Texas Rangers trade for Ray, sign Harden
While teams like the Detroit Tigers are spending the annual Winter Meetings to moving around salary and making blockbuster Trades, the Texas Rangers, a team with their own financial problems, as gone about tweaking their own the field product somewhat under the radar. On Wednesday The Rangers traded their ace, pitcher Kevin Millwood to the Baltimore Orioles for reliever Chris Ray. They are now using the money they saved from Millwood’s contract to extend an offer to pitcher Rich Harden. Both moves are upgrades for the Rangers, who were on the verge of making the playoffs in 2009.
While Ray’s 2009 stats are not all that impressive, he was a situational reliever on a very poor team. While there is no guarantee that he can turn that around, sometimes getting a player out of a situation like Baltimore, and into a better one like that of the Rangers can spark a turn around in said players performance. While we wait that one out, trading Millwood for Ray opened up the possibility for the Rangers to extend an offer to Harden.
Harden has a career ERA of 3.34, and in 2009 he went 9-9 with a 4.09 ERA in 171 innings pitched. After he passes his physical he will join a Rangers staff that already sports 26 year old Scott Feldman who went 17-8 in 2009 with a 4.08 ERA. With Feldman as their ace and Harden as the number two the Rangers now have a powerful starting five that may get them into the playoffs in 2010.
