The 2024 season could not have gone any worse for the Texas Rangers; their offense fell off considerably, and their pitching wasn’t able to compensate for this steep dip in hitting production. But the Rangers have been working tirelessly all offseason long to bolster the roster, and to that end, they signed veteran southpaw reliever Hoby Milner, a former featured bullpen weapon for the Milwaukee Brewers, in free agency.
Milner’s contract with the Rangers is for one year, as per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, although financial terms haven’t been disclosed as of yet. This will be a homecoming for the 33-year-old lefty, as he is a Dallas native who went to the University of Texas.
For the first four years of Milner’s career, he struggled to find a home, bouncing around with the Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Rays, and Los Angeles Angels. It wasn’t until 2021 that Milner latched on with the Brewers, where he has spent the past four seasons.
The Rangers are hoping to get the best out of Milner once again after he struggled through an uneven 2024 campaign in Milwaukee. This past season, his ERA ballooned to 4.73, although Texas has plenty of reasons to be optimistic regarding a potential turnaround in 2025.
His left-on-base percentage was an outlier last season (58.1 percent, down from 84.2 and 71.0 percent in 2023 and 2022, respectively), and his other peripheral stats (strikeout and walk rate) weren’t far off from their usual levels over the past few seasons with the Brewers. Thus, it is a fair expectation for Milner’s numbers to improve with the Rangers.
The Rangers haven’t made too many groundbreaking moves in this year’s free agency. Their biggest move remains the re-signing of Nathan Eovaldi to a three-year, $75 million deal, and they also added Kyle Higashioka for catcher depth. They also acquired Jake Burger via trade.
Rangers hope for some major positive regression in 2025
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In addition to expecting Hoby Milner’s numbers to normalize in 2025, the Rangers are also expecting their offense to come alive next season. Adolis Garcia, in particular, is a major candidate to bounce back after enduring a nightmare 2024 season — a huge disappointment after he tore the cover off the baseball en route to winning the World Series in 2023.
Even then, Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young knows that he cannot rest on his laurels and simply wait for positive regression. Expect the Rangers to make more moves the deeper we head into free agency.
