The Rangers announced Wednesday that left-hander Kyle Bird has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Nashville. He was designated for assignment last week when Texas finalized its one-year deals with Todd Frazier and Robinson Chirinos. Bird will be in Major League camp as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training this year. Texas also confirmed its previously reported minor league agreement with veteran righty Juan Nicasio.
Bird, 27 in April, came to the Rangers by way of the Rays in the three-team trade that sent Jurickson Profar to Oakland a year ago. That he went unclaimed on waivers is of mild surprise, given that he’s a lefty with minor league options remaining, a strong upper-minors track record and plenty of spin on his heater and slider.
Bird did struggle this year in his big league debut, allowing 11 runs and a staggering five homers in 12 2/3 innings of relief work. However, he also pitched to a 2.86 ERA with a 39-to-15 K/BB ratio and just four homers allowed in 34 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball. Overall, he has a 3.09 ERA in 140 Double-A frames and a 2.17 mark in 95 2/3 innings in Triple-A. He’s no longer on Texas’ 40-man roster, but he’ll have a chance to work his way back into the big league picture in 2020.
Teams should be flocking to pick him up.
Flock of seagulls maybe
“I ran, I ran so far away” – 28 other teams
Lol
Glad he slipped through waivers
I wish I was Kyle Bird!!
Take flight and soar for your dreams
hopefully he can get more experience in the minors to improve on what he saw last year…
Kyle Bird’s aren’t real.
he’s a GSK – Government Surveillance Kyle
I’m surprised no one took a flyer.
Bird…flier…..I see what you tried to do there
I hate reading “however his numbers at triple A” because it’s irrelevant. Few and far between are the players whos numbers in minors translate into the majors especially guys who have been in the same level of the minors for a few years already.
Just a handful of players have skipped the minors in the last 50 years and i would wager that many of those ended up with a rehab assignment at some point. Minor league baseball is not irrelevant to their communities, the developing players, players on rehab, come back players, and real baseball fans.
Jetter said he felt overmatched when he first went to minors and Larry Walker told a story of not knowing how to tag up running the basses when he first went to the minors. They both ended up ok.
Go Cubs Go