2026-27 Club Options: AL West
In recent weeks, MLBTR has looked forward to next winter’s option classes. We’ll move now to the AL West, where the Athletics have the two most notable decisions.
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Athletics
- Jeff McNeil, 2B: $15.75MM club option (Mets responsible for $2MM buyout as part of December trade)
The A’s landed McNeil in what amounted to a salary dump trade for the Mets. The A’s needed a second baseman and pivoted to the former batting champion shortly after Ha-Seong Kim declined a four-year free agent offer. They picked up $10MM of McNeil’s $15.75MM salary for this season, with the Mets agreeing to cover the $2MM buyout on a matching club option if the A’s don’t bring him back in 2027.
It’ll probably be a one-year stop in Sacramento for the two-time All-Star. McNeil has a league average .276/.343/.362 batting line across 144 plate appearances. He’s following his usual high-contact approach but only has one home run and nine extra-base hits overall. He’s a league average hitter who plays decent but unexceptional defense at second base. McNeil is still a solid player, but he’s not going to command a near-$16MM salary for his age-35 season.
- Jeffrey Springs, LHP: $15MM club option ($750K buyout)
This one could be a trickier decision for GM David Forst and his front office. The A’s acquired Springs from Tampa Bay over the 2024-25 offseason, assuming the remaining two years and $21MM on his contract in the process. Springs was excellent when healthy with Tampa Bay but had barely pitched between 2023-24 on account of April ’23 Tommy John surgery.
The veteran southpaw has avoided the injured list over his year-plus in Sacramento. He hasn’t been as good as he was back in 2022 with the Rays. Springs has settled in as a mid-rotation arm, a control artist with league average strikeout stuff. He can miss bats with his secondary pitches, especially his changeup, but it’s a hittable fastball. He attacks the top of the strike zone with a 90-91 mph heater, an approach that gets a decent number of weak fly balls but also makes him susceptible to home runs.
That’s especially true at the hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park. Springs has a 4.93 ERA over 20 home starts compared to a 3.36 mark in 21 road appearances with the A’s. He’s certainly not their only pitcher to have a tougher time in Sacramento. The end result is a low-4.00s ERA that makes him a #4 caliber starter.
That has value, especially for an A’s team that could be at a disadvantage in pursuing free agent arms. If Springs stays healthy enough to make 30 starts with league average numbers, the A’s would probably bring him back on what amounts to a $14.25MM decision. They have some younger starters on the way (or in the case of J.T. Ginn, already performing at the big league level) but don’t have many proven innings sources behind Springs and Luis Severino.
Houston Astros
- Ryan Weiss, RHP: $5MM club option ($500K buyout)
Houston signed Weiss to a $2.6MM free agent deal over the winter. The 29-year-old righty hadn’t pitched in MLB but was coming off an excellent season and a half with the Hanwha Eagles in Korea. Weiss had turned in a 2.87 ERA over 30 starts while ranking fourth among KBO pitchers with 207 strikeouts last year.
The Astros brought him in to compete for a spot at the back of a wide open rotation. Weiss instead landed in long relief and has struggled to throw strikes, walking 15% of opponents en route to a near-8.00 ERA through his first 26 MLB innings. He has fanned 23% of batters faced and is averaging 95 mph on his fastball, but the walks and early home run issues led the Astros to option him to Triple-A last week. He worked 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball with three strikeouts in his first start for Sugar Land.
The $5MM option is affordable enough that Weiss could still get the front office’s attention if he dials in the command. This addition hasn’t started the way the Astros had hoped, though, and it’s likelier he’ll be bought out.
Isaac Paredes’ arbitration deal includes a $13.35MM club option for 2027. He’d be eligible for arbitration for a final time even if Houston declines the option.
Los Angeles Angels
- Robert Stephenson, RHP: $2.5MM club option (no buyout)
Stephenson’s three-year, $33MM contract has been almost a complete wash. The Angels bet on the righty’s monster second half of the 2023 season, adding what they hoped to be a late-inning weapon. Injuries have unfortunately wiped out essentially all of the last three years.
The former first-round pick blew out during Spring Training ’24 and underwent Tommy John surgery that April. He was unable to make his team debut until May 2025. Stephenson immediately went back down with biceps inflammation and was out into August. He came into Spring Training healthy but suffered yet another elbow ligament injury and underwent season-ending surgery last month.
