The Rangers announced Friday that they’ve selected the contract of minor league first baseman Curtis Terry (as previously reported) and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by designating catcher John Hicks for assignment. Texas also reinstated catcher Jose Trevino from the 10-day injured list and, perhaps most notably, optioned struggling infielder Nick Solak to Triple-A Round Rock.
Hicks, 31, smacked four home runs in 10 games for the Rangers prior to his DFA but was squeezed out by Trevino’s return. He’s 8-for-31 on the season with those four dingers and has also posted a .275/.352/.440 slash in 122 Triple-A plate appearances.
Of course, Hicks has had numerous chances in the Majors prior to the 2021 season and has yet to establish himself as a consistent MLB presence. He made his big league debut with the Mariners back in 2015 and then saw action in parts of four straight seasons with a rebuilding Tigers club. He’s a career .236/.279/.401 hitter with a 32 percent caught-stealing rate but more questionable marks in the pitch framing and pitch blocking departments. Texas will have a week to trade him, place him on outright waivers or release him.
Solak, 26, opened the season as the primary second baseman in Arlington and got out to a blistering start. He carried an OPS north of .900 as far into the season as early May, but his production has been in a rapid tail spin since that time. Over his past 255 plate appearances, Solak is hitting just .190/.256/.273. It’s been nearly a month since he logged multiple hits in a game, and since that two-hit night back on June 29, he’s posted a .149/.216/.191 batting line.
Given those struggles, it’s plenty understandable that the Rangers feel it’s in his best interest to get something of a reset. It’s unlikely that this will impact Solak’s service time or general path to free agency. He entered the season with a year and 41 days of service time and would remain on track for free agency post-2025 so long as he accumulates a total of 131 days of service in 2021. He’s already at 113 days of service time this year, so unless he remains in the minors through season’s end, he’ll accumulate the necessary service to sustain that trajectory.
Hicks might just get a look from another team.
Yankees…Hicks > Brantly
Brantley= does not have to go through waivers to come off the 40. Hicks=minor league deal if you want him.
Solak though struggling is kind of A surprise.
Each year Solak has declined:
2019: .293/.393/.491
2020: .268/.326/.344
2021: .225/.295/.353
I know! I have him in my dynasty fantasy league and he’s gone from hero to near-zero in the last couple years. Hope they can fix him fast.
The Rangers have nothing to lose play Solak everyday through his ups and downs. At end of season then decide if he’s part of the future or not. I still think Rangers will spend big on Story.
I disagree. Solak needs a reset and work on his swing.
Finally! I love me some Solak, and that’s exactly why we needed to send him down. He’s been struggling mightly since June, and he just needs a big ole’ breather till… September? Maybe call him back up next season? Either way, he isn’t cutting it right now. Good move.
If he ever hits constantly like his Monthly card on Mlb The Show he will be back.
Gotta $ave that $ervice time on guy$ who might be good in the future!
The only way Solak’s service time would be pushed back would be if he doesn’t return before Sept. 17. It’s not a service-time move. He has a 48 wRC+ over his past 255 PAs and a 16 wRC+ since the end of June.
Why would someone deserve service time if they suck? And why does he deserve it more over another player in AAA? This is the same BS I hear about Frazier in NY.
Jon Daniels has not impressed and sending a part of your future down when he needs to figure it out at the major league level is asinine. He has two legit trade chips in Gibson and Gallo, so it’ll be interesting to see how badly he flubs it
Why trade Gallo is my question he’s still young enough to be part of the Future. Trade Garcia he’s older and probably get something for him
Have you looked at his numbers since beginning of June? They are worse than Odor. Odor is actually doing better than a lot of the team. Solak needed a reset and figure out some stuff. I’m not sold on him either but he will get another shot.
IMO let’s make a deal Gallo for Judge. Yankees don’t need both they are very similar hitters all or nothing. So what team says no and why.
What is Judge’s contract terms right now?
Rangers say no due to age, defensive ability, and injury concerns
Free agent after the next season.
Stop it
Judge has 1 year of arbitration left. Personally I’d trade Judge for Gallo and a prospect or two.
Not straight up…..like Gallo swinging from left side
Woody was not happy in his post-game presser Tuesday night. He said that some guys need to decide if they really want to be here. I guess we now know that Solak was one of the guys he was talking about.
yankee fan here who will always root for solak (have to say it like the aflac duck)
hit the reset button and come back strong nick
soLAC
Sad to see Hicks sent out. What’s a guy have to do to stay on this roster? Obviously his bat was helping.
Hicks and Garcia both earned major league jobs in spring training, but both started the season in the minors.
Pitch Framing is overrated. It’s the pitches he doesn’t get a chance to catch are the Ranger’s problems.
Yea why would anybody wanna make ump call a ball a strike. Totally worthless and overrated.
The problem lies with Woodward. He’s a joke. His lineups suck, can’t motivate players and shows no emotion. Fire his ass now!
The amount of players that regress under Woodward is telling. He’s been dealt a poor hand, but player after player underperforms. For that he should get the boot.
But the biggest reason for the Rangers situation is our horrific draft record. Kipp Fagg needs to be fired. Followed by Jon Daniels. Promote Chris Young & let him run the show for the foreseeable future.
It all starts with JD. Rangers are a clown organization, top to bottom, but JD has made it this way. He’s hired all of these idiots.
Ranger hitters don’t give quality at-bats. For the past decade, we’ve had one horrible hitting coach after another. Scott Coolbaugh never got enough of a chance here. He’s the guy that got Nelson Cruz’s career out of the ditch in the minors. He is now the hitting coach in Detroit, where fringe hitters are overperforming.
At least with Bannister here, he got these young guys to play with intensity and they were progressing and learning their positions.
I miss Bannister. He was fired for supposedly not communicating with players. I never really bought that. I don’t accept that this is a 100 loss team. Somebody needs to be held accountable.
The only rap I have on Woody is he doesn’t concentrate enough on fundamental baseball. With Solak gone, who on this team can bunt a runner along? Bunting is fundamental baseball.
Since the break, Adolis Garcia is 4 for 29 with zero extra base hits and zero RBI. He also needs a reset. He’s up there just swinging at everything. The league has figured out that you don’t have to throw him strikes.