The Rangers announced agreement with veteran outfielder Robbie Grossman on a one-year major league contract. The deal will reportedly guarantee him $2MM and can max out at $5MM via performance bonuses. Grossman is an Alliance Sports Management client.
To create a spot on the 40-man roster, Texas placed reliever Brett Martin on the 60-day injured list. He underwent shoulder surgery last month and the club announced he’ll miss “a majority” of the upcoming season.
Grossman, 33, joins the sixth team of his big league career. He’s played parts of ten MLB seasons, suiting up with the Astros, Twins, A’s, Tigers and Braves going back to 2013. A switch-hitter, Grossman has carved out an outfield role at various stops thanks in large part to his quality production from the right-handed batter’s box. For his career, he owns a .279/.377/.413 line with an excellent 13.1% walk rate and modest 19.6% strikeout percentage against left-handed pitching.
The former sixth-round draftee continued in his lefty-masher capacity last season. He hit .320/.436/.443 in 149 trips against southpaws. He paired that with just a .163/.253/.256 showing over 328 plate appearances versus right-handed pitching. That resulted in a modest .209/.310/.311 line over 120 games overall, with Grossman performing at a below-average level both before and following a midseason trade from Detroit to Atlanta.
That points to Grossman taking on more of a situational platoon role, though he’s not typically a liability against right-handed pitching. While he’s consistently better against lefties, he owns a career .232/.335/.363 line against righties that isn’t too far below league average. Grossman has never hit for much power and strikes out more often from the left side of the plate, though he’s typically adept at working deep counts and drawing plenty of walks no matter the pitcher’s handedness.
Defensively, Grossman is limited to the corner outfield. He’s logged more experience in left field but has an extensive body of work at both spots, with public metrics rating him as a roughly average gloveman. He’ll primarily factor into the left field mix in Arlington, with Adolis García penciled into everyday work in the other corner position. Left field is much more of a question mark, one Texas GM Chris Young has suggested on a number of occasions he was hoping to plug externally.
Rangers’ left fielders combined for a .186/.253/.255 line last season. They finished at the bottom of the league in all three rate stats, with their slugging mark checking in nearly .080 points below that of the 29th-ranked Mariners. Grossman isn’t a huge power threat but should help the club rebound from an on-base perspective, particularly if manager Bruce Bochy deploys him more frequently in friendly platoon situations.
Left-handed hitting utilityman Brad Miller is going into the second season of a $10MM free agent deal. He had an awful first year in Texas, hitting just .212/.270/.320 while missing half the team’s games due to a hip injury. Miller posted a much stronger .250/.344/.487 line against right-handed pitching between 2018-21, however. Texas figures to give him a chance to rebound in left field, with Grossman on hand to take some at-bats against lefty arms.
Speedster Bubba Thompson and former infield prospects Josh Smith and Ezequiel Durán could all play their way into left field reps as well. None of that group made much of an offensive impact last season. That’s also true of Grossman on the whole, though he’ll at least add a solid career track record to a hodgepodge of left field possibilities. It’s certainly possible Texas looks to augment the group with a more established veteran in a midseason trade — particularly if they’re in the playoff hunt by July — but they figure to mix and match out there in the season’s early going.
Tacking on Grossman’s modest salary brings Texas’ 2023 payroll commitments around $198MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. That’s well into franchise record territory already, with owner Ray Davis and the front office kicking off consecutive offseason spending sprees to try to vault back to competitiveness. They’re currently sitting on a six-year playoff drought, tied with Baltimore for the fourth-longest active streak in the American League. Grossman’s deal takes them around $221MM in luxury tax commitments. That’s $12MM shy of the $233MM base threshold, leaving a decent amount of space for midseason acquisitions even if they want to dodge any overage fees.
Signing Grossman looks likely to take the Rangers out of the mix for any of the remaining free agent corner outfielders. Jurickson Profar is the top player still unsigned and his market now looks as clouded as ever. Ben Gamel and Tyler Naquin are among lower-profile role-playing corner outfielders still looking for jobs.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported Grossman and the Rangers were in agreement. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported it was a one-year, $2MM guarantee with $3MM in additional incentives.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
So a guy going late to what could be a competitive rangers team
Usually a solid on base guy although last year wasn’t to great. Not a bad 4th outfielder.
