The Rangers announced their signing of left-hander Andrew Heaney, making it official. To make room on their 40-man roster, they designated right-hander A.J. Alexy for assignment. Additionally, the club announced that they have re-signed catcher David Garcia, left-hander Lucas Jacobsen and right-hander Nick Snyder to minor league deals.
Alexy, 25 in April, was a Dodgers draftee who came to the Rangers via the Yu Darvish trade in 2017. He subsequently moved his way up the minor league ranks, but missed much of 2019 due to injury and didn’t pitch at all in 2020 due to the pandemic wiping out the minors that year. Regardless, the Rangers liked him enough to add him to their 40-man roster prior to the Rule 5 draft in late 2020.
He got back on track with a nice season in 2021, splitting his time between Double-A and Triple-A. Over 65 innings on the farm in 10 starts and six relief appearances, he had a 1.66 ERA, 29.8% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate. That was enough to get him a promotion to the big leagues late in the year. In 2022, Alexy made four MLB appearances but was torched for an ERA of 11.57. He tossed 96 innings in Triple-A but posted a 5.91 ERA with a 23.6% strikeout rate and 12.8% walk rate.
The Rangers have been aggressively upgrading their pitching staff this offseason, re-signing Martin Perez and trading for Jake Odorizzi before signing Jacob deGrom and Heaney. All those additions have pushed their other options down the depth chart and it seems that Alexy has been nudged out of their plans. It’s possible that he could garner interest from other clubs, as he’s still quite young and has shown flashes of quality in the past. He also still has an option remaining so he wouldn’t even require a spot on an active roster. The Rangers will have one week to work out a trade, place him on waivers or release him.
As for the three minor league signees, Garcia was selected to the club’s 40-man roster at the same time as Alexy but has yet to play at even the Triple-A level. Jacobsen has yet to crack a 40-man roster. Snyder has very brief MLB experience, tossing 4 2/3 innings over the past couple of seasons. He tossed 38 Triple-A innings in 2022 with a 4.97 ERA with a 30.9% strikeout rate but a 10.9% walk rate.
Yeah so about the Yu Darvish trade….
They kept him over the guy who was drafted in the rule 5 draft? This is odd. They had many expendable guys. If claimed, he represents the last piece of the failed Yu Darvish trade. It always seems like the Rangers overpay when they buy and get almost nothing when they sell. Gallo and Tex are the only guys whose trades helped them.
They had to cut Alexy to make the Heaney signing official. If they had of put Englert on the 40, they would have had to cut 2 players, so it wasn’t a case of one over the other.
Now you can argue that Brad Miller has no business being on the 40 or that Ricky Vanasco was expendable over Englert due to his injury history, but that’s about it. There really aren’t any other expendable parts, at the moment.
Orneleas and some others seemed bad.John “Homerun” King and Brett Martin also had little value due to terrible k/bb and hits rates. They automatically threw 0-2 pitches down the middle like they were trying to throw batting practice.
I would add Sborz to the King, Martin, Miller list, but he’d be 3rd or 4th. King and Martin should be the first to go. Guys like Orneleas, and Vanasco, are in the Rangers Top 30 prospects. They still might turn into something. I guess the same could be said for Alexy, though.
Minor got us Dustin Harris who is borderline top 100 right
Lynn got us Dunning who was top 100 at the time. And Weems who is intriguing.
Gibson got us Spencer Howard who is a big bag of flaming caca.
Spencer Howard needs to go to the pen and be a one-inning reliever. I think he could have a lot of value in that role.
If his fastball plays up to 99 or 100 mph instead of 94 or 95 as a starter, his complete lack of command within the strike zone won’t be as big an issue.
And he’d also only need to find one reliable off-speed pitch off that fastball, which shouldn’t be that difficult.
Bruh and Howard has nasty stuff too…no control/execution whatsoever though *sigh*
That’s why he needs to be sent to the pen post haste. You can get by on stuff alone for one inning. You can’t do it multiple times through a lineup.
@degrom I’ve been trying to think, off the top of my head, of some helpful trades other than the aforementioned… I think you’re right. The one that stings me the most currently is Clase. Ouch, hurts to even talk about it.
Getting Clase for Brett Nicholas was a steal to begin with
Ok so I got a couple maybe.
Dunning from Lynn
Heim from Andrus
Lowe from prospects
Go green:I think he was talking about pitchers. Which is why I posted that above my dude.
Go green:
But Heriberto is the 2nd coming of Manny I heard
Let’s not forget the Hamels trade. That turned out to be a great trade for the Rangers.
Hal, that was too long ago. Way different team and front office. But speaking of that trade. Diekman has quietly had a very underrated career.
Wrong Nick Snyder linked. He’s Nicklaus Snyder on Baseball Reference
Dane Dunning next or traded.
Dane Dunning is an established back-end starter at this point. You wouldn’t even consider DFA-ing him.
I hope they don’t trade him either. This club is going to need at least eight or nine starters to get through this season, with DeGrom, Heaney, Gray and Odorizzi in the Opening Day rotation.
I hope they keep Dunning. Not sure about Otto
Otto looked decent down the stretch. Time for Dunning to step up and go over 4 innings.
I’m hoping the Rangers sign Benny (LF) and Gallo (1B) moving Lowe to DH.
Or Gallo (1B/OF) and Profar (1B/OF).
Dunning threw over 150 innings last year. He got through six or more innings more often (11 times) than he failed to get through five (nine).
You are right. I mainly just remember September where he sucked.
Fare thee well, Big Sexy Alexy.