The Rangers and veteran righty Chris Paddack are close to finalizing a major league contract, reports Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News. The deal is still pending completion of a physical. Paddack, a Boras Corporation client, elected free agency last week after the Reds designated him for assignment. Texas already has an open spot on the 40-man roster after recently granting first baseman Blaine Crim his release in order to pursue a deal in the Korea Baseball Organization.
Cincinnati was already Paddack’s second organization of the year. He signed a one-year, $4MM contract with the Marlins in free agency but was cut loose by Miami back in May. He quickly signed with the Reds and spent a bit more than a month on their roster before being designated for assignment there as well.
Paddack, 30, has pitched in 13 games this season — nine of them starts. He’s totaled 53 innings but been torched for a career-worst 6.96 ERA, thanks largely to career-worst strikeout and walk rates of 15.7% and 7.7%, respectively. That walk rate is still comfortably better than league average, but Paddack entered the season with a tiny 5.2% walk rate in his career.
Paddack had a brilliant rookie season with the Padres back in 2019, tossing 140 2/3 innings with a 3.33 ERA, a 26.9% strikeout rate and a 5.5% walk rate. He’s never really followed up on that, in part due to injuries. He’s twice undergone Tommy John surgery and has also missed time with a forearm strain. Paddack has managed only 494 innings dating back to Opening Day 2020, and he’s pitched to a middling 5.27 earned run average in that time as his strikeout rate has steadily declined.
When Paddack returned from his most recent surgery with the Twins late in the 2023 season, he looked dominant as a reliever. He pitched 8 2/3 innings between the regular season and the playoffs and held opponents to three runs (3.12 ERA) with a 14-to-1 K/BB ratio. His fastball, which averaged 92.9 mph this season, was sitting around 96 mph on average during that run. Paddack has seemingly preferred to continue working in a rotation role since that time, but at some point, it’s hard not to wonder if he could make that shift into short relief.
For now, the Rangers will give him more starting work. Texas recently lost Jack Leiter to ankle surgery, and they haven’t yet gotten Jordan Montgomery or Cody Bradford back from their respective UCL surgeries. Montgomery’s Tommy John surgery was performed in April 2025. He’s on a minor league rehab assignment right now. Bradford had an internal brace procedure a few months later. He’s throwing but isn’t yet ready to pitch in rehab games. In-house options like Jose Corniell and David Davalillo have been hit hart in Triple-A.
Paddack will be an immediate candidate to step into the rotation, but he’s pitched like a fifth starter for the better part of a half decade now. The Rangers can hope that either he or the hopefully soon-to-return Montgomery can stabilize things in the short term — Montgomery pitched two perfect innings in a Double-A rehab start yesterday — but president of baseball operations Chris Young and general manager Ross Fenstermaker also figure to be on the hunt for rotation help in the five weeks leading up to the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
