Rangers Have Trip Aces With Merrill Kelly Addition
Pitching wins championships, and the Rangers are going all in on that notion. Adding Merrill Kelly makes the best staff in baseball even better.

With the focus on relief pitching being at an all-time high at the trade deadline, the Texas Rangers have pivoted and grabbed one of the top starters available in Merrill Kelly. The move is sure to bolster the strength of the club, which is the starting rotation.
And while the Rangers appear to have plenty of starting pitching, the idea of adding a top-tier third arm for down the stretch had to be appealing for Chris Young and company. Pair Kelly with Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, and that is a formidable stable of hurlers. The best in baseball, to be honest.
The goal isn’t to just be competitive down the stretch, but to ultimately get into the postseason. And with Bruce Bochey being able to roll those three guys out to the mound, the Rangers are going to be a tough matchup for anyone come playoff time.
Texas is sending LHP Kohl Drake, LHP Mitch Bratt, and RHP David Hagaman to Arizona. All three pitchers were ranked highly within the Rangers’ farm system. According to MiLB.com, Drake was the #5 prospect, Bratt #9, and Hagaman #13.
It can be hard to give up top tier prospects, but when a team decides to make a move to win and win now, that is exciting. Last season the Rangers stood still and did nothing and watched their playoff chances fade quickly.
In 2023, CY went out and got Jordan Montgomery, Max Scherzer, and Aroldis Chapman, and it made the difference in just getting to the playoffs and winning it all.
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This season has been exceptional for Kelly. Over 22 starts and 128.1 innings pitched, he has posted a 3.22 ERA, 1.057 WHIP, 121 strikeouts, and only 38 walks. The 36-year-old righty, who was born in Houston, adds another gritty starter to the top of the already dominant starting rotation.
Rangers’ fans will remember Kelly as the pitcher that shutdown the hot-hitting Texas club in Game 2 of the 2023 World Series. In that contest, Kelly pitched seven innings, allowed only one earned run, struck out nine, and earned the win for the Diamondbacks.
The trade will give the Rangers the flexibility to move some of their current rotation to the bullpen as needed. It is still uncertain as to when Tyler Mahle will rejoin the club, but if that can happen, it will allow two guys to slide over into the bullpen.
And in the playoffs, where there are adequate off days, it would allow the team to use just the three main starters for most of the games, with one of the remaining guys picking up the random fourth starts. CY and Bochey love to have plenty of arms, and both know that pitching wins championships.
With the offense starting to hit over the month of July, the Rangers decided to double down on the already rank pitching. It will be up to the offense to continue to put up runs, but the addition of Kelly and a couple of other relievers (Danny Coulombe and Phil Maton) is sure to lift the spirits of the entire clubhouse.
It certainly appears that the Rangers, in fact, went over the luxury tax. But with this potentially being Bochey’s swan song, Texas has given him the best possible group of guys to go compete for that World Series ring to go on his thumb.
It’s not very often that a team has the best pitching and defense in baseball. With the bats already on the roster, it is a matter of making sure that they stay hot and simply do what everyone expected them to do this season.
The AL West is going to be a wild race for the division and one or even two of the AL Wild Card spots. Texas didn’t want to miss out on the fun, and fun it should be.