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Rangers Sign Shawn Armstrong To Major League Deal

By Nick Deeds | December 23, 2024 at 2:06pm CDT

The Rangers announced this afternoon that they’ve signed right-hander Shawn Armstrong to a one-year, major league deal. In order to make room for Armstrong on the 40-man roster, catcher Sam Huff was designated for assignment.

Armstrong, 34, is a veteran of 10 major league seasons. He bounced between Cleveland, Seattle, Baltimore, and Miami as a roughly league average (99 ERA+) middle reliever before finally establishing himself with the Rays in 2022. The right-hander posted a 3.60 ERA with a 3.25 FIP in 55 innings of work for Tampa that season, with a 26% strikeout rate against a 5.4% walk rate. His strong walk rate was particularly notable given that Armstrong had struggled a bit with his command earlier in his career and entered the 2022 campaign with a career 9.2% walk rate.

That solid work earned Armstrong a role in the club’s bullpen the following year as well, and 2023 proved to be a career year for the righty. He pitched to a sparkling 1.38 ERA in 52 innings of work to go along with a 2.54 FIP, though he didn’t break into the club’s group of top high leverage options and instead was used more frequently as a multi-inning option. 16 of his 39 appearances saw him record more than three outs, including 12 where he recorded two full innings or more. Unfortunately, Armstrong did not manage to keep up those strong results in 2024. The right-hander bounced between the Rays, Cardinals, and Cubs this year but posted a below-average 4.86 ERA (84 ERA+) despite a solid 3.57 FIP. Despite that solid peripheral figure, there were some signs of regression for the right-hander as his strikeout rate dipped to just 22.4% against an 8.5% walk rate.

Now that he’s latched on with the Rangers, Armstrong will join a bullpen that the needs a major retool after losing Jose Leclerc, David Robertson, and Kirby Yates to free agency last month. He’s the fourth addition to the relief corps GM Chris Young has made this winter, joining Hoby Milner, Robert Garcia, and Jacob Webb. That quartet of signings should help to raise the floor in the bullpen, and Garcia in particular is a Statcast darling who profiles as a potential late-inning arm. With that being said, it seems likely the club will need to make at least one more addition with late-inning experience after losing its top three relievers simultaneously.

As for Huff, the 26-year-old was a seventh-round pick by the club back in 2016 and received some top-100 prospect buzz early in his career after tearing through the minors and hitting an incredible .355/.394/.742 in a ten-game cup of coffee during the shortened 2020 season. Impressive as that first taste of the majors was for Huff, he posted a roughly league average .244/.299/.409 in 65 games over the next three seasons and in 2024 made it into just three games. Huff’s numbers also took a major step backwards in Triple-A this past year, as he hit just .246/.310/.416 in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League.

With Jonah Heim and the newly-signed Kyle Higashioka seemingly locking up playing time at the big league level for the Rangers for the foreseeable future, the Rangers clearly felt Huff was expendable given that he’ll be out of options in 2025 and need to either be carried on the big league roster or passed through waivers. Typically the Rangers would have one week to either work out a trade involving Huff or attempt to pass him through waivers. With that said, that clock has put on pause over the holidays in previous seasons, so it’s possible that a resolution for Huff won’t ultimately be announced until the new year. Should Huff clear waivers, the Rangers would have the opportunity to outright him to the minor leagues as non-roster depth.

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Texas Rangers Transactions Sam Huff Shawn Armstrong

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View Comments (22)
Post a Comment

22 Comments

  1. javaspence

    10 months ago

    Cardinal legend

    1
    Reply
  2. mikevm3

    10 months ago

    Sam Huff lasted long enough there

    1
    Reply
  3. Dalton1017

    10 months ago

    I hope someone gives huff a good chance to hit

    4
    Reply
    • Seamaholic

      10 months ago

      His majors and minors numbers aren’t all that different, to be honest. He is what he is, a decent hitter with no other skills. He’s not a major league player.

      1
      Reply
      • davidrocholl

        10 months ago

        Huff to the Phillies for Tyler Gilbert both have been DFA in the last few days

        Reply
  4. 28rings

    10 months ago

    Sam Huff you are a Yankee!

    1
    Reply
  5. Texas Outlaw

    10 months ago

    Sam Huff just needs a chance.

    1
    Reply
  6. TrillionaireTeamOperator

    10 months ago

    12 years/$1 Billion

    Reply
    • RotiniRick

      10 months ago

      Seems low.

      Reply
  7. Whiskey and leather balls

    10 months ago

    Huff will go be a fine back’up catcher/1B somewhere, on the other side of this what are the rangers doing with their scrapheap of a bullpen? Wasnt too long ago they had the most blown saves in baseball and it wasnt even close. Not to mention the fact they only have 2 catchers on the 40 man now so someone else is getting the axe soon

    1
    Reply
    • dankyank

      10 months ago

      His 2024 FIP was all of .28 higher than in 2022 so I think he’s a reasonable. I highly doubt he signed for even $3 million. Nice work by Chris Young adding Armstrong, Curvelo, Webb, Milner and Garcia for what is almost certainly under $10 million in total. Who says a quality bullpen has to be expensive?

      6
      Reply
      • dankyank

        10 months ago

        *reasonable bounce back candidate.

        1
        Reply
  8. bwmiller79

    10 months ago

    This guy was great with the Rays.

    Reply
  9. BigV

    10 months ago

    He was ok for the Cardinals. Not bad

    1
    Reply
  10. CaseyAbell

    10 months ago

    Latest story from the Rangers is that they met with Roki Sasaki. There are no details on the meeting available, as Chris Young shut up in a hurry. The Rangers are a very long shot in the Sasaki derby but might have a chance as a relatively low-pressure football town. Sasaki wouldn’t draw nearly as much media pestering with the Cowboys hogging most of the spotlight.

    Reply
    • Ranger Danger19

      10 months ago

      Shhh. We don’t want to scare him away.

      Reply
  11. Rsox

    10 months ago

    Huff’s stock fell fast. Yankees, Red Sox, Padres, Marlins all could use backup Catchers so someone will give him a shot

    1
    Reply
  12. Clofreesz

    10 months ago

    Sam Huff is yet another “What If?” in Rangers history, He absolutely demolishes the ball but he didn’t fit on the roster ever since Jonah Heim broke out.

    Reply
  13. Jacksson13

    10 months ago

    Since he is a reliever and does not pitch out of a wind-up,
    Guess he is known as……………………………………………………………………………

    STRETCH ARMSTRONG !!

    1
    Reply
  14. Ranger Danger19

    10 months ago

    Sam Huff is the poor catcher version of Joey Gallo. Strikeouts and sometimes a dinger that lands in the next zip code.

    Reply
  15. Ignorant Son-of-a-b

    10 months ago

    Rangers bullpen going to be awful again.

    Reply
  16. MLBTR needs to hire editors

    10 months ago

    Learn to write, Deeds. “Impressive as that first taste of the majors was” is NOT PROPER ENGLISH. You can’t just leave “as” out at the start of the sentence because you feel like it. It’s not optional, and neither is proper grammar.

    Reply

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