Free agent reliever Shawn Armstrong is coming off a career-best season with the Rangers and is hopeful of returning to Texas this offseason, per Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports. Wilson adds that the 35-year-old Armstrong is “likely” seeking a two-year deal, which comes as little surprise given the quality of the season he just had.
The journeyman Armstrong has pitched for four teams in the past two seasons and eight in his big league career. Seeking out some more certainty and stability is understandable, particularly on the heels of a year in which he posted a career-high 74 innings with a sparkling 2.31 ERA. Armstrong punched out 26.1% of his opponents, though his 10.3% swinging-strike rate and 23.3% opponents’ chase rate don’t necessarily support a return to that level of bat-missing. The right-hander’s 7% walk rate was also strong, however, and opponents averaged just 88 mph off the bat against him with a paltry 34.2% hard-hit rate.
Armstrong has had a tumultuous career in terms of year-to-year results. He’s pitched at least eight MLB frames in each of the past 11 seasons but has had trouble sticking in one spot and repeating his best seasons. His ERA marks fluctuate wildly on a year-to-year basis, but in the aggregate, Armstrong has been a quality big league reliever. In 421 1/3 frames, the former 18th-round pick has turned in a 3.82 ERA with a 24.3% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. That includes a 2.94 ERA over the past three seasons, though that’s broken down in the form of a 1.83 ERA in 2023, a 4.86 mark in 2024 and this past season’s 2.31 level.
In terms of velocity, Armstrong topped out with a 95.3 mph average fastball back in 2022. He was down to 93.5 mph in 2025, but that mark was slightly better than last year’s 93.3 mph mark. As with his run-prevention numbers, Armstrong’s velocity readings have oscillated over the years. He complements his four-seamer with a cutter, sinker and slider, using the four at similar clips (between 23.4% and 29.1%).
The Rangers entered the 2024-25 offseason in desperate need of a bullpen overhaul. They achieved that goal almost exclusively via one-year deals in free agency. Beyond trading Nathaniel Lowe for Robert Garcia, Texas signed Armstrong, Chris Martin, Hoby Milner, Luke Jackson and Jacob Webb to one-year contracts. All of those deals, other than Jackson, paid off handsomely. It was an impressive run of bargain-level success stories, but because Texas operated primarily in the one-year deal bin, the Rangers watched nearly their entire bullpen hit free agency this offseason. They’ll need to similarly restock the shelves this offseason, and replicating that level of success will be a tall order.
Whether Texas will shell out the type of money necessary to retain Armstrong at peak value is entirely unclear. The Rangers haven’t been shy about the fact that payroll is going down. They already traded the final three seasons of Marcus Semien’s contract for five years of Brandon Nimmo, who has a lighter annual luxury-tax hit. Nimmo said he only agreed to waive his no-trade clause with the Mets after talking to Rangers president of baseball ops Chris Young and being assured that Texas is not heading into a rebuild. Be that as it may, the Rangers are spending less.
Wilson speculates that if Armstrong is seeking a two-year deal similar to the one signed by former Rangers bullpen-mate Phil Maton — the Rangers added Maton and Danny Coulombe at the trade deadline — that might be too steep. Maton landed two years and a total of $14.5MM with the Cubs. He adds that both Milner and Coulombe live in the area and thus might be more amenable to signing back in Texas at slightly on affordable deals.