Fine as DH but he definitely be a 4th OF option.
Grossman’s defense has been perfectly adequate the last four years.
I’m stunned???
I didn’t see “wow, RIP or WACHA, WACHA, WACHA”, as opening posts.
The operative word here is “adequate”
As a Braves fan, I was hoping for another trifecta in the outfield, we got Grossman instead, adequate.
I love it, but if you see him as a 4th outfielder, they really just have 1 first outfielder and then a boatload of 4th outfielders here. Tavares, Grossman, and Thompson are 3 who will get lots of playing time.
You forgot about Adolis García…..
He is the 1st outfielder here.
Ok!! Making sure..
Between 2020 and 2021 his OPS was around .800, he’s only one year removed from being a first choice platoon outfielder.
Yep. They got their man to replace Culberson and then some.
He definitely thrives more as a 4th OF. A’s and Twins made him a regular which didn’t work out as well as it could have.
That was fast….
Not a good player but he had some clutch hits (and HR) for ATL last season. Should get plenty of ABs w/ TEX.
It’s not Profar, but it might work.
This could be a good signing. He was bad last year but prior to his 2 year deal with Detroit, I wanted my ChiSox to sign him over Eaton after 2020.
Platoon bat at this stage, but useful against lefties.
He’s a switch hitter
Remember Posada? He was also a switch hitter with platoon stats. See his numbers here.
Yes, switch hitter, but always stronger against lefties and now bad against righties.
Basically gonna be in the same role as Kole Calhoun was last year I’d assume
Calhoun didn’t hit lefties, though. He better outperform that fool. At least platoon guys are above average at something.
Kole Calhoun is an exceptional fielder but a bottom of the order hitter. Grossman isn’t anything special in the OF but at one time, he got on base more.
Best day of my life! Well…maybe the 5th best day… wait… 6th…still great news!
Guess he doesn’t want to win this year?
No offense to Rangers fans, this just isn’t your year
Let’s be real here. They had a 77-85 Pythagorean record last year and then they went from some AA pitchers to Odorizzi, deGrom, Eovaldi, and Heaney. The bullpen has LecLerc and Hernandez a full year, and Jung plus a real left fielder, along with Garver at catcher, and no shift Seager will help. A real rotation means thr bullpen isn’t overworked, and their bp had plenty of guys fade down the stretch. Bochy will help the 15-35 record in 1 run games. Now, they can always choke like they did in 2012, when Josh Hamilton quit on the team the last 2 months and had a condition that caused him to swing at pitches 2 feet off the plate. It’s also possible they have a great team and choke like the 2021 Blue Jays. I still think 85 wins is a 30th percentile outcome and am thinking 87-88 is about right. Maybe, they miss the playoffs, but this is like the 2021 Giants assuming they will automatically just make the playoffs due to their prior season’s W-L. I’d take Texas over Toronto, but who knows? That’s why we play. Your comment does make me glad, though, that Toronto got screwed in 2021. They also have some playoff history with Texas.
Hi deGrom.
I read what you said and agree to a point.
However here’s how I view what you said
The starting rotation is certainly improved from last year. However I’d be willing to bet deGrom is going to be closer to human than all star going forward, not that he’s going to suck, but his best years are behind him. Heaney was a solid pickup, I had hoped my Jays would land him, but he’s gotta show what he did in LA wasn’t a fluke. Eavoldi??? Well ummm yea he’s pitched in MLB before lol, Odorizi is probably even scarier to project
They’ll certainly perform better (hypothetically) than last year, so the BP will improve.
But I don’t see the playoffs in your future, especially if Grossman is in LF daily. He can’t even hit his wife’s weight against RHP
Yes TO wanted him. But to fill in LF twice a week and PH against LHP.
I’d certainly take a real life bet on W/L record Tex vs T.O. nothing crazy. 20$
We’re both Homers (obviously) but I legitimately see the Jays taking 1st in the AL east. Texas is probably 3rd in the west at best.
