Texas Rangers re-sign Tony Barnette to one year deal

Tony Barnette, righthanded reliever, is a Texas Rangers, with the team having announced that Barnette has re-signed with the Rangers on a one year deal. The beat guys on Twitter say it is for $1.5 million.

I’m absolutely on board with this deal for the Rangers...Barnette was signed by the club in the 2015-16 offseason to a two year deal with a $4 million club option for 2018. Barnette was very good in 2016, putting up a 2.09 ERA in 60.1 innings of middle relief work, but had an up-and-down 2017 campaign which saw him struggle early in the year and again in September, ending the year with a 5.49 ERA.

I thought the $4 million club option was reasonable enough that it was worth picking up, but the Rangers declined the option, which made Barnette a free agent. At $1.5 million, he’s a nice, inexpensive middle relief piece who joins Keone Kela, Matt Bush, Jake Diekman, and Alex Claudio in the Rangers 2018 pen. Or at least we think Bush is in the pen...the Rangers are going to have him work this offseason on a starting pitchers regimen, and may take a look at him as a starter this spring, though I think the expectation is he ends up back in a late inning role.

With Barnette back in the fold, the Rangers’ 40 man roster is now at 36.