As the 2025 Texas Rangers season comes to an end, we will be taking a look back at every player who will appear in the major leagues for the 2025 Texas Rangers during the offseason.
Today we’re looking at relief pitcher Caleb Bushley.
advertise
In 2025, Caleb Boushley ended up in the unenviable role of the Rangers’ up-and-down long pitcher and general “guy we call when we need a body that can pitch multiple innings” pitching role.
Okay, I say unenviable, but before 2025, Bauschley appears to have amassed about 10 days of service time in his major league career (including six innings in three games the previous two seasons). He now has 143 days of service time, which is much more.
The Rangers purchased Bauschli’s contract on April 8 and optioned Gerson Garabito to make room for him on the active roster.
Incidentally, Garabito ultimately requested his release from the Rangers later in the 2025 season so that he could play for Samsung in the KBO. Boushri becomes a free agent after the 2025 season and will spend the 2026 season in the KBO, but playing for KT Wiz. I wish the team’s slogan was “No one can beat the Wizards!”
advertise
Boushley was selected to AAA Round Rock in late April. The Rangers recalled him five more times throughout the season and optioned him four more times. The last time the Rangers took him off the active roster, they designated him for assignment. He was claimed by the Tampa Bay Rays, but he did not play in the majors for the team. The Rays earmarked him for assignment after the World Series.
Boschley did not perform well during his time at Rangers. He pitched 43 innings in 25 games, and realistically, given the time he’s spent on the active roster, you’d expect him to pitch more often, however, the Rangers generally don’t use him unless there’s no one else available or the game is so uneven there’s no point in using anyone else.
Boschley had a 6.02 ERA in those 25 games. He had an ERA of at least 5 every month except May, when he had a 4.38 ERA. His ERA was 5.04 in the first half and 8.31 in the second half.
His home/road ERA really stands out, with a 3.31 home ERA and a 7.67 road ERA. If you’ve been following these articles and our discussion of the shed’s approach to hitting, you won’t be surprised to learn that Boushley isn’t a groundball pitcher in 2025. He allowed a .234/.300/.281 slash line at home with just 3 doubles and 0 home runs, while on the road he allowed a .345/.398/.558 slash line with 9 doubles and 5 home runs allowed.
advertise
There was a guy named Bob Ferguson who had a 14-year career in the 1800s. His nickname was “Death of the Flying Object”. This is probably what we should call the shed.
You may notice that I said last year that Boashley was not a ground ball pitcher. I didn’t say he was a fly ball pitcher. That’s because Boushley isn’t a fly ball pitcher in 2025 either. He’s a line drive pitcher. According to Statcast, 33.8% of the balls played against him were straight passes. That’s not good.
For what it’s worth, Fangraphs has a line drive rate of 25.9%. Last year, MLB had 402 pitchers throw at least 40 innings. Only nine of them had a higher line drive rate than Bauschley. Five of those nine had a line drive rate of 26.0% or 26.1%. The worst line drive percentage in the league at 27.6% comes from AJ Smith-Shawver.
Not surprisingly, despite having a great defense behind him, Boushley had a laughable BABIP — .374, to be exact, tied with Mark Leiter, Jr. for second-highest in baseball, behind only Mason Montgomery.
advertise
Boashley has a 5.94 xERA this year, consistent with his 6.02 ERA. not good. When you go to the BR page, it’s not surprising to see his -1.0 bWAR.
And yet… according to Fangraphs, Bauschli is better than replacement level. Not much better—his fWAR was 0.2—but still positive.
That’s because Fangraphs uses a FIP-based method to determine pitcher value, and Boushley put up a 3.85 FIP in 2025 along with a 3.95 xFIP. FIP is based on the assumption that pitchers have no control over what happens when a pitch is pitched that is not a home run, and is therefore calculated based on home runs, walks, HBP, and strikeouts. Whether a ball in a game is a hit or an out depends on the defense behind the pitcher and the overall randomness involved in a small sample size.
In most cases, this is good enough. But for some pitchers that doesn’t apply. Sometimes a pitcher gives up a high BABIP not because of randomness or defense, but because he gives up a rocket. These edge cases don’t affect the overall reliability of FIP because such pitchers won’t stick around long enough to skew the numbers.
advertise
That’s the case for Caleb Boushley, who will be paid to spend the 2026 season in South Korea.
Before:
Gerson Garabito
Tyler Mahler
Higashioka Kyle
Adolis Garcia
Luis Cubillo
Alejandro Osuna
Brian Cream
Jack Burger
Jacob Weber
Nick Ahmed
Jon Gray
Carl Edwards Jr.
Josh Jung
Lady Taveras
Dustin Harris
Mark Church
Luke Jackson
Danny Coon
Wyatt Langford
Dylan Moore
Michael Herman
Evan Carter
Cole Winn
Roddy Tellez
Dane Dunning
Marcus Semien
Billy McKinney
Jose Conil
Jonah Heim
Cody Freeman
Sam Hagerty
Jacob deGrom
Merrill Kelly