The Rangers announced that they have designated first baseman Carlos Pena for assignment. That move, along with yesterday’s trade of Jason Frasor to the Royals, clears 40-man and 25-man roster spots for Geovany Soto and J.P. Arencibia — both of whom will be added to the big league roster.
The veteran Pena batted .136/.190/.237 in 63 plate appearances for Texas after having his contract selected from Triple-A Round Rock. The 36-year-old had signed a minor league deal with the Rangers, who have lost first basemen Prince Fielder and Mitch Moreland for the season due to injuries.
Soto will be activated from the 60-day disabled list and make his season debut for the Rangers sometime in the team’s upcoming three-game series against the Blue Jays. Arencibia, meanwhile, is a bit of an interesting story. The 28-year-old struggled tremendously with the Rangers earlier this season and was outrighted off the 40-man back in May after clearing waivers. However, he’s now picked up some experience at first base with Round Rock, and as Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports (on Twitter), that’s where the Rangers will use him this time around.
You can’t start Peña at first tonight. You’ll have to start Hatteberg.
Happy Trails, Carlos…
If JP doesn’t have the bat for a catcher he really doesn’t have the bat for a 1B.
Pena was batting .136. JP can be terrible and it will probably be a huge improvement.
JPA was batting .133….so….no.
Well JP already has more RBIs now than Pena had. He is already better even if he never gets another RBI.
Well JP already has more RBIs now than Pena had. He is already better even if he never gets another RBI.
Strike3bia , he of the .227 obp over 500 ab’s last year !
You can smell the desperation in the air. What looked like a dynasty just 3 short years ago has turned into a full blown train wreck. And don’t put all the blame on the injuries – there’s plenty of former Ranger talent excelling around the league to show you what the real problem is: poor trades and an inability to retain/re-sign talent. Rios will be gone next year since he is in the final year of his contract and Jon Daniels never re-signs pending free agents. Fielder, Darvish, Andrus, and Beltre are the only players worth any value in trades. I would love for them to stay but I don’t think they deserve to go through a brutal re-building process.
I agree with Ben-Dessa, the only person they tried to retain/re-sign was Cliff Lee. They made him a monster deal, he chose Philly. Everybody else they let walk. I think it was 50 players used before the all star break (MLB record) and back in June there were already over 1700 days (this included the days for the entire year for the guys out for the season) on the DL. Over the last 5 or 10 years (can’t find where I read this) the previous most was by San Diego and was 1200. This year is an aberration, not a trend. There is only one starting pitcher that was penciled in still pitching and only 10 guys playing right now that were on the opening day roster, 10! I think we will be in the mix for it next year but we will need to get 2 starters to go along with Darvish and Holland. Use a young guy for the 5th spot. I see us a potential wildcard team next year.
Dream on this team is in the cellar and they will be no better than Houston for many years to come. They don’t have anything close to a bright future. They will do what they always do, trade away their up and coming stars for warn out free agent name players. This team should have and could have been one of the top teams for a long time. But they are too cheap to pay their good players. Nolan even saw the writing on the wall and left. Poor management never wins pennants or championships. Hello Jerry Jones.
The merry go round at first continues…
Rios has a club option. If he isn’t traded, he will be kept. Since these bad trades have apparently created a train wreck, might I ask about all the moves that led to two WS appearances for what has long since been a bottom feeder of Major League Baseball? The same guy has been at the helm, so one of two things have occurred here. A) he was lucky or B) he is now unlucky. Which is it? Anytime things blow up it’s pretty easy to sit back and finger point. Injuries are a part of the game. What has happened this year is beyond the norm. When Carlos Pena being designated for assignment generates a post, that should speak for itself. Also it’s not about an inability to resign, it’s a lack of desire to keep said players around. Cruz was the big fish lost from last year via FA. And it wasn’t like teams lined up for his services. One bad season can also be a blip on the radar in the long run. If this occurs next season, you may be on to something.