The Rangers announced this morning that they’ve signed veteran reliever JT Chargois to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training. The Wasserman client will compete for a spot in a vastly overhauled Texas bullpen. Just Baseball’s Aram Leighton first reported the agreement.
Chargois, 34, has pitched in seven big league seasons, appearing for five different clubs. Originally a second-round pick by the Twins in 2012, he’s also bounced to the Dodgers, Mariners, Rays and Marlins. The Rice University product is coming off a nice 2024 campaign between Miami and Seattle, wherein he pitched 36 1/3 innings with a combined 2.23 earned run average. That mark overstates his effectiveness, as it was buoyed by a microscopic .189 average on balls in play and colossal 98% strand rate.
Chargois’ 20.5% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate were both passable but a bit worse than league average, and he gave up plenty of hard contact. He averaged 94.9 mph on his sinker, which is certainly above-average — but also a notable dip from the 96.3 mph he’d averaged across the five prior seasons. That may have been tied to the neck spasms that plagued him in 2024 and at one point landed him on the 60-day IL.
The Mariners could’ve retained Chargois this offseason via arbitration, as he’s only at 5.101 years of MLB service. They opted to non-tender him despite a reasonable $1.7MM projected salary, however (courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz).
Looking at the broader scope of Chargois’ career, he’s frequently been an effective reliever but has also too often been hobbled by injuries. In the past three years alone, he’s missed time with neck spasms, a ribcage strain and two separate oblique strains. He’s also had nerve and elbow injuries in his right arm.
Chargois has only reached 50 innings in one of his seven MLB campaigns. He’s also posted an ERA of 3.61 or better in five of those seasons. On the whole, he’s tallied 231 1/3 innings with a 3.35 ERA, 23.3% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate and 50.2% grounder rate. He’s usually kept the ball in the yard (0.97 HR/9), though last year’s 1.49 HR/9 mark is a bit of a red flag.
The Rangers have already formally bid farewell to Kirby Yates and Jose Leclerc. David Robertson and Andrew Chafin remain unsigned but seem likely to sign elsewhere as well. In place of that quartet, Texas has traded for Robert Garcia and signed free agents Chris Martin, Hoby Milner, Jacob Webb and Shawn Armstrong to major league deals. Chargois joins Jesse Chavez as the most experienced non-roster arm in camp and will compete for a spot in Bruce Bochy’s new-look relief corps.
What a steal!
Texas is starting to get an impressive bullpen.