Stephenson’s contract contained a stipulation that the Angels would get a $2.5MM club option for 2027 if he suffered a serious elbow injury. That’s in play now, but it seems likely the Halos will move on after he was only able to pitch 12 times in a three-year span.
Seattle Mariners
- Andrés Muñoz, RHP: $8MM club option (no buyout)
The Mariners have one of the easiest calls for a team to exercise on Muñoz. Seattle signed him to what became a bargain extension as he completed his rehab from early-career Tommy John surgery. The hard-throwing righty has gone on to consecutive All-Star appearances as one of the best closers in the game from 2024-25.
Muñoz has unexpectedly struggled through his first six weeks of the ’26 season. He has blown a couple save opportunities and allowed 11 runs (10 earned) across 17 innings. The strikeout and walk profile is as strong as ever, though, and only three pitchers with at least 10 frames — Mason Miller, Kyle Hurt and Dylan Lee — have a better swinging strike rate than Muñoz does. He should be just fine, and the M’s will have a $10MM option for 2028. The ’27 option has an $8MM base value that’ll climb to $9MM if he finishes 45 games this year.
- Victor Robles, RF: $9MM club option ($500K buyout)
Seattle signed Robles to a two-year, $9.75MM extension in August 2024. He’d only been on the roster for around two and a half months, as the Nationals had released the outfielder that June. Robles went on an absolute tear in his first few months with Seattle, hitting .328/.393/.467 while stealing 30 bags across 77 games.
The extension window has not gone as hoped. Robles injured his left shoulder making an exceptional catch at the wall in April 2025. He suffered a fracture and dislocation that wound up costing him four months (extended slightly by a seven-game suspension when he threw his bat at a Triple pitcher after a hit by pitch while on a rehab assignment).
Robles suffered another injury within the first two weeks of this season. A right pectoral strain has kept him on the IL for the past month. Robles is with Triple-A Tacoma on a rehab stint and should be back within the next week, but he’ll probably be in a fourth outfield role now that Luke Raley has broken out of a late-April funk. This is trending towards a buyout.
Bryce Miller’s arbitration deal contains a $6.075MM club option with a $15K buyout. He’d remain eligible for arbitration even if Seattle declines the option.
Texas Rangers
- Kyle Higashioka, C: $7MM mutual option ($1MM buyout)
The Rangers have built in a few mutual options, which essentially never get picked up by both parties. They just delay the payment of a portion of the guarantee in the form of an option buyout. Higashioka will collect a $1MM buyout to conclude his two-year, $13.5MM free agent contract signed over the 2024-25 offseason.
The veteran catcher played pretty well in the first year of the deal but is out to a .203/.271/.266 start in 20 games this season. The Rangers signed Danny Jansen to a similar two-year contract last offseason and will probably look for a cheaper catching partner for him in 2027. They should decline their end.
- Jakob Junis, RHP: $5MM mutual option ($1.25MM buyout)
Texas built their bullpen with a bunch of cheap one-year free agent pickups for a second straight offseason. It’s working well again, thanks in no small part to Junis. The 33-year-old has allowed just four runs through his first 19 innings, collecting five holds and three saves without giving up a lead.
The market rarely seems to buy into Junis’ slider-heavy approach. He sits in the 91-92 mph range on his fastball and has one of the lowest swinging strike rates (6.4%) in MLB. Junis nevertheless has made a career of outperforming modest expectations. He has topped 60 innings in four straight seasons and carries a 3.13 ERA over 238 2/3 innings going back to the start of 2023.
There’s only a $3.75MM difference between the option value and the buyout price. That’s similar to his respective $4.5MM and $2.75MM salaries of the past two seasons. There’s an argument that both sides should be happy with their end of the mutual option, but history suggests at least one will opt for the buyout. Junis’ camp might hold out hope he’ll follow the Phil Maton path and find a two-year deal, or the Rangers could cut him loose despite a seemingly reasonable salary — as they did with Jacob Webb in arbitration last winter.
- Joc Pederson, DH: $18.75MM mutual option
Texas will have an easy call to decline their end of Pederson’s mutual option. That’ll conclude his two-year, $37.5MM free agent signing. Pederson has rebounded slightly from a dismal first season in Texas but is still hitting at a below-average level this year. He has a .190/.296/.331 line over 424 plate appearances as a Ranger.
