Back to the Future: Rich Harden Signs with Oakland A's

For the second time this week, the Rangers saw a starter they counted on to lead their rotation in 2010 leave through free agency.  However, this one doesn't quite have the same emotion attached to it.

Rich Harden has agreed to return to the Oakland A's, and he will get a one-year, $1.5 million deal to compete for a spot in the bullpen, rather than their rotation.  It doesn't come as a shock to me that he would have interest in returning to Oakland, as that's the place he's had most of his success, even in a Rangers uniform.

Success as a Ranger was not a common experience for Harden.  He was brought in last off-season after Kevin Millwood was traded, and he was expected to be the Rangers #1 starter.  However, because of a slow start in Spring Training, the Opening Day start went to Scott Feldman instead.  The majority of Harden's starts consisted of him striking out a lot of hitters, not giving up many hits, but walking way too many batters and getting his pitch count maxed out by the fifth inning.  It was frustrating to watch him pitch, and you could tell his coaches and teammates felt the same way the fans did about him. 

In June, as Harden had become a pain in the butt to watch, ironicly landed on the DL with a glute strain.  The Rangers now had the luxury of not having to burn their bullpen out every fifth day when he started and immediately went about two weeks without losing a game. 

Harden tried to come back, and had one good start where he left with a no-hitter in tact after seven innings, but had to be pulled because of a high pitch count.  The rest of his outings were back to his frustrating form, before he hit the DL again later in the year, and was not counted on for meaningful innings for the rest of the season.  He was dropped from the roster as the Rangers went into the playoffs, and did not participate in any way in the Rangers success this post-season.

There's a good chance Harden can put it all back together and make himself a good pitcher again, especially with Oakland, but he will need to keep his walks down and injuries less frequent.  However, there will be no tears in my Dr. Pepper over him finding a new home for 2011.