The Texas Rangers are making a late push to sharpen their pitching staff, and their newest move comes with roster expansion day right around the corner.
According to the team, Texas has signed Trevor Williams to a Major League contract. The right-hander, an 11-year veteran, arrives after being released by the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
Williams, 34, was in the second season of a two-year, $14 million deal with Washington. Since coming back from offseason internal brace surgery, he has given up five earned runs and 15 hits across 17 innings. He also struck out 31% of the batters he faced.
There’s some track record here, even if the results have been uneven. Williams was a 2013 second-round pick and has spent his career bouncing between the rotation and the bullpen, handling both jobs with all four teams he’s pitched for.
His strongest stretch may have come with the New York Mets in 2022, when he put together a 3.21 ERA in 30 appearances, nine of them starts. He’s also only two seasons removed from a sharp run with Washington in 2024, when he posted a 2.03 ERA and allowed just 6.9 hits per nine innings in 13 starts.
The downside has always been the home run ball. In 2023, Williams gave up a National League-high 34 homers.
For Texas, the timing fits the calendar. MLB rosters expand from 26 to 28 on September 1, and the Rangers are adding an experienced arm as they look to strengthen their relief mix for the stretch run.
In Other News...
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The bigger takeaway for Washington was how quickly Acua has now separated himself from the rest of the sports elite company. By reaching the 200-homer, 200-steal mark in record time, he moved past Alfonso Soriano for a place that may stand for a long while, and he did it in a game where the Nationals never had a real answer for him or Atlantas lineup. [Read more 🡒]
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By the end, the Senators were left with the kind of series that lingers because it never felt far out of reach. After splitting the first two games and hanging around through the middle of the week, Harrisburg still had openings to seize control, only to watch Chesapeake close with the better finish and leave the Nationals affiliate searching for what slipped away. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals May Have Just One Real Fix For Their Bullpen Problem
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That is where the real tension sits for Washington. The front office can keep shopping for relievers on the open market, but the smarter long-term play may be to build the next bullpen from within, especially with several current and minor league pitchers in the mix as possible contributors. There is also ongoing discussion about whether some starters could be better used in shorter bursts, which would give the Nationals more internal options without paying premium prices for established relievers. The challenge now is figuring out which arms can actually make that move and become dependable late-inning pieces. [Read more 🡒]