Safe to say, 2024 was not another season of dreams for the Texas Rangers. Turbo-charged with a powerful offense, the Rangers appeared to need just enough pitching to make another postseason run.
Unfortunately, Father Time came calling for Max Scherzer, the surgeon came calling for Jacob deGrom, and Jon Gray reverted to his late-Colorado Rockies form before he, too, was injured.
Injuries also claimed many of the Rangers' offensive stars, dooming the defending champions to a 78-84 record.
While the Texas offense figures to benefit from a winter of rest and recovery, the Rangers' starting staff still looks in dire need of reinforcement heading into 2025.
Could an answer lie two states to the West?
According to Bleacher Report's Tim Kelly, a realistic trade scenario could see the Arizona Diamondbacks dealing embattled starter Jordan Montgomery back to Texas after the soon-to-be 32-year-old staggered through a nightmare inaugural season in the desert.
Montgomery, an eight-year Major League Baseball veteran, was hastily signed to a one-year, $25 million contract on the eve of the 2024 season last March. The contract included a $22.5 million player option for 2025.
With Montgomery, whose ERA rose above 4.00 just once in a season where he made at least ten starts, coming off of an 8-7 campaign with a stratospheric 6.23 ERA, it would be stunning if he were not to pick up his player option for 2025 — no matter how reviled he is in Phoenix — given he is most certainly not signing a free agent deal for anything approaching that value this winter.
However, as Kelly muses, Montgomery is a far better pitcher than he showed with Arizona this past season. If the Diamondbacks were willing to eat a chunk of what he is likely due in 2025, the Rangers could find themselves with an ideal "buy low" candidate.
Montgomery went 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA with Texas after a deadline-day trade from the St. Louis Cardinals in July 2023 and posted a 2.90 ERA in 31 postseason innings in helping the Rangers to the first MLB title for both team and player.
With Texas currently banking on a starting staff of Nathan Eovaldi, Cody Bradford, Andrew Heaney, and deGrom, a reunion with Montgomery could go a long way toward helping the Rangers get back into postseason contention.
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