8:45pm: Beltre has a Grade 1 strain and could miss two to three weeks of action, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (on Twitter). Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets that Beltre conceded that he may need to be more open to spending time as the designated hitter.
5:19pm: The Rangers announced today that third baseman Adrian Beltre is headed back to the disabled list with a strained left hamstring. His placement on the DL is retroactive to Monday, and he’ll be replaced on the roster by infielder Hanser Alberto, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Round Rock. Texas now has a full 40-man roster.
[Related: Texas Rangers depth chart]
This marks the second DL trip of the season due to a left hamstring strain for Beltre, who was only activated from his original DL placement a month ago. He’s eligible to be activated from the disabled list on May 24, though it’s not yet clear if he’ll be able to return in the minimum 10-day allotment. The future Hall of Famer is hitting .314/.375/.422 with a homer and eight doubles on the season and was 5-for-15 in the five games he managed to play between DL stints.
With Beltre out of commission for at least another nine days, the Rangers can turn to the newly recalled Alberto and rookie Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the hot corner, where the latter already appeared on seven occasions this season. Renato Nunez absorbed some playing time in Beltre’s last absence, but he’s since been claimed off waivers and outrighted to Triple-A by the Orioles.
As for Alberto, he’ll be making his first big league appearance since 2016 when he steps onto the field for the Rangers. The 25-year-old missed all of last season due to shoulder issues and was non-tendered this winter but re-signed on a minor league pact. He hit .281/.308/.383 in 135 plate appearances for Round Rock before being called upon and is a career .194/.204/.226 hitter in a fairly small sample of 162 plate appearances — all of which came at ages 22 and 23.
So he was activated from his original DL stint a month ago but only went 5-15? Not many at bats in a month then. Pretty good hitter to be relegated to the bench….
he was relegated to the DL a month ago, just came off the DL a week ago..
Why are we not calling up Calhoun?
#FreeWillie