The Rangers' top free agent is starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, a key piece to the team's 2023 championship team. With how much some other lesser pitchers are getting so far in free agency, are the Rangers going to be able to pay Eovaldi what he'll command in order to keep him in Texas?
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00:00So, Nick Martinez, former Texas
00:21Ranger, current Cincinnati Red,
00:25accepts the 21 million dollar
00:27qualifying offer to stay with
00:29Nick Martinez. Nick Martinez, you
00:31might think is younger than Nathan
00:33Evaldi. He is by six whole months.
00:35So, if you're looking at this
00:37going, well, and it's a
00:39qualifying offer. The Reds offered
00:41it and he took it. That
00:43can happen. If you remember, this
00:45happened with Martin Perez, I
00:47believe, two years ago after he
00:49made the All-Star team. I believe
00:51if I'm remembering correctly,
00:53Rangers offered him arbitration
00:55and he signed the arbitration
00:57number. So, if I look at this
00:59and I look at
01:01Nathan Evaldi
01:03and I compare him to Nick Martinez
01:05last year, I look
01:07at it and I see that
01:09170 innings for Nathan
01:11Evaldi, 142 innings for Nick
01:13Martinez, a 3-10
01:15ERA for Nick Martinez, a 3-8
01:17ERA for Nathan Evaldi.
01:19Evaldi goes 12-8,
01:21Nick Martinez goes 10-7, both on
01:23disappointing teams last year. Both
01:25teams underperformed and I'll tell you what,
01:27there's a part of me, guys,
01:29that wants to pick the Cincinnati Reds
01:31as the 2025 World Champions.
01:33Oh, who do they
01:35beat in the World Series, Baltimore? I don't
01:37know, but what I'm looking
01:39at is Terry Francona
01:41and Terry Francona is very
01:43Bruce Bochy-like
01:45and I would have never guessed
01:47that the Rangers would have won the World Series
01:49in 2023. I thought, they're going to
01:51be better. I predicted them to win 84 games,
01:53they won 90, they won the World Series.
01:55Are the Reds probably going to
01:57beat the Dodgers and the Mets and the
01:59Phillies and all the teams in the National League?
02:01Probably not, but nobody
02:03expected the Rangers in
02:052023, one to make the
02:07playoffs, two then to beat Baltimore
02:09and to beat, I guess, Tampa
02:11before that and then to beat the
02:13Houston Astros and they did and the Reds
02:15have talent.