Rangers Notes: Eovaldi, Latz, Smith
The Rangers are sending Nathan Eovaldi for imaging after the veteran starter reported left side tightness, manager Skip Schumaker told reporters (including Kennedi Landry of MLB.com). Texas scratched Eovaldi from his scheduled start tonight in Arizona. Jakob Junis got the first couple innings of an impromptu bullpen game.
Schumaker’s bullpen should be well rested. The Rangers are coming off consecutive shutouts of what had been a hot Cubs lineup. They used three relievers after Jack Leiter on Saturday, but only Gavin Collyer tossed more than 13 pitches. Jacob Latz was their only reliever yesterday, tossing 20 pitches over two scoreless innings behind a masterful start from Jacob deGrom (seven scoreless with 10 strikeouts).
Although the pitching staff is well equipped to handle one missed start, it’d be tougher to weather an injured list stint if that proves necessary. Eovaldi has been one of the American League’s best pitchers over his time in Arlington. His 4.15 earned run average this year is higher than his ERA from any of his first three seasons, thanks mostly to a spike in his home run rate.
Eovaldi has had a trio of rough outings but has also reeled off four quality starts, including two excellent appearances against the Yankees each of his past two times out. He held New York to one run (an Aaron Judge homer) with 15 strikeouts in as many innings over those two starts. Texas won both games.
The Rangers have a below-average offense for the third straight season. Only the Giants and Mets have scored fewer runs entering play Monday. Texas has stayed close to .500 (19-21) thanks to a pitching staff that has the sixth-best ERA. Their bullpen deserves more of the credit for that than does the starting rotation, as their stitched together relief group has an MLB-low 2.80 mark. The top half of the rotation is Texas’ biggest on-paper strength, however.
Texas hasn’t made any changes to their rotation of deGrom, Eovaldi, Leiter, MacKenzie Gore and Kumar Rocker. Latz’s start in the second game of the season was the only one until tonight opened by someone other than the aforementioned quintet. deGrom is again pitching at a level that’ll have him in the Cy Young conversation if he stays healthy. The others all have an ERA north of 4.00, though all but Rocker are racking up strikeouts.
The rotation falls off sharply after the front five. Latz pitched well when called upon as a spot starter last season, but the Rangers could be hesitant to ask him to do that again. The lefty has seized the closer role after Texas opened the season with a committee approach. Latz has only allowed two runs across 20 2/3 innings on the year, recording the save in four of his last five times out.
Junis, Tyler Alexander and Cole Winn all recorded at least one save early in the season. Latz has gotten all the opportunities going back to April 13. He’s probably too valuable at the back of the bullpen to stretch back out as a starter, particularly if Eovaldi’s injury turns out to be mild.
Cal Quantrill has been working in long relief and could get a look. Jose Corniell, the only depth starter on the 40-man roster, had spent the last five weeks at the team’s Arizona complex and only made his first Triple-A appearance on Friday. Josh Stephan, who went unselected in last offseason’s Rule 5 draft and has no MLB experience, has been the organization’s best starter in Triple-A.
Schumaker also provided an update before Monday’s game on Josh Smith. The second baseman, who has been out for the past week with a glute strain, is also dealing with wrist inflammation (link via Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News). Schumaker said the team is hopeful he’ll only be shut down for a few days, but it all but ensures that Smith won’t be activated from the injured list when first eligible on Thursday.
A productive utility player from 2024-25, Smith was tabbed as the everyday second baseman after the Marcus Semien/Brandon Nimmo trade. He has started very slowly, hitting .217/.324/.239 without a home run through 108 plate appearances. His strikeout and walk profile is strong, but he’s not making any impact. Smith, who has traditionally played very well in April, has also posted subpar defensive grades this year.
Ezequiel Duran has taken over second base in Smith’s absence. He’s hitting too well to take out of the lineup, batting .286/.359/.451 over 32 games. Duran had previously been playing mostly left field due to the Wyatt Langford injury, so the Smith injury indirectly opened the most playing time for outfielder Alejandro Osuna. The 23-year-old has reached base 16 times in his first 37 plate appearances since being recalled from the minors on April 22.
Rangers Sign Diego Castillo To Minor League Contract
The Rangers have signed infielder Diego Castillo to a minor league contract, per an announcement from his now-former club in the Mexican League, los Algodoneros del Unión Laguna. Presumably, the MAS+ Agency client will head to Triple-A Round Rock, although the Rangers have not yet formally announced the deal.
