Rangers acquire Jake Odorizzi from Braves for Kolby Allard

6:13 p.m.: Atlanta is paying $10 million off the deal, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (on Twitter).

5:14 p.m.: Rangers acquired right-handed Jake Odorizzi and cash rewards from the Braves, according to announcements from both teams. In exchange, Atlanta will receive a left-hander Colby Allard.

In 2021, Odorizzi signed a two-year, $23.5 million contract with the Astros with a convoluted structure. He received a signing bonus of $6 million and a salary of $6 million in 2021, followed by a salary of $5 million in 2022. This was to be followed by a player option of 6.5 million with a buyout of $3.25 million. However, there were also performance escalators that could increase the value of both the player’s option and the buyout. In the first two years of the deal, if Odorizzi took part in 20, 25 and 30 games, he would add $2 million in salary and $1 million in buyout at each of those stages. He easily hit all three, going into 46 games, which means he now has a $12.5 million option with a $6.5 million buyout.

Odorizzi obviously exercised his option, so he’ll make $12.5 million in 2023. He posted a 4.21 ERA with Houston in 2021, then earned a 3.75 rating at the deadline when he was traded to Atlanta for Will Smith. Unfortunately, the uniform change didn’t help him, as he posted a 5.24 rating after the trade. He also had a 6.59 ERA in the shortened 2020 season, meaning he hasn’t seen good results in the past three seasons. Although he had a 27.1% strikeout rate in 2019, he’s been hovering around 20% since then, a few ticks below the league average. Based on those mixed results, he probably wouldn’t consider huge open-market contract offers.

Atlanta probably wasn’t too keen on possibly paying him $12.5 million, or $6.5 million, based on both their tight payroll situation and Odorizzi’s results. . He’s probably not one of their top five starters anyway, because they have Max fried, Kyle Wright, charlie morton, Spencer Strider for the first four places, with Bryce Elder, Ian Anderson, Kyle Muller and Jared Shuster candidates for the fifth. Instead, they shipped Odorizzi to Arlington to get rid of the engagement, although they also included some money in the deal, with the exact figure yet to be released.

The Rangers need rotational improvements after performing poorly in that department in 2022. The Texas starters posted a collective 4.63 ERA this year, placing them 25th in the majors in that regard. They got a decent job from Jon Gray and a year of veteran career Martin Perez, although Pérez has now achieved free will and deprived the already weak rotation of its best performer. There is reportedly mutual interest in a reunion, although nothing has been finalized yet and the club are now considering extending a $19.65m qualifying offer for Pérez.

With Pérez still in the wind, that leaves Texas with Gray and a host of question marks behind him. Dane Dunning was pretty decent, posting a 4.46 ERA this year over 29 starts. However, his season ended with hip surgery and it’s unclear what condition he’ll be in next year. Glenn Otto made 27 starts and posted a 4.64 ERA. The club also gave a few starts to Taylor Hearn, cole ragans and spencer howard, although they all posted ERAs of 4.95 or higher. Given all this uncertainty, it would make sense for them to consider all avenues of staff upgrades, with the GM Chris Young basically saying that at the GM meetings in Las Vegas this week, by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. This will apparently include giving Odorizzi a chance to produce better results.

In addition to clearing some salary from the books, Atlanta will get another arm in Allard. The 25-year-old was actually drafted by Atlanta in 2015 but went to Rangers in 2019 in exchange for Chris Martin. He has pitched each of the last five MLB seasons, but has a career 6.07 ERA. He has decent control with a 7.8% walk rate in his career, although his 18.6% strikeout rate and 37.8% ground ball rate are both below average. He had been part of the Rangers rotation from 2019 to 2021, but was returned to bullpen work in 2022. That move didn’t help him, as he had a 7.29 ERA in 21 off innings. of the enclosure.

Ultimately, it looks like both teams are giving up pitchers who weren’t in their plans for the future. Texas desperately needs rotational stability and will see if Odorizzi can provide it, with Atlanta helping them foot the bill. It will likely be one of many moves to address departing staff as they seek to emerge from their years-long rebuild. For Atlanta, they’re sending cash but will save at least a few bucks as they look to reorganize and try to win a sixth straight AL East title.