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Alden Gonzalez
The Texas Rangers made a move to bolster the top of their rotation with minutes remaining before the trade deadline on Thursday, acquiring Merrill Kelly from the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Kelly, 36, is making $7 million in the final season of his contract and has put together a nice year, going 9-6 with a 3.22 ERA in 22 starts for a D-backs rotation that has, outside of him, underperformed. Since the start of June, Kelly boasts a 2.56 ERA.
The Diamondbacks are getting left-handed pitchers Kohl Drake and Mitch Bratt and right-hander David Hagaman from the Rangers in return.
The Rangers’ starters have the lowest ERA in the majors at 3.16. The offense, meanwhile, has finally started to come around recently, prompting a 16-8 record in July that has put them in the thick of a playoff race.
Kelly joins a staff headlined by Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGromthe latter of whom might be facing some innings restrictions given his recent injury history. Young, promising right-handers Kumar Rocker and Jack ladder also make up the staff, which could get Tyler Mahle back before the end of August.
Kelly is viewed as a grind-it-out innings eater, and he has pitched well of late with a 2.56 ERA over his past 10 starts to lower his season ERA to 3.22. After getting knocked out early in his second start of the season, he has gone at least five innings in every start since.
He doesn’t have big raw stuff, posting the second-lowest average fastball velocity among pitchers with 115 innings pitched by the All-Star break. His changeup is his best pitch by a wide margin, and he gets by with location and off-speed stuff.
Kelly, who has spent all seven of his MLB seasons with Arizona, was a stalwart in the Diamondbacks’ run to the 2023 World Series, striking out 28 and posting a 2.25 ERA over 24 innings.
In Drake, Bratt and Hagaman, the Diamondbacks are getting three decently rated pitching prospects from the Rangers’ system. Drake, 25, and Bratt, 22, have both put up good numbers in Double-A this season; Hagaman, 22, is still in the lower levels of the system.
The Rangers made two other moves Thursday. They acquired left-hander Danny COULOMBE from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for minor league left-hander Garrett Horn, and they got right-handed reliever Phil carpet from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for minor leaguer pitchers Skylar Hales and Mason Molina, as well as international bonus pool money.
Coulombe, 35, has posted a 1.16 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 31 strikeouts in 31 innings pitched for the Twins this season.
Maton, 32, has posted a 2.35 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and 48 strikeouts in 38.1 innings for the Cardinals this season.
ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel contributed to this report.
