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Texas Rangers Sign Veteran Arm to Minor League Deal
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- Texas Rangers Sign Veteran Arm to Minor League Deal
The Texas Rangers are bringing in some depth for their starting rotation.
On Friday, Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News reported that the Rangers have signed veteran pitcher Joe Ross to a minor league contract. Ross, who celebrated his 33rd birthday on Thursday, has previously made three relief appearances with the Arizona Diamondbacks this season, and was pitching with the Triple-A Reno Aces before being released.
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The right-hander has pitched parts of nine MLB seasons since 2015, with his longest tenure being with the Washington Nationals for six seasons. Over the course of his career so far, Ross appeared in 163 games (87 as a starting pitcher) and logged a 4.37 ERA, 4.23 FIP and 1.36 WHIP across 572.0 innings pitched. He registered a career-high in pitching appearances last season with 37, while his career-high in games started is 19, a total he recorded in both 2016 and 2021.
Ross is generally known as a pitch-to-contact hurler, with only a 20.6% career strikeout rate. He also has a lifetime 7.7% walk rate and 43% ground ball rate , and was adept at inducing weak contact to get outs. However, Ross is also known for being injury-prone, having undergone Tommy John surgery twice in his career, among other ailments. His top two seasons in innings pitched (2016 and 2021) were both shortened by injuries, with the latter ending in the second Tommy John procedure.
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In his three appearances with the D-Backs this year, the 33-year-old has been ineffective. He allowed eight runs and seven hits over a mere 3.2 frames, walking four while striking out only one batter. This led Arizona to designate Ross for assignment before returning on another minor league deal; he remained with Triple-A Reno before being released.
The Rangers have a formidable one-two punch atop their rotation in Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, along with two developing arms in Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. However, both deGrom and Eovaldi have struggled to stay healthy throughout their careers, while MacKenzie Gore has gotten off to a less-than-ideal start in his first season in Arlington.
Given the injury history of Texas's two aces, they could turn to Ross if anyone in the rotation goes down. However, the Rangers would likely utilize Ross as a long reliever and move current long man Cal Quantrill into the rotation in such a scenario. Quantrill, 31, has more experience as a starting pitcher despite being younger and entering the league four years after Ross; of his 194 career pitching appearances, 149 have been starts, including 26 last season with the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves .
This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on May 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the MLB section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
