The Rangers have signed veteran righty Joe Ross to a minor league contract, Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News reports. Ross was recently released by the D-backs. He’d been pitching with their Triple-A club in Reno.
Ross made Arizona’s Opening Day roster this season after signing a minor league deal in free agency, but the Snakes designated him for assignment after 3 2/3 innings. He elected free agency and returned on a minor league deal.
Ross, who turned 33 yesterday, enjoyed decent results in a hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League setting. He threw 21 innings for the D-backs’ Triple-A club, most of them in long relief, and logged a 4.29 ERA. His 14% strikeout rate is way below average, but Ross’ 5.8% walk rate was excellent and his 47.8% grounder rate was strong. He also induced plenty of weak contact, evidenced by an 87.7 mph average exit velocity and 38% hard-hit rate.
This year’s brief run in the majors with Arizona brought Ross up to nine partial seasons in the majors. He’s one day shy of eight years of service time. Ross showed glimpses of breaking out as a quality big league starter early in his career, but much like his older brother (Tyson Ross) was routinely set back by injuries. He’s had a pair of Tommy John surgeries in his career in addition to a procedure to remove bone spurs from his elbow. Ross has also had multiple IL stints due to lower back injuries and shoulder troubles.
Ross had a nice season with the ’24 Brewers, tossing 74 innings with a 3.77 ERA and rate stats that were only slightly worse than league average. He was hit hard in a partial season with the ’25 Phillies though, yielding a 5.12 ERA with a career-low 17.1% strikeout rate. Overall, the 6’4″ righty has a 4.37 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 43% ground-ball rate in 572 major league frames.
The Rangers haven’t specified what type of role Ross will fill. He’ll head to Triple-A Round Rock and presumably continue to operate at least as a long reliever — if not a member of the rotation. The Rangers’ big league staff includes Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. The depth options behind that quintet aren’t great, and the latter three have all had varying levels of struggles. Rocker’s hold on a rotation spot appeared to be fading, but he just rattled off 7 2/3 shutout innings behind an opener in his most recent appearance. That brings him to 12 2/3 straight scoreless frames, dropping his ERA from north of 5.00 all the way to 3.60 (albeit with subpar rate stats that suggest some regression).
Veteran righty Cal Quantrill has pitched well in a long relief role, so it’s unlikely Ross will quickly jump to the majors in a swingman capacity. That said, if Texas incurs an injury in the rotation, that could nudge Quantrill into a starting role and create a space for Ross. Ross himself could be a rotation option at some point, too. He’s not fully stretched out right now but has made multiple three-inning relief appearances this season — most recently in early May.
