The Texas Rangers are adding a steady veteran arm to their bullpen, agreeing to a one-year, $4 million deal with right-hander Jakob Junis. The 33-year-old reliever is coming off a quietly effective season split between Milwaukee and Cincinnati, and his recent track record suggests Texas may have found a valuable piece for the back end of their pen.
Junis’ journey has been anything but linear. Once a starter struggling to find consistency, he’s reinvented himself over the last few seasons as a reliable bullpen option.
Since making the full-time switch to relief in 2023, Junis has posted a 12-4 record with a 3.24 ERA, a 131 ERA+, and a 1.14 WHIP across 219.2 innings. Those are the kind of numbers that don’t just happen by accident-they’re the product of a pitcher who’s figured out how to maximize his stuff in shorter bursts.
This past season, Junis opened the year in Milwaukee, where he was lights out. In 67 innings between the Brewers and Reds, he logged a 2.69 ERA, including a sparkling 2.42 mark before the trade deadline. He was flipped to Cincinnati in exchange for starter Frankie Montas, a move that underscored how much value Junis had built up in just a few months.
His time in Cleveland the year prior also showed he could sustain this new form. In 2025, Junis tossed 66.2 innings for the Guardians, putting up a 2.97 ERA and maintaining a solid 3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. That kind of command-pounding the zone while limiting free passes-is a big part of what’s made him so effective out of the bullpen.
One of the most telling signs of Junis’ transformation has been his ability to keep the ball in the yard. As a starter, the long ball was his Achilles’ heel-he gave up over 30 home runs in both 2018 and 2019, and totaled 105 across six seasons in Kansas City.
But since moving to the pen, that number has dropped significantly. Last season, he allowed just five home runs at a rate of 0.7 per nine innings.
That’s a dramatic shift for a guy who once struggled to keep the ball in the park.
Junis originally broke into the majors with the Royals back in 2017, drafted out of high school and projected as a mid-rotation starter. But over six seasons in Kansas City, he posted a 34-42 record with a 4.75 ERA and never quite lived up to the early promise. Since then, though, he’s bounced around-five teams in three years-and found a second life in relief roles.
By ERA+ (173), his stint with the Brewers in 2024 was the most dominant stretch of his career. He signed with Milwaukee on a $7 million deal, then turned that performance into a $4.5 million contract with Cleveland. Now, he lands in Texas with another solid payday and a chance to contribute to a team looking to bolster its bullpen depth with proven arms.
Junis isn’t flashy, but he brings something every contending team needs: strike-throwing, soft contact, and veteran poise. Across his nine-year career, he’s 46-46 with a 4.36 ERA and 9.7 WAR-not numbers that leap off the page, but when you look at his recent body of work, there’s a clear trend upward.
For the Rangers, this is a low-risk, potentially high-reward signing. If Junis continues to deliver the kind of consistency he’s shown the past two seasons, he could become a key piece in late innings-or at the very least, a dependable bridge to the back end. Either way, Texas is betting on a pitcher who’s found his groove, and they’re hoping that groove carries into 2026.