The Texas Rangers have traded left-hander Taylor Hearn to the Atlanta Braves for cash considerations. Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News first reported the transaction on Monday morning. The Rangers designated Hearn for assignment last week. This gives the Rangers a little financial cushion, which could be useful at the upcoming trade deadline on August 1. To clear room for Hearn on their 40-man roster, the Braves designated right-hander Dereck Rodriguez for assignment.
Elevated ERA
Taylor Hearn began the 2023 season with the Rangers and posted a 10.29 ERA over four relief appearances. He was optioned to Triple-A Round Rock on April 13. In 24 games with the Express, Hearn registered a 2–2 record with a 3.66 ERA. This translates into 16 earned runs over 39 1/3 innings. The Royse City, Texas native posted a 12–15 record and 5.11 ERA with the Rangers over five major league seasons after being acquired from the Pittsburgh Pirates at the 2018 trade deadline in exchange for right-handed pitcher Keone Kela.
Hearn struck out 30.2% of opponents. He also got grounders at a 45.2% clip and issued walks to 13.4% of batters faced. Despite some encouraging numbers in there, the Rangers wanted to get a look at Alex Speas, which nudged Hearn off the roster. Hearn will now get a fresh start with an Atlanta club that has a lead of 11.5 games in the NL East. Since no other club has a lead larger than four games, they are the biggest postseason shoo-in at the moment and seem to be making moves aimed at a postseason run.
Taylor Hearn’s Rangers Tenure
Hearn, 28, has pitched for the Rangers since 2019, both as a starter and as a reliever. He has had much better results in the latter role. He’s allowed 6.36 earned runs per nine innings when starting but a far more palatable 3.94 ERA out of the bullpen. Despite that stark difference, Hearn generally got many starting opportunities as the club struggled to put a good rotation together.
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