Chicago Cubs: Revisiting the Kyle Hendricks and Ryan Dempster deal

Chicago Cubs: Dempster experiment in Texas goes awry

The Rangers were in first place in the AL West by three games and were looking to bolster their rotation to make a playoff push. The plan was he would slide into a starting rotation that already featured Yu Darvish and Matt Harrison, who were putting strong seasons together.

The back-end of the rotation was becoming an issue for the Rangers. Derek Holland had a rough first half before eventually ending up on the disabled list and Scott Feldman wasn’t nearly as effective as they’d hoped. They brought in Roy Oswalt before acquiring Dempster, but Oswalt struggled mightily and they couldn’t rely on him down the stretch. For the Rangers, Dempster fit the bill perfectly.

However, Dempster’s performance dipped significantly. His ERA skyrocketed to 5.09 and his strikeout-to-walk ratio dropped from 3.07 with the Cubs to 2.80 with the Rangers. He gave up 10 home runs as a Ranger in his 12 games which were one more than he surrendered with the Cubs in 16 contests.

As for the Rangers, things didn’t work out the way they had hoped. They ended up not winning the AL West and losing to the Baltimore Orioles in the Wild Card game at home in Arlington. The deal certainly didn’t go in the Rangers’ favor as they gave up two prospects for 12 starts from Dempster while failing to make the playoffs.

To make matters worse for Texas, Dempster ended up walking away at the end of the season and signing with the Boston Red Sox. He played just one year with the Red Sox before retiring from baseball.