Braves trade Jake Odorizzi to Rangers for Kolby Allard

The first offseason trade prior to the 2023 Major League Baseball season happened on Wednesday. According to the Associated Press, the Atlanta Braves traded starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi of Breese, Illinois to the Texas Rangers for southpaw reliever Kolby Allard of Anaheim, California.

This will be the sixth Major League Baseball team for Odorizzi. He has previously played for the Kansas City Royals (2012), Tampa Bay Rays (2013 to 2017), Minnesota Twins (2018 to 2020), the Houston Astros (2021 and 2022), and the Atlanta Braves (2022). Allard meanwhile is returning to the Braves. He played his rookie season in Atlanta in 2018, before playing four seasons with the Rangers from 2019 to 2022.

Jake Odorizzi in 2022

This past season, Odorizzi shared his time with the Astros and Braves. He had a record of six wins and six losses with an earned run average of 4.40. Odorizzi was actually much more efficient with the Astros than the Braves. He had a productive earned run average of 3.75 with the Astros, but struggled with the Braves as he had an earned run average of 5.24. In 22 starts, Odorizzi pitched 106 1/3 innings, and gave up 106 hits, 52 earned runs, 14 home runs, and 35 walks. He also had 86 strikeouts and a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.33.

Kolby Allard career stats

Allard meanwhile had an earned run average of 7.29 in 2022. He has struggled mightily in four of his first five seasons. Allard has a career earned run average of 6.07, and has only had an earned run average of below five once. That happened in 2019 with the Rangers, when he had an earned run average of 4.96. In his first season with the Braves, Allard in fact was terrible in eight innings, as he gave up 11 earned runs, and 19 hits, with a whopping earned run average of 12.38 and a very high WHIP of 2.88.

All-Star Season for Odorizzi

There is no doubt the Rangers have the advantage in this deal. Odorizzi was in fact an All-Star with the Twins in 2019. That year he had a record of 15 wins and seven losses, with an earned run average of 3.51.