Fair enough, but I have to add this: Their pitchers walked way too many and didn’t strikeout enough. The hitters were the opposite. Grossman may help a wee bit here. For pitching, though, deGrom has a career 5.30 K/BB ratio that’s second of all time to Chris Sale. Eovaldi had a 5+ ratio the last few years, and his 2021 was elite in context to average pitching in his ballparks. Heaney hasn’t been good most of his career, but who knows? Maybe, Greg Maddux and Mike being in Spring can help pitchers with pitching and defense. I’d say 1st is a possibility, but not a probability, for Toronto, as the Yankees lost Nintendo man and Gallo but got Rodon. I’d say 2nd or 3rd is possible, but 4th may be a low percentile outcome. I do appreciate nuanced criticism over this internet ranting by some troll who don’t intend to engage in serious conversation.
Likewise. Some people here are difficult to conversate with simply because they have no intention on civil discussions. Just troll or ignorance
Best of luck in Texas this year
Eovaldi last three years has actually been very solid, but that back is a concern. I think they made a mistake not getting a better OF, agreed
One thing about the Rangers: their 6 projected starting pitchers only covered 674 innings last season. Which is 46% of the total amount of innings needed. That Rangers bullpen will need to be up to the task of covering a lot of innings. Yeah, maybe not as many as last season, but that’s a huge task for a mediocre bullpen.
Tool. No pitching,like usual. Degrom arm hanging by a thread. Terrible franchise. Go taste yourself.
Well how about this Jaysfan.. The Yankees and the Astros are odds on favorites for the World Series this year!!
The bullpen will be up to the task. Since we focused on the starting rotation, the bullpen gets the starting rotation it replaced.
@David.
How often do the odds on favorites make it to the WS, nonetheless even win.
I’ll give you 5050 one of them makes it. Even them vs the field I’m probably minus expected value
I’ll hold firm on my Jays. Varsho could flop. Springer could be injured all year, Bo won’t feild well and regress, Bassit will tank, Vlad will get injured, Manoah is trash, Barrios will get cut and Kiermier will be the Jays MVP
“Not sure if” emoji + (confused.jpeg) image, add a palm face meme and I’m off to bed
I think the Rangers will make a wild card.
Yeah, I’m buying on the Rangers too.
Obviously, degrom is a huge question mark, but I think Eovaldi is underrated. The lineups pretty good too— they can always add a LF if they have to before the deadline.
One year removed from his career best year. Too early to discount his abilites. Doesn’t do anything great, but does everything well. If he doesn’t hit from the left side, will still be useful from the Right. As a Tigers fan, in ’21 he seemed to get the close calls. In ’22, it just seemed every close pitch went against him. He should bat near the top of the order as he looks for the walk every at bat and is not afraid to to work the count. As a fan, he grows on you. He does the little things that help a team win, and is capable of getting the big hit in the clutch. Nice signing.
Agreed!!!
I suppose this means the Rangers won’t be signing Profar. I’m sure they had an offer out.
Grossman is closing in on 1000 career hits. It’s seems like just yesterday that he was a prospect getting a late season call up in Houston. Amazing how quickly time goes by.
You’re not kidding, hiflew. It just hiflew by!
Did the author just remove a few posts calling him out about for calling Leody Taveras an elite outfielder (or something like that)? He also removed that part from us article after checking defensive metrics from 2022. Lol! I don’t care too much about this, but that’s just lame censorship. It’s a good article. I’d just expect someone to at least be less thin-skinned.
Nevermind. That was another article. There has been plenty of stuff like that, though. Still the best MLB site IMO
Take a breath between posts. Take a sip of water. You got this.
Don’t clown on deGrom. He’s a Rangers fan. This is a Rangers article. They have hope, they are better than last year and keep spending. 3/4 of the league wishes they were Rangers fans.
Regardless the outcome of the season
They have hope but you don’t see the playoffs in their foreseeable future? Doesn’t sound real hopeful!
$2M is peanuts (I guess if it gets to $5M he will have been very good). Thought the jays would sign him to face lefties as they currently don’t have a true 4th OF or 3 OF you want facing lefties regularly. