{"id":117327,"date":"2026-01-09T21:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/117327\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T21:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:47:07","slug":"waiver-claim-reunites-texas-rangers-with-former-pitching-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/117327\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiver claim reunites Texas Rangers with former pitching prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Rangers<\/a> president of baseball operations Chris Young said Friday morning that the club will be \u201copportunistic on all fronts\u201d to improve its pitching depth. <\/p>\n

They pounced on a familiar one later that day. <\/p>\n

The Rangers claimed right-handed pitcher Zak Kent off of waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals Friday afternoon. Kent, 27, was drafted by the Rangers and was once among the organization\u2019s top prospects before he was dealt to the Cleveland Guardians<\/a> in exchange for international bonus pool money two years ago. <\/p>\n

Kent was the team\u2019s No. 24 prospect<\/a> at the time of the March 29, 2024 trade, per The Dallas Morning News\u2019 rankings, but a shaky spring and a crowded prospect room made him more expendable. He made his major league debut with the Guardians last season and had a 4.58 ERA in 17 2\/3 innings before he was claimed off of waivers by the Cardinals early in the offseason.<\/p>\n

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The former ninth-round draft pick is a starter by trade but pitched a dozen games out of Cleveland\u2019s bullpen last season. The Rangers are in the midst of a bullpen rebuild and long relievers or rotational depth options on small contracts can provide low-risk upside. <\/p>\n

The Rangers additionally released left-handed pitcher Anthony Veneziano from a minor league contract to pursue an opportunity in Asia. Veneziano, 28, was signed to a deal with an invite to major league spring training on Dec. 18. <\/p>\n

Texas Rangers shake up minor league coaching staffs for 2026 season<\/a>Texas Rangers will play three games on NBC\/Peacock during 2026 season<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said Friday morning that the club will be \u201copportunistic on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1638,6812,154,27,29,28,429],"class_list":{"0":"post-117327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-brief","9":"tag-rangers","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news","14":"tag-texas-rangers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}