Rangers right-hander Jake Odorizzi underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his shoulder and will miss the entire 2023 season, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.
Needless to say, this is an awful development for both Odorizzi and the club. The Rangers went into the offseason looking to upgrade a rotation that posted a 4.63 ERA last year, which placed them 25th out of the 30 clubs in the league. They were also set to lose Martín Pérez, their most effective starter last year, to free agency. By the end of the offseason, they had re-signed Pérez; traded for Odorizzi; and signed free agents Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney. Those five, along with incumbent Jon Gray, totally overhauled the rotation and allowed them to go into spring with six established big league starters.
Though that’s a strong group on paper, there were also injury concerns sprinkled throughout it, with Odorizzi being no exception. Though he made at least 28 starts in each season from 2014 to 2019, the last few years have seen a few health issues creep in. He only made four starts in 2020, going on the injured list due to an intercostal strain, chest contusion and right middle finger blister. In 2021, a right pronator muscle strain and right foot soreness each resulted in IL stints, limiting him to 104 2/3 innings. Last year, lower left leg discomfort kept him out of action about six weeks, and he tallied just 106 1/3 innings.
Nonetheless, Odorizzi seemed like a solid pickup for the Rangers. Amid all those injuries, he still posted ERAs of 4.21 in 2021 and 4.40 last year. He also didn’t cost much, as Atlanta agreed to cover $10M of his $12.5M salary as part of the trade. The only piece the Rangers sent the other way was Kolby Allard, who struggled to a 6.07 ERA in his big league career thus far.
Unfortunately, the Rangers will ultimately get nothing out of the deal, as Odorizzi will become a free agent after this lost season. He was slowed in camp by some arm fatigue, and general manager Chris Young recently gave a vaguely ominous update that Odorizzi would likely be out “longer than shorter,” which was followed by the righty getting placed on the 60-day injured list for Opening Day. That ruled him out for the first couple of months of the season, but this news now means he will miss his entire age-33 campaign.
Going into 2021, Odorizzi was signed by the Astros to a two-year, $23.5M deal. That contract came with a $6.5M player option for 2023 that had a $3.25M buyout, though those two figures would jump to $12.5M and $6.25M if Odorizzi made 30 appearances over 2021 and 2022. He ended up making 46, easily pushing those numbers up. In August of last year, the Astros flipped Odorizzi to Atlanta for left-hander Will Smith. At season’s end, Odorizzi triggered that player option before getting flipped to Texas.
The Rangers still have that strong front five in deGrom, Eovaldi, Heaney, Pérez and Gray, but they will now proceed without their planned No. 6 starter. Right-hander Dane Dunning and left-hander Cole Ragans are probably the club’s top depth options now, though both are working in the big league bullpen in the early parts of this season.
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