Rangers reunite with former 1st-round pick Luke Jackson to bolster bullpen

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- When Luke Jackson first stepped onto the Surprise Recreation Complex during Spring Training of 2011, he had purple Vans sneakers, hair down to his shoulders and no idea what was really going on.

¡°I was like, ¡®OK, this is the real world,¡¯¡± Jackson said with a laugh. ¡°Now I'm walking in and maybe I¡¯ll go buy a pair of purple Vans and redo this again. Now I'm 33 and have two kids. I can only imagine where I was when I was 18 years old, walking up here.¡±

Jackson represents the most recent of the bullpen reunions for the Rangers.

The Rangers announced on Monday that they signed the right-hander Jackson to a one-year deal. Texas had already added Chris Martin on a big league deal and Joe Barlow and Jesse Chavez on Minor League deals. All three were in the organization before now.

Jackson returns to his original club after he was selected by the Rangers in the first round of the 2010 Draft. He saw his first taste of big league action with Texas in 2015-16 before being traded to the Braves on Dec. 8, 2016.

¡°I¡¯m excited, it was top of my list to come back,¡± Jackson said. ¡°It was really cool to fly around the sun and come back again, which is kind of rare. This team, I think, is the reason I chose here, and another reason I really wanted to play here. I think it seems very good. I think the commitment to winning is pretty cool. Seeing all the guys that they went out and signed, it's a division where I think Texas is gonna make some noise.¡±

Jackson was a quality reliever for the Braves after the trade, posting a 3.93 ERA with 19 saves in 254 innings from 2017-21. His best season came in ¡®21, when he helped Atlanta win a World Series championship with a 1.98 ERA. He threw 3 2/3 shutout innings in the Fall Classic against the Astros that year.

Jackson didn¡¯t pitch at all during the 2022 season due to Tommy John surgery, before signing with the Giants for the following year. He posted a 2.97 ERA in 33 1/3 innings during his first year in San Francisco, but Jackson struggled to a 5.09 ERA the following season as he split the year between the Giants and Braves.

¡°I feel fantastic,¡± Jackson said. ¡°I feel great. I think, yeah, it's a big feeling. I think getting one real full offseason under your belt and throwing a lot and kind of learning what's the new normal now, I think you learn a lot about yourself and a lot about your mechanics. I'm pretty excited about this year.¡±

Jackson is the seventh addition to the Rangers¡¯ completely rebuilt bullpen after a number of losses in free agency. The others are Martin, Hoby Milner, Jacob Webb, Shawn Armstrong, Luis Curvelo and Robert Garcia.

Roles have yet to be defined in the bullpen, manager Bruce Bochy said at the start of camp, so Jackson jumps right into the thick of things in Surprise.

¡°I got to have a good conversation with [president of baseball operations Chris Young],¡± Jackson said. ¡°I talked to him before coming here, and I think that really meant a lot to me. I was excited that this was the final destination. I¡¯m super excited to just kind of see this bullpen work together. It should be an easy, easy clubhouse to join and I¡¯m excited about it.¡±

Bochy said he¡¯s right in the mix for the closer situation this year.

¡°I look forward to watching him,¡± Bochy said. ¡°I've seen him from the other side. He's got great stuff, spins it well, he's got a lot of swing and miss in there. He's going to make this club better. We don't have a defined closer, and we'll have better answers with that as we get deeper in the spring, but he's certainly in there. He has experience of closing. He's a high-leverage guy. When you're looking at the other team, you're looking at pockets and where you want guys, so he'll be in there somewhere.¡±