Rangers Acquire Jake Odorizzi From Braves For Kolby Allard

6:13pm: Atlanta is paying $10MM of the deal, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (on Twitter).

5:14pm: The Rangers have acquired right-hander Jake Odorizzi and cash considerations from the Braves, according to announcements from both teams. In exchange, Atlanta will receive left-hander Kolby Allard.

Going into 2021, Odorizzi signed a two-year, $23.5MM deal with the Astros with a convoluted structure. He received a $6MM signing bonus and $6MM salary in 2021, followed by a $5MM salary in 2022. That was to be followed by a $6.5MM player option with a $3.25MM buyout. However, there were also performance escalators that could increase the value of both the player option and the buyout. Over the initial two years of the deal, if Odorizzi got into 20, 25 and 30 games, he would add $2MM to the salary and $1MM to the buyout at each of those milestones. He easily hit all three, getting into 46 games, meaning he now has a $12.5MM option with a $6.5MM buyout.

Odorizzi evidently exercised his option, so he’ll make $12.5MM in 2023. He posted a 4.21 ERA with Houston in 2021 and then had a 3.75 mark at the deadline when he was traded to Atlanta for Will Smith. Unfortunately, the uniform switch didn’t help him, as he posted a 5.24 mark after the deal. He also had a 6.59 ERA in the shortened 2020 season, meaning he hasn’t seen strong results over the past three seasons. Though he had a 27.1% strikeout rate in 2019, he’s been hovering around 20% since then, a few ticks below league average. Based on those tepid results, he likely wouldn’t be looking at huge contract offers on the open market.

Atlanta was likely not terribly excited about the idea of possibly paying him $12.5MM, or $6.5MM, based both on their tight payroll situation and Odorizzi’s results. He likely isn’t one of their five best starters anyway, as they have Max Fried, Kyle Wright, Charlie Morton, Spencer Strider for the first four spots, with Bryce Elder, Ian Anderson, Kyle Muller and Jared Shuster candidates for the fifth. Instead, they’ve shipped Odorizzi to Arlington to rid themselves of the commitment, though they also included some amount of cash in the deal, with the exact figure not yet reported at this time.

The Rangers are in need of rotation upgrades after getting poor results in that department in 2022. Texas starters posted a collective 4.63 ERA this year, placing them 25th in the majors in that regard. They got some decent work from Jon Gray and a career year from veteran Martín Pérez, though Pérez has now reached free agency and deprived the already-weak rotation of its strongest performer. There’s reportedly mutual interest in a reunion, though nothing has been finalized yet and the club is now reportedly giving consideration to extending a $19.65MM qualifying offer to Pérez.

With Pérez still in the wind, that leaves Texas with Gray and a host of question marks behind him. Dane Dunning was decent enough, posting a 4.46 ERA this year over 29 starts. However, his season was finished by hip surgery and it’s unclear what condition he’ll be in next year. Glenn Otto made 27 starts and posted an ERA of 4.64. The club also gave a handful of starts to Taylor…