{"id":456012,"date":"2026-02-05T18:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456012\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T18:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:55:08","slug":"former-mets-phillies-submarine-reliever-to-sign-free-agent-deal-with-rangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/456012\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Mets, Phillies submarine reliever to sign free agent deal with Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Mets, Phillies submarine reliever to sign free agent deal with Rangers<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Texas Rangers<\/a> haven’t been the big spenders like other teams around Major League Baseball have been this offseason, but that hasn’t stopped them from making many roster moves this offseason.<\/p>\n

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Some of the more under-the-radar roster moves during the offseason might end up being very important ones come the regular season. The most recent Rangers signing might be just that.<\/p>\n

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan<\/a>, the Rangers are in agreement on a one-year contract with a former New York Mets<\/a> and Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> reliever who is a rare submarine pitcher.<\/p>\n

Rangers to sign submarine righty on one-year deal<\/p>\n

“Right-handed submariners Josh Hekja and the Texas Rangers are in agreement on a minor league contract, a source tells ESPN,” Passan reports.<\/p>\n

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Hekja is a righty reliever who is 28 years old and has spent his career with the Mets and the Phillies. Though he has not made his MLB debut in his five-year professional career, he’s shown an interesting ability as a submarine reliever.<\/p>\n

A funky deliver liek the one\u00a0Hekja has could help him get batters out. But, in his professional career, the righty has appeared in 153 games, posting a 4.06 ERA with an 11-8 record and 199 strikeouts and 68 walks in 221.2 innings pitched.<\/p>\n

More:Mets trade rumor on Brett Baty, Mark Vientos is unexpected update from Pirates<\/a><\/p>\n

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He’s not been the best, nor the worst, reliever. But,\u00a0Hekja, this past season for the Phillies has the worst year of his professional career.<\/p>\n

Hekja had a 6.28 ERA in 27 games for the Phillies in the minor leagues between High-A and Double-A. Oddly enough, he was much better at Double-A, posting a 3.52 ERA in six games compared to a 7.29 ERA in 21 games at Single-A.<\/p>\n

The former Mets and Phillies righty reliever prospect has shown promise at times in his minor league career, and is someone worth taking a flier on from the Rangers’ perspective.<\/p>\n

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More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Mets, Phillies submarine reliever to sign free agent deal with Rangers originally appeared on The Sporting News.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[12421,49,48,26573,187064,501,12417,133417,462,475,481,7672,24104,144871,40228,82,187065,3992],"class_list":["post-456012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-brett-baty","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-jeff-passan","tag-josh-hekja","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mark-vientos","tag-minor-league-contract","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-pirates","tag-professional-career","tag-reliever","tag-roster-moves","tag-sports","tag-submarine-pitcher","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}