The Rangers announced a host of minor-league deals this afternoon. Catcher/outfielder Blake Swihart, southpaw Brian Flynn, and righties Tim Dillard and Arturo Reyes all received spring invites. Reliever Matt Bush inked a two-year minors deal that doesn’t promise participation in MLB camp.
Swihart, 27, has just not managed to turn the corner at the game’s highest level. But he remains an intriguing talent and could be an interesting potential final bench piece if he shows well in camp. The former top-100 prospect owns a .243/.301/.355 batting line in 696 career plate appearances at the game’s highest level.
It seems harder to imagine Flynn cracking the Rangers’ relief unit after another tough season. Through 187 2/3 frames in the big leagues, he carries a 4.41 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 4.4 BB/9, and a 42.4% groundball rate. The 29-year-old showed somewhat reduced velocity last year as well. But he has been able to keep the ball in the yard, which is something that couldn’t be said of quite a few fully established major leaguers in 2019.
Dillard, a former MLBTR contributor, will continue to function as a Triple-A pitching sage and bringer of merriment after a surprising return to the rotation in 2019. No small part of his role will be to help bring along players such as Reyes, a 27-year-old former Cardinals and Rays farmhand who has yet to crack the majors. Reyes owns a 4.96 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 330 career innings at Triple-A.
As for Bush, he’s going to miss a large portion of the coming season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in July. The Rangers obviously still see reason to hope that the 34-year-old can return to the form he showed in 2016-17, when he pitched to a 3.08 ERA over 114 innings.
Tim Dillard’s career lives on!
Hopefully Matt Bush’s doesn’t..
I know I’m just rooting for that guy.
MLBTR should have gotten Tim to post this… talk about a missed opportunity.
If they announced the Swihart signing yesterday, the Kluber acquisition would have been an afterthought.
Lol
How the signing of Future Hall of Famer Blake Swihart isn’t the top breaking story on ESPN is beyond me, do people just not know that the Rangers just picked up the next Pudge Rodriguez for peanuts?
They’d be better off with the peanuts.
So nice to see Swihart picked up, now the Sox can’t bring him back!
Whah’s the deal with Blake Swihart? I know he has been released recently by teams but I also know that some people are kinda obsessed with him and believe he has a ton of upside. I never heard of him before he got released. What’s his story and why so much love?
Many years ago the Red Sox overvalued Swihart as a prospect and the Boston Media deemed him a future hall of famer. This happens with many farm systems but because its Boston it gets more mileage.
Ever since then when his name crops up there appears to be a need to remind us all that Swihart didnt achieve his ceiling. The fact that thousands of other prospects also didnt make it does not appear to matter.
Personally, I hope Swihart finds his inner Ted Williams or even his inner Trot Nixon and he finally realises some of the goals that I am sure he set himself years ago.
Im rooting for him….I think we all give him much too hard a time. He seems like a decent guy who is fighting for an opportunity
It’s the Sox’s own fault that Swihart was a bust. We jerked him around for years trying to shoe horn him at positions he wasn’t good at or stashing him on the bench in Boston hoping he would just materialize into a legit contributor despite getting no playing time to work on his game.
Just a weird dynamic where they refused to play him because he wasn’t good enough to crack the everyday lineup, but refused to trade him because they were enamored with what they thought he could be. They refused to crap or get off the pot so his tenure with the team amounted to nothing.
I thought that may be the direction they were looking at when they traded Leon.
And they cant even spell Balakay correctly.
Is Refsnyder still out there? They could complete the heist of the offseason, nay, the century!
He signed with Texas 2 weeks ago Connorsoxfan.
HUGE if true!
The Swihart sweepstakes.
I’m actually excited about Swihart. I wanted Texas to deal for him when Boston was looking to deal him. Obviously he has some things to work through but this could be a solid pickup down the road for us. (I know, I’m being a tad over optimistic here)
Getting excited about Swihart is like getting excited the sun came up.
Hey man, let me enjoy the little things. Personally a fan of sunrise too.
Rule #32
Yeah DimTillard.
But will Dillard keep posting for us?
love that we got Swihart
personally, im happy for Bush. I think he is one of the most reformed individuals in modern sports.
I’m surprised there were no contract details about Swihart.
Bring in the Tim Dillard blog posts!!
I really miss Tim’s posts on this site!
All the Swihart bashing on here is sad. Dude had some tough private matters to deal with this year when the season just started. Happy to see him having another shot at an MLB career.
He did have some tough private stuff going on but that didn’t cause him being awful previous to all that. So many fans believed he was destined for the HoF before he caught a pitch…
So many fans = So many Red Sox fans
Blake lives to fight again!
Hey, jorge. What’s the story with Blake Swihart. I don’t know much about him other than he was released recently. A lot of people seem to believe in serious upside with him. Can you enlighten me? I’m definitely not debating anyone on his value or anything. I’m just claiming ignorance. I posted a comment about this higher up but I wanted to ask you because I know you’ll always give me a straight answer.
Says a lot about the Rangers’ catching situation when Swihart immediately jumps to the top of the depth chart in terms of hitting ability.
Swihart… I mean… anything is better than Mathis, I still hope we can get chirnos, but as is, it is Trevino and Swihart. Which Trevino is underrated, and he will be the starter next season unless otherwise.
Swihart is as much a catcher as he is an outfielder. Stating Swihart is better than Mathis shows you did not even bother to check his track record at all. I hope he turns it around but his stint in Arizona was horrible. -0.9 bWAR in just 31 games and 70 PA. Let that grab your mind for a minute.
Swihart’s wRC+ this year was 32. Mathis’ wRC+ was 2. Yes, two. Swihart was one of the worst hitters in the league over his small sample and was still 16 times better than Mathis on offense. Over 99 PA on the year, Swihart was worth -0.5 fWAR, while Mathis was worth -2.1 fWAR over 244, meaning that when scaled to the same number of plate appearances, Swihart would still somehow be more valuable than Mathis according to fWAR had their playing times been equal. Even if they were the exact same player last year, I’d rather play the 27-year-old who could maybe unlock another gear (incredibly unlikely, but not impossible) over the 36-year-old who has no other gears to unlock and would be better off retiring or becoming a catching instructor.
Swihart is as much a catcher as he is an outfielder. There is actually no need to point that out. Mike Hazen, who knew Swihart from his Red Sox time, did not even employ Swihart as a catcher. You cannot reasonably argument that in 2020 he will be somewhere around average or not far below, let alone catch at all. He had an ankle injury, maybe those ankles cannot support the catcher workload. There is no reason to assume he will be better than Mathis.
Mathis has never been signed for his offensive pop but his value lies in his defensive capabilities and those were positive in 2019. If you expect him to hit above the Uecker line I could have said you before his signing in 2018 that it would not happen.
Lot of former high rank prospects who’s careers could never take off
shame about the injuries for Swihart. really threw his career off track.
i remember the Red Sox fans not wanting to give him up for Cole Hamels of the phillies… How funny
There’s truth to the assertion that the Sox mishandled Swihart, and his life off the field seems to be a series of unfortunate events. He switch hits, goes wherever you tell him (C, IF, OF), and remains fairly athletic. Could actually be the perfect 26th man.
Where’s Balake at?
back in 2015 when the phillies were shopping hamels, they asked for trade package from boston centering around mookie betts OR blake swihart. should’ve pulled the plug on the swihart option.
Love the move for Swihart. He’s always had potential. Worst case scenario is he gives us a good season in AAA. Best case, a catcher who is better than Jeff Mathis.