ATLANTA — Nathan Eovaldi ranks close to the highest of the Braves’ want listing, in accordance with an trade supply.
Eovaldi turned a free agent when he declined his $20 million choice to stay with the Rangers by means of the 2025 season. The 34-year-old right-hander can now pursue a multiyear deal that will almost certainly embrace a median annual worth of not less than $20 million.
“We anticipated [Eovaldi to decline the option], and we’re nonetheless going to work in direction of hopefully getting him again in a Rangers uniform,” Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Younger instructed MLB.com on Monday.
Eovaldi’s contract included a vesting participant choice for the 2025 season that was depending on whether or not he threw 300 innings between the ’23 and ’24 seasons; he threw 314 2/3 innings and went 24-13 with a 3.72 ERA in 54 video games.
Eovaldi posted a 3.80 ERA whereas finishing 170 2/3 innings over 29 begins this previous season. His 23.9 % strikeout price was his highest mark since 2021, which was one of many 5 seasons he spent enjoying with present Braves ace Chris Sale in Boston.
Eovaldi is 9-1 with a 2.85 ERA in 12 profession postseason begins. He teamed with Sale to win the 2018 World Collection with the Crimson Sox, after which gained his second ring after serving to the Rangers win all of it in ’23.
Sale, Reynaldo López and Spencer Schwellenbach will function the core of Atlanta’s rotation till Spencer Strider returns from proper elbow surgical procedure early subsequent season. However the Braves may very well be wanting so as to add extra as they put together for the likelihood that each Max Fried and Charlie Morton may very well be pitching elsewhere subsequent yr.
Fried stands as one of many high general items on this yr’s free-agent market. It has been lengthy assumed the 2024 season can be the 30-year-old southpaw’s final in Atlanta. Morton, who turns 41 subsequent week, is among the many Braves’ different rotation choices if he doesn’t retire.
