suggestive of better things to come.
Lynn’s a smart guy with half a Hall of Fame career to his credit. If the problem isn’t organic, this is a steal.
His last two months were horrendous though. The Lynn contract was just ridiculous, no argument there.
Why would he want two years at that money?
This’ll take all the steam off those Ohtani rumors.
So you’re saying this is a *flash bang* “Lorenzen just signed!!! Look!!!” distraction from the unfolding Ohtani cliffhanger?
No actually the whole Ohtani thing is a distraction so nobody will think too much about Michael Lorenzen getting 4 mil. Agents run the world. It’s all connected to the MLBPA drama. That and the NWO.
I was never a fan of Hollywood Hogan.
I love this. I would have preferred a reunion with Montgomery, but that didn’t ever seem to be in the cards.
This gives the Rangers some much needed depth at an affordable price. And Lorenzen’s a guy who can seamlessly move to the bullpen, if needed, once the reinforcements arrive.
He blended so seamlessly in with the Phillies they left him off their postseason roster..
Fortunately, Rangers fans don’t judge pitchers’ value based on how they perform(ed) in Philadelphia.
Kyle GIbson, Ian Kennedy, Matt Moore, etc., are proof of the flaw in your premise. All were great in Texas.
Well played.
Spencer Howard and Brad Miller however…
There are others we could add to that list, too. It’s pretty wild how many players have played for both the Rangers and Phillies.
He can even be used as a pinch hitter. He got a lot of ABs in CIN, but I have no idea if he ever hit for LAA or PHI.
Their offers were two way as a reliever or straight starter. I’m thinking maybe Texas uses him as a 6th OF extra bench bat/PR if he’s in the pen.
What a great addition.
Red Sox seriously couldn’t do this? Wtf is going on in Boston.
He might have preferred a chance to win
That’s my thought. I can’t believe Boston or KC or Pittsburg didn’t jump at such a low price. I think he wanted to play for a contender.
Much less than anticipated.
Arte isn’t even pretending to try.
Damn I would have liked him in Toronto at that price. Feels risky going into the season with Bowden Francis going into the season as the 4th starter, with a big question mark in the 5th spot.
The only one that will sign will be Montgomery and that’ll most likely be after the season starts it seems like at this point. Clevinger should definitely get a major league deal but I think he might be being black balled because of the accusations that he had went through and nobody will take it on just because of potential PR risks. The other guys either better take a minor league deal or just call it a career. All three of cueto, keuchel, and syndergaard have had better than average, and at some points dominant seasons in the bigs and hanging it up wouldn’t be a bad thing. They all should be remembered fondly of in some capacity as life and the baseball world moves forward.
Comment meant as a reply to @Jack Hoffman
I imagine all three will get some kind of deal, if they want it, as the summer goes on.
Better than the Ms pitching, though?
All star for 4.5 million good deal Texas.
Put CY in the rangers HOF immediately. Give him a statue outside the Globe as well.
When he does the right thing and signs Monty I’ll cosign the statue idea with you.
yeah, I feel that, and this is what I most definitely wanted. unfortunately, I think, if it were going to happen, it would have already.
but, in my eyes, the guy still deserves a statue even if the rangers were to not win another game. ever. lol
How many weeks until all of these late signings are game ready?
I am oddly reminded of when Kyle Lohse signed with the Brewers in late March of 2013 and was on the mound for their 4th regular season game 10 days later
rich hill is old but available as well, jakob junis if i remember correctly? brad keller maybe?
Damn urias is a free agent too? Are they seriously not signing him and Bauer just for image issues, or are they just not better than the minor league players we have? Cause honestly who cares…winning does magical things. And I Mean they traded for Chapman and his baggage
That rotation would’ve been SAVAGE five years ago.
Bauer is one thing, but Urias has far more going on than just “image issues”.
He definitely costed himself some money. I understand one year deals get tiresome. Still a lot of money to play baseball no matter how you slice it.
Hopefully Lorenzen didn’t injure his arm during his no-hitter quest. 124 pitches and he pitched like ca-ca afterwards. And he’s no young whipper-snapper. I think there’s risk there, and that’s why he sat so long unsigned.
Wile I wouldn’t completely rule out the work load on the no-hitter, I think his game log is a bet more telling. The only good team he beat was O’s in April. Dude just had amazing luck the way the schedule worked out every 5th day first half of season.
You left out Greinke
ahhh greinke, knew there was another guy i was forgetting
MLB Predictions had him at 2 years 22 million Massive steal for Rangers. At 4.5 with chance to reach 7 million.
