The Texas Rangers have added veteran pitcher Adrian Houser on a minor league deal, per multiple reports.
Houser, 31, is a righthander who has made 104 starts and 48 relief appearances in the majors in his career, mostly with the Milwaukee Brewers. Houser was a second round pick of the Houston Astros in 2011 in what was the team’s final draft under Ed Wade before he was replaced by Jeff Luhnow.
Houser was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers at the trade deadline in 2015 in what I think can fairly say was one of the worst trades the Astros made in the Luhnow era, as Houston sent Houser, Josh Hader, Brett Phillips, and Domingo Santana to Milwaukee for Mike Fiers and Carlos Gomez. Hader turned into one of the best relievers in baseball for Milwaukee, Gomez was terrible for Houston, was released in mid-2016, signed with the Texas Rangers, and ended up helping Texas win the division in 2016, and Mike Fiers put up a 0.2 bWAR in two-plus seasons for Houston before becoming the guy who went on the record about the trash can banging scandal. One can reasonably argue that, but for Mike Fiers, none of that would have become public.
Anyway. Houser had a nice season in 2019 as a swingman, a decent season in 2021 as a starter, and was pretty bleah otherwise. Milwaukee traded him to the Mets last offseason, along with Tyrone Taylor, for righthanded pitcher Coleman Crow, who was recuperating from August, 2023, Tommy John surgery at the time and didn’t make it back on the mound until this year’s Arizona Fall League season. Houser made six starts for the Mets at the start of the season before moving into the bullpen, and was released at the end of July with a 5.84 ERA and 4.93 FIP. He signed a minor league deal with the Cubs, made four starts for their AAA team in August, was released, signed a minor league deal with the Orioles, made three starts for their AAA team in September, and became a free agent at season’s end.
Houser is a ground ball pitcher who doesn’t strike out many batters and who can survive if he doesn’t walk guys. He’s your garden variety AAA depth signing, a guy who you can put in your rotation at AAA but can bump to the pen if you need his rotation spot for a prospect or rehabber, and who is a potential option for a call up if the major league staff needs a veteran arm for a period of time.
