{"id":113962,"date":"2026-02-12T11:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T16:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=113962"},"modified":"2026-02-12T11:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T16:12:13","slug":"texas-rangers-reunite-with-world-series-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/02\/12\/texas-rangers-reunite-with-world-series-pitcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Rangers reunite with World Series pitcher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Texas Rangers have brought back <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/montgjo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Montgomery<\/a> on a <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2026\/02\/rangers-to-sign-jordan-montgomery.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">one-year deal <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">worth $1.25 million.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>2023 and the World Series\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He played a big part in the Rangers World Series victory when the team acquired him at the trade deadline. He ended up being the second starter behind <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/eovalna01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nathan Eovaldi<\/a>, and the two of them formed a duo-headed monster at the top of the rotation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2023, he posted a sub-three ERA in 11 starts with 58 strikeouts compared to 13 walks and 1.8 WAR. He was just as good in the postseason with a 2.90 ERA in five starts as he picked up five wins while making a couple of clutch appearances out of the bullpen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-dnt=\"true\" align=\"center\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">GOT HIM \ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n<p>Jordan Montgomery gets out of the bases loaded jam!<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa: FOX <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2liHYzBpL0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/2liHYzBpL0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLBONFOX\/status\/1713729412418392530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 16, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><b>Post Rangers career\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following 2023, he ended up signing with the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/26\/jordan-montgomery-signs-diamondbacks\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arizona Diamondbacks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and things started to go downhill for him. He ended up signing late and missed part of spring training, so there was a chance that he was going to be rusty, but no one expected what happened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He struggled mightily in <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/montgjo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2024<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a 6.23 ERA and a -1.4 WAR. 2025 was an even worse year for him as he ended up needing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/25\/diamondbacks-starter-tommy-john\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tommy John Surgery<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and missed the whole season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It got so bad with the Diamondbacks that he was shipped off to the Brewers and didn&#8217;t play a game for them as he rehabbed.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Montgomery will be out until around the All-Star break as he recovers from surgery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>What he can bring to the Rangers\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will be tricky to see how Montgomery will slot into the rotation since he will miss about half the season with injury. The Rangers have a good group of starters from one to four, with the fifth spot being up for grabs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He would compete for that spot right away if he were healthy, but he will have to wait. The competition is mostly about <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rockeku01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kumar Rocker<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/latzja01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacob Latz<\/a>; if neither one of them has not grabbed a hold of the spot, then Montgomery can take over there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, if Latz or Rocker has performed well, then things will start to get interesting. That could lead to Montgomery getting pushed into the bullpen and could be a long man for them. The Rangers could also go to a six-man rotation with Montgomery coming back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Montgomery can be a pitcher that anchors the back of the rotation and can eat big innings and help save the bullpen, as he showed in the Rangers World Series run in 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is never too bad to have too many pitchers, as the Rangers have dealt with injuries with <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/degroja01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacob deGrom<\/a>, Jack Leiter, and Eovaldi all missing time last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>The Last Word\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This move could be a high upside move if it works out, and Montgomery could be a good part of the rotation. He could eat innings for the team, and he could be able to elevate the rotation by helping.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the very least, Rangers fans will be happy to see such a familiar face come back, and someone who can provide a veteran presence for the younger pitchers and help them grow.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em><strong>(Top Image Credit: Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Texas Rangers have brought back Jordan Montgomery on a one-year deal worth $1.25 million.\u00a0 2023 and the World Series\u00a0 He played a big part in the Rangers World Series victory when the team acquired him at the trade deadline. He ended up being the second starter behind Nathan Eovaldi, and the two of them [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5610,"featured_media":113967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1071,35],"tags":[1166,69,259],"class_list":["post-113962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rangers","category-mlb","category-news","tag-jordan-montgomery","tag-mlb","tag-texas-rangers"],"modified_by":"Matthew Nethercott, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113962"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113968,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113962\/revisions\/113968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}