Castillo, 28, has played briefly in parts of three major league seasons. He logged a career-high 283 plate appearances with the 2022 Pirates before taking one plate appearance with the 2023 D-backs and eight with the 2024 Twins. He’s a career .208/.257/.383 hitter with 11 homers in the big leagues.
Though he hasn’t had much big league experience, Castillo has been an on-base machine in the upper minors. He’s played in parts of five Triple-A seasons and sports a .279/.384/.401 batting line there. Castillo has more than 1200 innings at each of second base, third base and shortstop. He’s also logged 91 innings at first base, 536 innings in left field and 224 innings in right field, giving him plenty of defensive versatility.
Castillo had something of a down year in Triple-A last season, hitting .262/.342/.395 in 263 plate appearances between the top affiliates for the Mets and Royals. He followed that with an unproductive 19-game stint in the Venezuelan Winter League and didn’t catch on with an affiliated club.
A sensational stint in Mexico quickly drew some big league attention, however; he’s totaled 38 plate appearances and is slashing .559/.605/.853 with a pair of homers, four doubles and more walks (four) than strikeouts (two). The Mexican League is notoriously hitter-friendly, but Castillo’s production is virtually unmatched. Former big league outfielder Andrew Stevenson (.455/.581/1.000) is the only hitter (min. 40 plate appearances) with a better OPS there so far in 2026.
AL West Injury Notes: Imai, O’Hoppe, Montgomery
Astros right-hander Tatsuya Imai landed on the 15-day injured list on April 13 with what the team called right arm fatigue, but he is progressing well in his rehab. Imai is set to throw a bullpen session tomorrow and could begin a minor-league rehab assignment as early as Tuesday, manager Joe Espada told Chandler Rome of The Athletic and other media. [UPDATE: Imai will indeed start his rehab assignment Tuesday with Double-A Corpus Christi, as per MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart.] Although the exact nature of his arm fatigue isn’t clear, the team is surely hoping he’ll be back sooner rather than later.
Imai signed a three-year, $54MM deal with the club over the offseason, which fell below industry expectations for the former Japanese star. He has had a rough beginning, allowing seven earned runs and 11 unintentional walks in just 8 2/3 innings over three starts. That’s a very small sample, of course, and there is still plenty of time for Imai to establish himself as a big-league starter. For the Astros, the big picture concern is the fact that so many of their starting pitchers are injured right now. Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier are both out with Grade 2 right shoulder strains and won’t return for another 4-6 weeks. The struggling pitching staff, which has a 5.97 ERA overall, is the main reason the club is out to a 10-18 start in 2026.
A couple other injury notes from the AL West:
- Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe was removed from today’s game due to left wrist irritation, the team announced. O’Hoppe took a foul ball off his wrist and finished the inning after being visited by the trainer. Travis d’Arnaud took over behind the plate in the eighth. O’Hoppe is now in his third season as the club’s starting catcher, though he has not been a productive hitter since 2024, when he posted a 102 wRC+ in 522 plate appearances. He declined in 2025, posting a mere 72 wRC+, and has been about the same to start 2026. It is unclear whether O’Hoppe will miss any time. Given the wrist irritation is in his receiving hand, the club might opt to play it safe for the next few days to avoid compromising his defense. He and d’Arnaud are the only catchers on the 40-man roster, so any absence might motivate the team to scour the waiver wire for a depth option.
- Rangers left-hander Jordan Montgomery threw a bullpen session today and will have at least one more before progressing to face live hitters, according to Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News. Based on that, he seems to be on track in his recovery from March 2025. Montgomery signed a one-year, major-league deal with the Rangers in February, with the expectation that he would start the year on the 60-day injured list before returning later in the season. His last season as an effective starter was in 2023, when he was worth 4.2 fWAR in 32 starts between the Cardinals and the World-Series winning Rangers. Now 33 and coming off an extended absence, he won’t be expected to replicate that upon his return. In the best case for Montgomery, he could slot in as a back-end arm if Jacob deGrom or Nathan Eovaldi gets injured or one of Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter underperforms.
