Rangers Designate Chris Paddack For Assignment

The Rangers announced that right-hander Gavin Collyer has been recalled from Triple-A Round Rock. In a corresponding move, fellow righty Chris Paddack has been designated for assignment.

It’s a very quick turnaround for Paddack. The Rangers just signed him yesterday and it seems they effectively wanted him to make a spot start to give the rest of the staff a breather. Technically, Tyler Alexander started yesterday’s game, though he only pitched one inning as an opener. Paddack then came in and logged four innings, allowing two earned runs on seven hits while striking out one batter. Texas was down 2-1 when Paddack finished the fifth but they eventually came back to win 6-3.

With Paddack now bumped off, the Rangers apparently only had this one game in mind when they signed him. It wasn’t an expensive signing. Paddack signed a $4MM deal with the Marlins for this year and was later released. Miami is still on the hook for the remainder of that money. Other clubs can sign Paddack and pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Marlins pay. The Reds rostered Paddack for a few weeks after the Marlins let him go, though they also moved on, which led to this very brief tenure in Texas.

He will most likely be a free agent again in the coming days. He has enough service time to reject outright assignments and elect free agency while keeping all his salary commitments in place. Once he is officially on the open market, he can see if another club is enticed by his affordability and availability.

Paddack had an amazing rookie season back in 2019, posting a 3.33 earned run average in 140 2/3 innings. He hasn’t been nearly as effective since then, however. Dating back to the start of 2020, he has thrown 498 innings with a 5.26 ERA. His 5.3% walk rate is a strong number but he has only punched out 19.3% of batters faced. That strikeout rate has been even lower lately, as he was at just 16.7% last year and is sitting on a 15% clip so far in 2026. Despite the tepid numbers, various teams around the league have been hit hard by injuries and might need a live arm.