{"id":59989,"date":"2023-07-30T20:43:51","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T00:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=59989"},"modified":"2023-07-30T20:43:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T00:43:51","slug":"rangers-acquire-rotation-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/07\/30\/rangers-acquire-rotation-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Rangers Acquire More Rotation Help"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday&#8217;s acquisition of Max Scherzer clearly did not satiate the need of starting pitching for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/07\/29\/scherzer-trade-mets-rangers\/\" target=\"_self\">Texas Rangers<\/a>. Their all-in push rolls on, as ESPN&#8217;s Jeff Passan reported that the Rangers traded for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/14\/cardinals-prospects-that-could-contribute-now\/\" target=\"_self\">St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> LHP Jordan Montgomery, along with RHP Chris Stratton on Sunday. The move lands the AL West leaders another quality starter in an already-deep Rangers rotation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: The Texas Rangers are finalizing a trade to acquire left-handed starter Jordan Montgomery from the St. Louis Cardinals, sources tell ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/1685742616036392960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 30, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Jordan Montgomery<\/h3>\n<p>Montgomery&#8217;s 2023 first half made him one of the more desirable rental pitchers on the trade block. Over 21 starts, the 30-year-old has a 3.43 ERA with a 1.25 WHIP. More a pitch-to-contact type rather than a strikeout artist, Montgomery uses a four-pitch mix with a sinker and changeup to generate weak contact. Tallying 128 ground ball outs this season so far, his pitching style is similar to other ground-ball approach starters on the Texas roster, namely Martin Perez and Dane Dunning.<\/p>\n<h3>Chris Stratton<\/h3>\n<p>Right-handed reliever Chris Stratton was also brought in to shore up the bullpen. The five-year veteran is posting a 4.36 ERA in 53.2 innings in 2023. Stratton&#8217;s exceptional spin rates on his fastball and curveball make him a formidable strikeout threat, despite below-average velocity.<\/p>\n<h3>St. Louis Blues<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to picture a Jordan Montgomery trade on the Cardinals&#8217; 2023 bingo sheet to start the year. Their promising season quickly crumbled due to a collapse of the pitching staff, and core offensive pieces sharply regressing. With Jordan Hicks dealt and Jack Flaherty likely next, the Redbirds have made it a point to rebuild their rotation for the future. In return for Montgomery and Staton come prospects RHP Tekoah Roby, LHP John King, and INF Thomas Saggese.<\/p>\n<h3>The Rangers Rotation Gets Better<\/h3>\n<p>The Rangers have built one of baseball&#8217;s premier rotations in a matter of two years. At the top sit a couple of the generation&#8217;s finest frontliners in Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer. Veteran FA signings Nathan Eovaldi and Jon Gray have had great success to begin their Rangers careers, and the awaited emergence of Dane Dunning has come in a big way. Lefties Martin Perez and Andrew Heaney are capable as well, though one may be moved to bullpen duties upon Montgomery&#8217;s arrival. Although DeGrom is on the shelf until 2025 (TJ Surgery), the group still has ample talent to help maintain their dwindling division lead from the surging <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/11\/30\/jose-abreu-signs-with-astros\/\" target=\"_self\">Houston Astros<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[metabet_core_side_odds_tile query=&#8221;bbm\/mlb_winner_al_west&#8221; size=&#8221;350&#215;300&#8243; site_id=&#8221;lastwordonsports&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit- Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>Players Mentioned- <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/scherma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Scherzer<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=montgjo01,montgo001jor&amp;search=Jordan+Montgomery&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Montgomery<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stratch01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Stratton<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/perezma02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Martin Perez<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/dunnida01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dane Dunning<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hicksjo03.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Hicks<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/flaheja01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jack Flaherty<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=roby--000tek&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tekoah Roby<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kingjo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John King<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=sagges000tho&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thomas Saggese<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/degroja01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacob deGrom<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/eovalna01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nathan Eovaldi<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/grayjo02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jon Gray<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/heanean01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-30_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Heaney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday&#8217;s acquisition of Max Scherzer clearly did not satiate the need of starting pitching for the Texas Rangers. Their all-in push rolls on, as ESPN&#8217;s Jeff Passan reported that the Rangers traded for St. Louis Cardinals LHP Jordan Montgomery, along with RHP Chris Stratton on Sunday. The move lands the AL West leaders another quality [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4676,"featured_media":60007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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],"tags":[1180,246,3207,6273,2601,1166,79,168],"class_list":["post-59989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rangers","category-mlb","tag-chris-stratton","tag-houston-astros","tag-jack-flaherty","tag-jacob-degrom","tag-jordan-hicks","tag-jordan-montgomery","tag-max-scherzer","tag-st-louis-cardinals"],"modified_by":"Cody Flavell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59989","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\/4676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}