{"id":88946,"date":"2024-11-04T14:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T19:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=88946"},"modified":"2024-11-04T14:00:56","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T19:00:56","slug":"nathan-eovaldi-possible-rangers-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/04\/nathan-eovaldi-possible-rangers-reunion\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers Express Interest in Re-Signing Key Free Agent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Texas Rangers roster is already undergoing changes just days into the offseason. Right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/eovalna01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nathan Eovaldi<\/a> has opted out of his contract, becoming a free agent and testing the open market. Despite the move, Rangers president of baseball operations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=youngch04,youngch03&amp;search=Chris+Young&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Young<\/a> told reporters, including <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Evan_P_Grant\/status\/1853486318057046200\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News<\/a>, on Monday that the club has &#8220;great interest&#8221; in reuniting with him this winter.<\/p>\n<h2>Texas Targets Return of Nathan Eovaldi<\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"x1lliihq x1plvlek xryxfnj x1n2onr6 x1ji0vk5 x18bv5gf x193iq5w xeuugli x1fj9vlw x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xt4736n x1havqas x1f0sm9e x12qp5cl xzsf02u x1yc453h xudqn12 x3x7a5m\">Eovaldi, a Texas native, joined the Rangers on a two-year deal in free agency, which included a vesting player option for 2025 contingent on throwing 300 innings between 2023-24. He surpassed that threshold with 314 2\/3 innings and went 24-14 with a 3.72 ERA in 54 games.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In his two seasons with the Rangers, Eovaldi rose to the occasion in the 2023 postseason. He helped the Rangers win their <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/11\/02\/texas-rangers-win-first-world-series\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">first World Series title<\/a> while going 5-0 with a 2.95 ERA over six starts. <span style=\"background-color: #e1bee7;\">The 34-year-old is a two-time World Series champion with a 3.05 ERA in 79 2\/3 postseason innings.<\/span>\u00a0This season, he went 12-8 with a 3.80 ERA in 29 starts, allowing 147 hits in 170 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n<p>Eovaldi joins <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/scherma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Scherzer<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/heanean01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Heaney<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/y\/yateski01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kirby Yates<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leclejo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Leclerc<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/roberda08.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Robertson<\/a> in the free-agent market. Texas has several significant gaps to fill in their pitching staff this offseason. For Eovaldi, this makes him an intriguing free-agent option who could serve as a valuable addition to a rotation. Other pitchers likely to be in the middle tier of free agency this winter include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/manaese01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sean Manaea<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pivetni01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Pivetta<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/severlu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Severino<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/mlb\/player\/market-value\/_\/id\/8761\/nathan-eovaldi\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Spotrac<\/a>, Nathan Eovaldi is projected to sign a contract worth approximately two years and $50 million. The sports database site analyzed Eovaldi&#8217;s market value and compared it to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/grayso01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-04_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sonny Gray<\/a>&#8216;s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/11\/27\/sonny-gray-signs-st-louis-cardinals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">recent contract<\/a>, which was a three-year deal totalling $75 million with the St. Louis Cardinals last offseason. As Eovaldi approaches his 35th birthday on Opening Day, he finds himself in a critical juncture of his career, with limited opportunities remaining to secure a long-term, lucrative contract.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: \u00a9 Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Texas Rangers roster is already undergoing changes just days into the offseason. Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi has opted out of his contract, becoming a free agent and testing the open market. Despite the move, Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young told reporters, including Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, on Monday that the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":88948,"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":[18,1071,35],"tags":[4903,1275,3385,2845,988,79,2119,3008,3075,650],"class_list":["post-88946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rangers","category-mlb","category-news","tag-andrew-heaney","tag-david-robertson","tag-jose-leclerc","tag-kirby-yates","tag-luis-severino","tag-max-scherzer","tag-nathan-eovaldi","tag-nick-pivetta","tag-sean-manaea","tag-sonny-gray"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88946","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\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}