The Rangers have another pitcher. Jordan Lyles. They signed him to a two-year, $16-million contract.

Lyles could be a starter. He could be a reliever. He’s done both, successfully and not so successfully, throughout his career.

Texas will be Lyles’s fifth team in five seasons.

Lyles began 2019 with the Pirates, wasn’t good, was traded to the Brewers, and was very very good.

In the Pittsburgh part of his season, he made seventeen starts with a 4.17 ERA, a 1.470 WHIP, and a 5-7 record. With Milwaukee, had a dramatic turnaround, going 7-1 in eleven starts, with a 2.45 ERA, and a crisp 1.108 WHIP. 

Throughout his nine-year career, though, the 29-year-old right-hander has been more like Pittsburgh Jordan Lyles than Milwaukee Jordan Lyles. His career ERA is 5.11. He’s started 143 out of 245 games he’s played in. In fact, in his previous four seasons before his Milwaukee miracle, he was, according to T.R. Sullivan of mlb.com, 10-19 with a 5.11 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP in 28 starts and 95 relief appearances.

According to Brooks Baseball, Lyles is a flyball pitcher who mostly relies on a four-seam fastball that sits at 93 MPH and an 81-MPH kuckle curve. He also mixes in a slider and a changeup. 

If Lyles can maintain his Milwaukee brilliance, this is a stroke of genius for the Rangers. If not, this is bullpen depth.

Either way, Lyles is better than the dregs the Rangers ran out last season in the rotation. And all we as fans can hope for is for the team to get better with each move.