The Texas Rangers have signed reliever Jakob Junis to further strengthen their bullpen.

The Rangers continue to bolster their bullpen. According to MLB.com reporter Mark Feinsand, right-handed reliever Jakob Junis has agreed to a one-year, $4 million contract, though the team has yet to officially announce the deal.

After concluding the 2025 season with the Cleveland Guardians, Junis entered free agency for the fourth time, but this marks his first time on the market following a purely bullpen season. The Guardians’ trust in him grew throughout the year, and he rewarded them with 66.2 innings pitched and a 2.97 ERA. Previously holding a career ERA of 4.64, Junis has made significant strides in run prevention over the past two years, posting a cumulative 2.83 ERA across 133.2 innings.

Junis’ signature pitch is his slider, which accounts for nearly half of his total pitches: 44.5% in 2025 and 45.2% in 2024. Last season, hitters managed just a .238 batting average against his slider, with a swinging strike rate of 31.4%. This pitch features about 31.5 cm of horizontal movement—roughly 19.8 cm more than the league average—creating a slider-cutter hybrid effect.

A notable shift in Junis’ 2025 pitch mix was a significant increase in his use of the changeup, rising from 8.7% in 2024 to 20%. The Guardians’ pitching coach Carl Willis and his staff’s emphasis on this pitch proved effective. The 33-year-old righty recorded 15 strikeouts in 60 plate appearances using the changeup, allowing only three extra-base hits and no home runs.

However, his harder pitches showed less success: hitters posted a .353 average against his sinker and an even higher slugging percentage of .625 against his four-seam fastball. Still, Junis excelled at limiting home runs, surrendering just one homer on each of those two pitches.

Attention should also be paid to his velocity trends: his four-seam fastball’s average speed dropped from 92.5 mph (about 148.8 km/h) in 2024 to 91.2 mph (about 146.8 km/h), while his sinker’s average velocity fell from 91.9 mph (about 147.9 km/h) to 91.1 mph (about 146.6 km/h). His strikeouts per nine innings declined from 10 in 2023 to an average of 7.1 over the past two seasons.

Junis is the latest move in the Rangers’ ongoing effort to deepen their bullpen, marking nearly a second consecutive year of bullpen restructuring. The team previously strengthened the relief corps by signing Tyler Alexander, Alexis Díaz, Chris Martin, and acquiring Carter Baumler via a Rule 5 draft trade. However, the allocation of pitchers in critical situations remains unclear. In the 2025 season, the Rangers converted only 37 of 66 save opportunities, highlighting the bullpen as the main weakness despite an overall solid ERA of 3.62.