If Lorenzen pitches anywhere near half-respectably, the Rangers can flip him at the trade deadline for a bullpen piece.
Their rotation by then should be deGrom, Eovaldi, Scherzer, Gray and Dunning.
I have faith in pitching coach Mike Maddux getting Lorenzen into shape to be a dependable rotation member for four months….15-18 starts?
Helluva deal by Chris Young.
He could also be that bullpen piece. Agree about Mad Dog’s ability to help him.
You forgot about Tyler Mahle so that would move Dunning back to bullpen as well.
Pitching to the All-Star game AND a no-hitter apparently means nothing in this market. Not that either should count for a ton, but they aren’t nothing. I don’t blame the players for gathering pitchforks and torches against their union.
Then again, Snell wins the Cy Young and has to wait for March; Montgomery wins a WS and may not pitch until April.
I wonder how many $millions Mo cost DeWitt getting a jump on the market?
Good deal for Rangers. Reds could have done this deal but sgain chose not to.
It could be the Lorenzan wanted to go to more of a contender. Sometimes I think the players want specific teams over the money.
The market has gotten a bit wild. Lot of player hurting themselves by either waiting it out or asking for too much and truly overvaluing themselves. This is a ridiculous cheap contract for a player of his track record. I do think this is what he’s truly worth and that contracts have gotten insanely inflated. If I’m him, surely he could have gotten an incentive laced 2 year deal with an opt out for like 8 mil with 2 mil of incentive baked in to each year. Idk. Good deal for the rangers. They can still go out and get JM if they wanted in my opinion. This deal doesn’t shut that down
roster space wise, it should shut another sp addition down. lorenzen and monty would be on the same timetable, but both would have to be on the 40-man, and maybe you move an established guy into a swing role and maybe that could be lorenzen, but currently it looks as if urena and your other young guys will get the shot early in the year with all the injuries
If his first half and 2nd have numbers were flipped, he probably would have gotten a good bit more. Those 2nd half stats were a major blow to his earning potential, and understandably so.
So were his career numbers in general. He’s started 69 games in his entire career, and pitched well in about 15 of those starts. The fact that he jammed about half those career good starts into the first half of last season before reverting to the Lorenzen he’s been when he’s had to face a guy more than once didn’t help his earnings. His first half was 3-6 with a 4+ ERA, it’s not like he was mowing everyone down.
His contract this season – being paid like the swingman/mopup guy – completely aligns with his lack of consistency as a starter, the real ridiculous thing is Detroit giving him $8 million on the basis of 18 middling starts with the Angels the year prior.
These FAs this year are giving up millions of $$$.. What does the MLBPA say about this???
If they could have gotten more, they would have.
It is a buyer’s market because of the RSN fiasco that Robby the robot has been ordered by his large market masters to ignore.
Good pitcher last year when he was with the Tigers. When they get bodies back in the 2nd half they can shift him to the BP. Good signing.
You’re probably right but don’t count on deGrom. Probably goes down as one of the very worst contracts. Can’t stay on the field.
Now 3 starters yanks have been in disucussions with and missed, now they pivot back to monty. Cashman needs to wake up. Yanks aren’t going to win anything with that rotation, too many ???’s. Now they’re are forced to either overpay for Montgomery or rely on what they have. At this rate they may has well tank it.
To be fair, Lorenzen comes with just as many ??? ‘s
They weren’t ever really going to compete anyways. They depleted their bullpen from last year. Their only major strength and added one player to .500 ball club.
Teams are clearly winning this portion of free agency chicken.
(This may be the only nice thing I say about Cashman) but I think not bidding on Lorenzen is the right move for the Yankee.s. If Lorenzen can’t recapture a semblance of his first half, he’s going to get torched in Yankee Stadium. And, if Cashman is really thinking Montgomery (big if) it’s another competitor with money to spend who’s probably off the board.
Looks the market has finally cratered.
Or maybe GMs around the league actually have watched Lorenzen for longer than about 10 good starts last season.
The RSN stuff has forced nearly every team to evaluate a guy’s actual ability versus the name on the back of the jersey – and most teams already have a guy who can do what Lorenzen has done over his career for millions less AND that internal guy is younger with a higher ceiling. A brand name makes fans feel nice and warm, but it’s a roll of the dice for a team to see any kind of return on investment – one they generally lose (Anthony Rendon probably injured himself while reading this thread – he earned almost $1 million PER GAME last year).
A steal for a fifth starter that has upside as a #3. I don’t usually call out the Yanks but my Gawd, why pass him up at this price?? So disappointed right now in the Yanks
You should temper your disappointment by realizing that pitching against the lineups in the AL East is a little different than the AL Central, and that Lorenzen has a few more than a dozen good starts over his 10-year career, most of which were before the All-Star break last year.