Photo courtesy of Joe Nicholson, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Acquire Willie MacIver, Designate Tyler Fitzgerald For Assignment
The Blue Jays announced that they have acquired catcher Willie MacIver from the Rangers and optioned him to Triple-A. The Rangers, who designated him for assignment yesterday, get cash considerations in return. To open a 40-man spot for MacIver, the Jays have designated Tyler Fitzgerald for assignment.
MacIver, 29, has a limited major league track record. With the Athletics in 2025, he got into 33 games but put up a meager .186/.252/.324 batting line in those. His minor league production has generally been better. During the 2024 and 2025 seasons, he put up a huge .323/.399/.534 line at Triple-A. That production came in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but was nonetheless good for a 123 wRC+, indicating he was 23% better than the average hitter in that league.
He got squeezed off the Athletics’ roster at the end of last year. The Rangers claimed him off waivers and sent him to Triple-A but he got out to a slow start this year, slashing .170/.333/.255 for Round Rock. The Rangers bumped him off their roster when making some pitching moves yesterday.
For the Jays, they are in need of some extra catching depth. They lost Alejandro Kirk to thumb surgery a couple of weeks ago. They’ve since been using the duo of Tyler Heineman and Brandon Valenzuela. The depth beyond those two was thin, with no other backstop on the 40-man. CJ Stubbs was the only other catcher in the system with major league experience. That experience was just one game with the Nationals last year. He’s also on the minor league injured list now, having not played in a couple of weeks.
The Jays will continue with the Heineman-Valenzuela pairing in the big leagues for now. Should an injury arise before Kirk comes back, then they can turn to MacIver. Valenzuela also has options and currently sports a .161/.188/.258 line in 32 big league plate appearances, so it’s possible they could swap in MacIver for Valenzuela at some point.
Fitzgerald, 28, was acquired in a similar DFA cash deal three weeks ago. The Jays had just lost Leo Jiménez since he was out of options and didn’t crack the Opening Day roster. He was flipped to the Marlins and then the Jays acquired Fitzgerald to replace some of that lost infield depth, with Fitzgerald getting optioned to the minors. A few days later, Addison Barger hit the IL and Fitzgerald was called up.
A few days after that, the Jays acquired Lenyn Sosa from the White Sox and bumped Fitzgerald back down to the minors. George Springer also hit the IL and the Jays have been using Sosa both on the infield and in the designated hitter spot.
It appears the Jays felt that catching depth was a greater need than infield depth at this point. Springer and Barger seem likely to return soon, well before Kirk will be back in the mix, so Sosa could be bumped down the depth chart in the coming weeks.
Fitzgerald can be in DFA limbo for as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Jays can take five days to field trade interest. It seems likely that Fitzgerald will garner interest from someone. He still has options and can play anywhere on the diamond except catcher, meaning a lot of teams could use him somewhere.
His offense is more of a question. He burst onto the scene with the Giants in 2024 by putting up a .280/.334/.497 line. There were some yellow flags there, as Fitzgerald struck out at a 31.7% clip and benefited from a .380 batting average on balls in play. The inevitable regression was a bit more extreme than expected, as Fitzgerald had a grisly .217/.278/.327 line in 2025. Around his transactions, he has an awful .094/.147/.125 line at Triple-A this year. Despite the offensive struggles, clubs will probably like the idea of stashing Fitzgerald in the minors and hoping for a bounceback, even if getting to his 2024 level would be a tall ask.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Rangers Select Peyton Gray, Designate Willie MacIver For Assignment
The Rangers announced that left-hander Robert Garcia has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 20th, with left shoulder inflammation. Right-hander Peyton Gray has been selected to take his place on the roster. To open a 40-man spot for Gray, catcher Willie MacIver has been designated for assignment.
Garcia’s last appearance was on April 16th, a game he departed due to shoulder soreness. He and the Rangers opted not to put him on the IL immediately. It appears that a week of rest hasn’t allowed him to fully heal up, so the team has now put him on the shelf. An IL placement can be backdated if a player hasn’t been playing but there’s a three-day maximum, so the Rangers could only backdate it to Monday.
His injury will allow Gray to crack a major league roster for the first time, which is a nice story. As laid out by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News in March, Gray spent time pitching in the minors and independent ball, in addition to winter ball stints in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Along the way, he worked for UPS, DoorDash and cut trees. He’s now going to the show just ahead of his 31st birthday, which will be in June.
