Reliever Chris Martin is in settlement on a one-year contract to return to the Rangers, a supply informed MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. The membership has not confirmed the deal, which is pending a bodily.
Martin is the primary reliever the Rangers have reunited with from the 2025 bullpen that had a 3.62 ERA, good for fifth within the Majors, although they’re reportedly nonetheless considering names like Shawn Armstrong and Josh Sborz.
Martin was strong for the Rangers in 2025, posting a 2.98 ERA over 49 appearances. That being stated, he pitched simply 9 2/3 innings within the second half amid numerous IL stints for shoulder fatigue, a pair of calf strains and thoracic outlet syndrome that in the end ended his 12 months.
It’s unclear if Martin in the end wanted surgical procedure within the offseason.
Martin, who will likely be getting into his age-40 season in 2026, continues to defy time. Whereas he has had harm points which have restricted him, significantly the previous two seasons, the right-hander turned in a 2.60 ERA from 2022-25.
At 6-foot-8, Martin is an imposing presence on the mound. He contains a four-seam fastball that averaged 94.7 mph final season, together with a cutter, splitter, sinker and sweeper. It’s been fairly a journey for the veteran reliever, who was initially drafted by the Rockies all the best way again in 2005. He suffered a torn labrum in his proper shoulder and was out of baseball completely till 2010, when he tried a comeback with an unbiased league workforce in Grand Prairie, Texas.
In 2011, the Purple Sox signed Martin however traded him to the Rockies previous to the 2014 marketing campaign. It was that 12 months that he made his MLB debut with Colorado. After scuffling with the Rockies that season and with the Yankees in 2015, Martin saved his skilled baseball profession alive in Japan, the place he discovered nice success from 2016-17 with the Nippon Ham Fighters of Nippon Skilled Baseball.
Martin’s hometown workforce, the Rangers, signed him previous to the 2018 marketing campaign. Since then, he’s confirmed to be very efficient — over the previous eight seasons, he pitched to a 3.04 ERA in 352 2/3 innings for the Rangers, Braves, Cubs, Dodgers and Purple Sox. He spent final season again with Texas.
Martin is the third reliever the Rangers have signed this offseason in an try and utterly rebuild the rotation for the second winter in a row. He joins Alexis Diaz and Tyler Alexander as “new” additions.
“I be ok with the choices that now we have proper now [in the bullpen], and I believe it is our job because the entrance workplace is to proceed to look to enhance it,” stated president of baseball operations Chris Younger. “We have some younger guys that had some success final 12 months that might slide into the bullpen, and we have signed some veterans that we expect have had actual Main League success which can be going to be added into our bullpen as nicely. In the end, it is an ongoing course of, and we’re at all times seeking to proceed to enhance.”
