FINAL DEAL: A five-year, $156 million contract involving a right-handed pitcher has been formally traded by the Philadelphia Phillies to the Texas Rangers. The Phillies will receive the first and third picks in 2026 and 2028 in return. Next…..

Texas Rangers complete deal for the Sensational Right hand pitcher after which he will be replacing the departed ace

Rangers have announced the signing of Brazilian full-back Jefte on a four-year deal.

The 20-year-old moves to Ibrox from Fluminense in his homeland following a loan stint with Cypriot champions APOEL.

Rangers manager Philippe Clement described the new arrival as an “exciting young defender”, saying: “He has already shown he is a player of great quality and potential.

“I am confident he can play a big part in our squad moving forward.”

Jefte, who scored three goals and provided four assists in 22 league outings for APOEL, said: “I am incredibly excited to join Rangers.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for me to take my career to the next level with such a historic and successful club.”

The Rangers are placing right-hander Jon Gray on the injured list due to a groin strain, manager Bruce Bochy announced Thursday, via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

The team is terming it a “mild” strain, but it’ll nevertheless be enough to sit Gray down for at least the next 15 days. In a corresponding move, Texas will select the contract of right-hander Jesus Tinoco from Triple-A Round Rock. Left-hander Cody Bradford is being transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to accommodate Tinoco’s addition. Bradford has already missed six weeks with a back strain and stress fracture in his ribs.

Gray joins an an entire rotation’s worth of starters on the injured list in Texas. The Rangers are also without Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Tyler Mahle, Nathan Eovaldi and the aforementioned Bradford at the moment. That’ll leave Texas with a rotation including Andrew Heaney, Dane Dunning, Michael Lorenzen, Jose Ureña and a yet-to-be-determined fifth option. (Tinoco is a reliever and won’t step onto the starting staff.) The top depth options on the 40-man roster include Jack Leiter and Owen White. While Leiter has thrived pitching in Triple-A, both of those once-vaunted prospects has struggled in the big leagues this season.

Subtracting Gray from the roster would be a notable blow even without that litany of other injuries. The former No. 3 overall draft pick is out to perhaps the best start of his career, pitching to a tiny 2.21 ERA through his first 57 frames of the season. Gray’s 23.7% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 44.4% ground-ball rate are all at or slightly better than the league average. His ERA is being helped out by a microscopic 3.3% homer-to-flyball rate that’s helped him average just 0.32 homers per nine frames this season. But even metrics that normalize home run rate (e.g. his 3.68 SIERA) suggest Gray has still been a decidedly above-average hurler thanks to that strong blend of whiffs, grounders and walks (or lack thereof).