Gray came into camp with the Rangers on a minor league deal. He turned some heads with a solid spring. He tossed 10 2/3 innings, allowing three earned runs via six hits and one walk while striking out 18. He has reported to Triple-A and has continued to put up good numbers. He has thrown 12 2/3 scoreless innings over seven appearances, allowing eight hits and two walks while striking out 15. Last year, he also gave the Rangers 61 Triple-A innings with a 3.84 earned run average, 25.8% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and 43.5% ground ball rate.
This year, he’s mostly a fastball/changeup guy. His fastball, which is averaging 92.9 miles per hour, has been thrown 48.8% of the time this year. His 83.2 mile-per-hour change has made up 40.7% of his offerings. He has also mixed in a cutter and a slider. He’ll see if that recipe works on major-league hitters whenever he makes his major league debut.
MacIver, 29, was claimed off waivers from the Athletics in November. He’s been in Triple-A this year and is off to a rough start, with a .170/.333/.255 line through 60 plate appearances. He’ll now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so Texas could take five days to explore trade interest, but they could also put him on waivers at any point before then.
His major league track record is limited and unimpressive. He got into 33 games for the A’s last year and hit .186/.252/.324 in those. He has shown the potential for more in the minors. Over 2024 and 2025, he slashed .323/.399/.534 in 604 Triple-A plate appearances. He is off to a much slower start this year but perhaps his track record enough to generate interest from other clubs. He still has options remaining and could be stashed in the minors as depth, as the Rangers were doing in recent weeks.
Since MacIver has less than three years of service time and doesn’t have a previous career outright, he would not have the right to elect free agency in the event he clears outright waivers. The Rangers might want that situation to come to pass since Danny Jansen and Kyle Higashioka are now the only two catchers on the 40-man roster.
Photo courtesy of Arianna Grainey, Imagn Images
Rangers Outright Marc Church
The Rangers announced Wednesday afternoon that they’ve outrighted reliever Marc Church to Triple-A Round Rock. He was designated for assignment last week when Texas called up Cal Quantrill and Gavin Collyer.
This is the first career outright for Church, who’ll stick in the organization without holding a spot on the 40-man roster. The Atlanta native was an 18th-round pick out of high school in the 2019 draft. Church received a $300K signing bonus that reflected a higher ceiling than his draft spot indicated. He developed into a reasonably promising bullpen prospect until injuries sidetracked him.
Church nabbed a 40-man spot following the 2023 season. He missed most of the following year with a rotator cuff strain. Church did get an MLB cameo in the final weekend of the ’24 campaign. He built that into an Opening Day bullpen spot a year ago but was optioned out after five appearances. Church spent much of the season on the minor league injured list for a second straight year. He battled elbow, oblique and lat issues before sustaining a teres major strain that bothered him this offseason.
Optioned back to Round Rock to open the ’26 season, Church has shown signs of rust. He has walked four batters and hit another over his first 4 2/3 innings. His stuff has still looked sharp, as he’s averaging 96 mph on his heater with an 86 mph slider. Church has also toyed with a changeup after rarely using it in previous seasons.
It’s moderately surprising that no other team was willing to take a flier on the stuff, though the league was evidently deterred by the recent health history. Church will try to iron out the command woes to put himself back on the radar in a Texas bullpen that again looks sharp despite being mostly patched together via modest free agent signings.
Rangers To Place Wyatt Langford On IL With Flexor Strain
The Rangers are going to place outfielder Wyatt Langford on the 10-day injured list with a flexor strain. The player himself told members of the media, including Kennedi Landry of MLB.com. It’s a grade 1 strain and Langford expects it will just be a minimal stint. Fellow outfielder Alejandro Osuna will be recalled as the corresponding move.
It’s a bit of an unusual injury situation. Flexor strains are common for pitchers but not so much for position players. It also appears that Langford didn’t hurt himself throwing but rather on a swing, as he told reporters last night, including Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports. It’s possible that Langford has been banged up for a decent chunk of the season so far. He also suffered a small quad strain a couple of weeks ago but didn’t land on the IL at that time.
He has a .238/.274/.363 batting line and 78 wRC+ through his first 84 plate appearances. That’s well below his normal production, as he hit .247/.335/.423 for a 115 wRC+ over the previous two campaigns. Though it’s not good that he now has this flexor strain to deal with, perhaps some time on the shelf will be the reset he needs to get healthy and back on track.
