The Texas Rangers have reportedly come to an agreement with lefty reliever Hoby Milner on a one-year contract.
The financial terms for the contract have not been disclosed since the Rangers have not officially announced the contract to this point, though Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News confirmed with sources that the two sides have come to an agreement.
Milner will be joining the fifth team of his career after being a member of the Milwaukee Brewers for the last four seasons and spending time with the Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Rays, and Los Angeles Angels in the years prior.
The left-handed reliever is coming off a solid season with the Brewers despite posting an earned run average of just 4.73 in 61 appearances, collecting a total of 64 strikeouts while walking just 14 batters to finish with an overall record of 5-1 on the season.
While these statistics do not show an overly impressive season by Milner last year, the underlying information indicates that he was one of the most unlucky pitchers in the league during long stretches of the 2024 season.
Milner’s expected ERA was a run and a half lower than his actual ERA during the season and he was in the top 10% in the league for qualifying pitchers in walk rate (5.2%, 92nd percentile), barrel rate (2.7%, 99th percentile), and ground ball rate (53.7%, 91st percentile), according to MLB.com.
The Rangers have been searching for new pitchers to join the team ahead of the potential departures of Kirby Yates, David Robertson, José Leclerc, and Andrew Chafin in free agency.
Although the organization has now signed Milner to join the current group of pitchers on the team, Rangers Executive Vice President & General Manager Chris Young said the team plans on being aggressive in free agency to improve that aspect of the team.
Young spoke about the need for more pitchers earlier this month and said the organization is “looking to make our bullpen better.”
“We are looking to improve our bullpen in a number of ways: middle relief, leverage, lefties, righties. We have holes, and we’re going to continue to address those holes. We had a number of great conversations with agents and with teams [at Winter Meetings]. We will continue to find the right pieces,” he added, per MLB.com.
Texas could look to re-sign one of the players from the team who entered free agency, with Yates being the most likely candidate for extension due to his importance as the team’s closer.
The team could also evaluate different players who could bring a different style and personality to this team before the upcoming 2025 MLB season.