Rangers sign veteran reliever to one-year deal

The Rangers announced on Monday that they’ve signed right-hander Shawn Armstrong to a one-year, major league deal. In order to make room for Armstrong on the 40-man roster, catcher Sam Huff was designated for assignment.

Armstrong, 34, is a veteran of 10 major league seasons. He bounced between Cleveland, Seattle, Baltimore, and Miami as a roughly league-average (99 ERA+) middle reliever before finally establishing himself with the Rays in 2022. The right-hander posted a 3.60 ERA with a 3.25 FIP in 55 innings of work for Tampa that season, with a 26% strikeout rate against a 5.4% walk rate. His strong walk rate was particularly notable given that Armstrong had struggled a bit with his command earlier in his career and entered the 2022 campaign with a career 9.2% walk rate.

That solid work earned Armstrong a role in the club’s bullpen the following year as well, and 2023 proved to be a career year for the righty. He pitched to a sparkling 1.38 ERA in 52 innings of work to go along with a 2.54 FIP, though he didn’t break into the club’s group of top high-leverage options and instead was used more frequently as a multi-inning option. 16 of his 39 appearances saw him record more than three outs, including 12 where he recorded two full innings or more. Unfortunately, Armstrong did not manage to keep up those strong results in 2024. The right-hander bounced between the Rays, Cardinals, and Cubs this year but posted a below-average 4.86 ERA (84 ERA+) despite a solid 3.57 FIP. Despite that solid peripheral figure, there were some signs of regression for the right-hander as his strikeout rate dipped to just 22.4% against an 8.5% walk rate.

Now that he’s latched on with the Rangers, Armstrong will join a bullpen that needs a major retool after losing Jose Leclerc, David Robertson, and Kirby Yates to free agency last month. He’s the fourth addition to the relief corps GM Chris Young has made this winter, joining Hoby Milner, Robert Garcia, and Jacob Webb. That quartet of signings should help to raise the floor in the bullpen, and Garcia in particular is a Statcast darling who profiles as a potential late-inning arm. With that being said, it seems likely the club will need to make at least one more addition with late-inning experience after losing its top three relievers simultaneously.

As for Huff, the 26-year-old was a seventh-round pick by the club back in 2016 and received some top-100 prospect buzz early in his career after tearing through the minors and hitting an incredible .355/.394/.742 in a ten-game cup of coffee during the shortened 2020 season. Impressive as that first taste of the majors was for Huff, he posted a roughly league average of .244/.299/.409 in 65 games over the next three seasons and in 2024 made it into just three games. Huff’s numbers also took a major step backward in Triple-A this past year, as he hit just .246/.310/.416 in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League.

With Jonah Heim and the newly-signed Kyle Higashioka seemingly locking up playing time at the big league level for the Rangers for the foreseeable future, the Rangers clearly felt Huff was expendable given that he’ll be out of options in 2025 and need to either be carried on the big league roster or passed through waivers. Typically the Rangers would have one week to either work out a trade involving Huff or attempt to pass him through waivers. With that said, that clock has been put on pause over the holidays in previous seasons, so it’s possible that a resolution for Huff won’t ultimately be announced until the new year. Should Huff clear waivers, the Rangers would have the opportunity to outright him to the minor leagues as non-roster depth.