Or maybe Lorenzen realized what his life would be like in NY after getting raked a few times by Boston, Toronto, Tampa or Baltimore (or more likely, all of the above) and passed on a similar offer from the Yankees so that he could pitch against the A’s a few times and score another no-no against another pathetic lineup.
Fedde getting more than his messed up lol
“Trevor is (still) waiting.”
And he keeps waiting.
Woah. Trevor Bauer is better by any metric. The author is not factual.
And he’s waiting.
Well the season has started.
It means there shouldn’t be starters available at this point. The season has started. It should be slim pickings.
Rangers will score the most runs in baseball this year. With Degrom coming back they could be favorites to win the chip again. That’s scary with how good the Braves and Dodgers are.
That’s Oakland A’s starter money. Texas did well.
Pitching market collapsed. Haha! Overvalued players.
Farewell, Monty.
Lorenzen is a good, multi-inning reliever and average starter. Probably best suited for a multi-inning relief role. But, for that price it’s a good deal for the Rangers.
Lorenzen needs to fire his agent. He should have been able to get a two year deal for higher AAV had he signed quickly and not held out for a larger contract that never came.
He’s on the wrong side of 30 and he still wants to start, so most teams backed off because they would rather give the rotation spot to someone with more upside. I think if Lorenzen was open to the idea of signing to be a multi-inning reliever/swing starter he would have got a lot more interest. I guess we’ll see.
But he pitched a no-hitter against a Little League lineup…and he was an All-Star with a 3-6 record and a 4+ ERA…AND it was his second straight year of having back-of-the-rotation numbers!
This year’s FA market is what happens when you drink your own kool-aid for too long while ignoring the economic disasters looming on MLB’s horizon. The RSN stuff is the first domino to fall, just wait until 10 years from now when half of the MLB’s fanbase has died of old age.
Agreed entirely. I actually enjoyed the teams not signing these guys and “re-setting” the market to a certain extent. Still needs more of a correction, but this was a good start. I think this is a trend that will continue and not a one year aberration.
The real winner in this deal? Scott Harris, the GM of the Tigers. He knew. He knew.
He got the best (except for 1 game he pitched for the Phillies) Lorenzen had to give.
Harris signed Miller, Flaherty and Maeda this Winter. I bet all three excel in the 1st half and Harris flips at least one of them in July. MY bet? It will be Flaherty.
Wish the cardinals had waited out the pitching market instead of jumping the gun on Lynn and Gibson
You didn’t like Gibson’s last start? I mean five innings pitched, eight runs (five earned), nine hits and a walk is solid.! They love his veteran stuff and all. Can’t get enough of it in St Louis.
I bet there is a strike in the next few years. Mid-tier players are getting half of what they used to.
What are they going to strike for? No one can afford mid-tier when they are paying $300 million/$30 AAV contracts to the top players. Only half the teams really have money.
I agree. Bauer “appears to be” the victim of a shakedown.
Urias has real issues. I’m for forgive and forget, but he still has do some time. He took a 20-game hit last time, so this hit might/should be closer to 80 games.
Good move by the Rangers.
IRT the NYY, while I’d like to bash them, there is some merit to going with Warren and closing your eyes. Sooner or later, you have to give some of the guys a chance, or you wind up with a rotation of free agents.
Really, Twins couldn’t afford 4 million to replace Desclafini as our number five starter?!
Don’t forget Lincecum. He’s probably doing a showcase.
i heard andrew bailey is having so much fun as a coach he wants to start pitching again…
Wow, by no means is Lorenzen a front of the rotation arm but this seems like a great deal at the moment. He showed flashes of greatness last season and I don’t know if he just ran out of gas or what. I still believe he can be a solid #4 or #5 starter or at worst give you some innings out of the bullpen. He’s thrived in that role in the past.
MoTie’s Lance Lynn K. LOL.
Another solid move
Greinke?
Rangers GM kept aaying “we’re not signing jordan bec we’re happy with our team going into the season”
Meanwhile half the rotation’s hurt & now they end up signing lorenzen
Just say the truth you dont want to offer anything more than peanuts for the WS hero who brought you a title
Wow. You can’t be happy if you jumped in early and signed Lance Lynn for 10m.
CY continues to make smart moves.
I am amazed at the number of paragraphs this dude got out of the story.
Solid for late signing. Can be your 5th starter or long reliever. That has value if you didn’t get a better starter earlier or had injuries. Perfect fit for Rangers with tv deal, starters coming back mid season.