The Rangers have primarily had an outfield trio of Langford in left, Evan Carter in center and Brandon Nimmo in right. Sam Haggerty, Ezequiel Durán and Andrew McCutchen have chipped in on occasion. Those three and Osuna are now options to cover left field while Langford is out.
McCutchen is 39 years old and has mostly been a designated hitter in recent years. The last time he played more than eight games in the outfield was 2022. He has said that was the Pirates’ preference and not his own but is still seems unlikely the Rangers would throw him out there on a regular basis.
Duran has a strong .298/.353/.447 line so far this year and could perhaps step up for more regular work, especially with Haggerty hitting .154/.214/.154 on the season. Durán’s production is helped by a .371 batting average on balls in play but he’s also showing improvement elsewhere, as this year’s walk and strikeout rates would be career highs if he could maintain them.
Osuna made his big league debut last year and slashed .212/.313/.278 in 176 trips to the plate. He’s been better in the minors but is out to a slow-ish start this year. His .262/.355/.354 line translates to a 91 wRC+ in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He had a much more robust .292/.493/.417 line at that level last year, though in an equally small sample of 67 plate appearances. Osuna is a lefty, so perhaps the Rangers could do some platooning, as both Durán and McCutchen are righties.
Photo courtesy of Jim Cowsert, Imagn Images
Tyler Wade Granted Release By Rangers
Veteran infielder/outfielder Tyler Wade has been granted his release by the Rangers, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. He’d signed a minor league pact with Texas over the winter and opened the season with their Triple-A club in Round Rock. Wade is now free to sign with any team.
The 31-year-old Wade is a versatile but light-hitting utility player who posted a .212/.296/.245 batting line in 283 plate appearances with the Padres over the past two seasons and carries a career .216/.294/.284 batting line (65 wRC+) in 992 turns at the plate in the majors. He’s gotten out to a slow start this year with Round Rock, slashing just .226/.315/.242 in 16 games/73 plate appearances. He’s suited up at five different positions: shortstop, second base, third base, left field and center field.
Wade has drawn solid marks for his big league glovework at second base and third base but has garnered shakier ratings at shortstop and across the outfield. He’s an above-average runner but doesn’t get on base frequently enough to make great use of that speed. In parts of seven Triple-A seasons, Wade is a .279/.359/.399 hitter.
AL West Notes: Garcia, Angels, Wisdom
Robert Garcia came out of a relief appearance on Thursday with a sore throwing shoulder, and Rangers manager Skip Schumaker told reporters (including the Dallas Morning News’ Evan Grant) that Garcia underwent an MRI today to access the damage. The results of the testing isn’t yet known, but while Schumaker believes the situation isn’t too serious, Grant notes that Garcia is likely to need a few more days of rest and recovery even if the MRI comes back clean.
It has been an unusual start to the season for Garcia, who has a 3.38 ERA over eight innings despite recording more walks (seven) than strikeouts (six). Batted-ball luck has played a role, as Garcia has benefited from a .238 BABIP and a 52.4% grounder rate. Despite the shaky performance to date, the Rangers can hardly afford to lose Garcia to the injury bug, given how fellow relievers Chris Martin, Luis Curvelo, and Carter Baumler are already on the 15-day IL.
More from around the AL West…
- Angels manager Kurt Suzuki updated the media (including Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group) on the status of several injured pitchers today. Grayson Rodriguez and Ben Joyce are both expected to start facing hitters in a live batting-practice setting within the next few days, while Alek Manoah has been facing hitters at the Angels’ spring facility in Arizona. This trio began the season on the 15-day IL, as Rodriguez has been dealing with shoulder inflammation, Manoah with a finger contusion, and Joyce is in the final stages of his recovery from a May 2025 shoulder surgery. Kirby Yates also began the year on the 15-day IL due to left knee inflammation, but the reliever started a Triple-A rehab assignment on Friday. Yates told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger that the rehab assignment will consist of at least a few more games, as Yates is still working on building up his velocity and gaining some weight.
- Catching up on an IL placement from Friday, the Mariners sent Patrick Wisdom to the 10-day injured list (retroactive to April 15) due to a left oblique strain. Wisdom just had his minor league contract selected to the 26-man roster on Tuesday and he appeared in that day’s game as a pinch-hitter before getting hurt. The lone appearance marked Wisdom’s first MLB game since 2024, when the infielder was still a member of the Cubs.