Rangers acquire RHP Jake Odorizzi from Braves for LHP Kolby Allard

The Rangers have acquired right-hander Jake Odorizzi and cash considerations from the Braves, according to announcements from both teams. In exchange, Atlanta will receive left-hander Kolby Allard. Atlanta is paying $10M of the deal, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.

Going into 2021, Odorizzi signed a two-year, $23.5M deal with the Astros with a convoluted structure. He received a $6M signing bonus and $6M salary in 2021, followed by a $5M salary in 2022. That was to be followed by a $6.5M player option with a $3.25M buyout. However, there were also performance escalators that could increase the value of both the player option and the buyout. Over the initial two years of the deal, if Odorizzi got into 20, 25 and 30 games, he would add $2M to the salary and $1M to the buyout at each of those milestones. He easily hit all three, getting into 46 games, meaning he now has a $12.5M option with a $6.5M buyout.

Odorizzi evidently exercised his option, so he’ll make $12.5M in 2023. He posted a 4.21 ERA with Houston in 2021 and then had a 3.75 mark at the deadline when he was traded to Atlanta for Will Smith. Unfortunately, the uniform switch didn’t help him, as he posted a 5.24 mark after the deal. He also had a 6.59 ERA in the shortened 2020 season, meaning he hasn’t seen strong results over the past three seasons. Although he had a 27.1% strikeout rate in 2019, he’s been hovering around 20% since then, a few ticks below league average. Based on those tepid results, he likely wouldn’t be looking at huge contract offers on the open market.

The Braves were likely not terribly excited about the idea of possibly paying him $12.5M, or $6.5M, based both on their tight payroll situation and Odorizzi’s results. He likely isn’t one of their five best starters anyway, as they have Max Fried, Kyle Wright, Charlie Morton, Spencer Strider for the first four spots, with Bryce Elder, Ian Anderson, Kyle Muller and Jared Shuster candidates for the fifth. Instead, they’ve shipped Odorizzi to Arlington to rid themselves of the commitment, but they also included some amount of cash in the deal.

The Rangers are in need of rotation upgrades after getting poor results in that department in 2022. Texas starters posted a collective 4.63 ERA this year, placing them 25th in the majors in that regard. They got some decent work from Jon Gray and a career year from veteran Martín Pérez, but Pérez has now reached free agency and deprived the already-weak rotation of its strongest performer. There’s reportedly mutual interest in a reunion, but nothing has been finalized yet and the club is now reportedly giving consideration to extending a $19.65M qualifying offer to Pérez.

With Pérez still in the wind, that leaves Texas with Gray and a host of question marks behind him. Dane Dunning was decent enough, posting a 4.46 ERA this year over 29 starts. However, his season was finished by hip surgery, and it’s unclear what condition he’ll be in next year. Glenn Otto made 27 starts and posted an ERA of 4.64. The club also gave a handful of starts to Taylor Hearn, Cole Ragans and Spencer Howard, but they all posted ERAs of 4.95 or higher. Given all that uncertainty, it would be logical for them to consider any and all avenues to upgrade the staff, with general manager Chris Young saying basically that at the GM meetings in Las Vegas this week, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. That will apparently include giving Odorizzi a shot to produce some better results.

In addition to clearing a bit of salary off the books, Atlanta will receive another arm in Allard. The 25-year-old was actually drafted by Atlanta back in 2015 but went to the Rangers in 2019 in exchange for Chris Martin. He’s pitched in each of the past five MLB seasons but has a career 6.07 ERA. He has decent control with a 7.8% walk rate in his career, but his 18.6% strikeout rate and 37.8% ground-ball rate are both subpar. He had been part of the Ranger rotation from 2019 to 2021 but got bumped to bullpen work in 2022. The move didn’t help him, as he put up a 7.29 ERA over 21 innings out of the ’pen.

In the end, it seems both teams are giving up on pitchers that weren’t in their plans going forward. The Rangers are desperate for rotation stability and will see if Odorizzi can provide it, with Atlanta helping them pay the bill. It’s likely to be one of several moves to address the starting staff as they look to emerge from their years-long rebuild. For the Braves, they are sending away some cash but will at least save a couple of bucks as they look to revamp and try to win a sixth straight NL East title.