The Michael Lorenzen signing is official

The Texas Rangers have officially signed pitcher Michael Lorenzen, the team announced today. To make room for Lorenzen on the 40 man roster, the Rangers have placed pitcher Jacob deGrom on the 60 day injured list.

This makes official the move, news of which first broke late Wednesday night. As we discussed, this is a low-cost move that gives the Rangers a functional arm for the rotation, which allows Cody Bradford to go to the bullpen in a multi-inning role. This also gives the Rangers some protection in case a starter gets hurt — something rather important, given the pitiful state of their rotation depth for at least the first couple of months of the season.

Lorenzen apparently said this morning, prior to this being officially announced, that he will be part of the Rangers’ starting rotation. Lorenzen has both started and relieved over the course of his career, but has been primarily a starter the last two seasons, and I doubt he’d have taken a deal that guaranteed him just $4.5 million without assurances that he’d be joining the rotation.

Whether Lorenzen stays in the rotation is another question, of course, given the Rangers are hoping to have deGrom, Max Scherzer and Tyler Mahle back at various points of the summer. The fact that Lorenzen has worked out of the pen, and thus would seem to be able to transition to the pen if and when everyone is healthy, no doubt factored in the Rangers’ decision to sign him.

deGrom moving to the 60 day injured list was the expected move, given the best case scenario for deGrom has him not being back until August. Scherzer and Mahle would also be able to be placed on the 60 day injured list in the coming days, should the Rangers wish to free up another couple of 40 man roster spots.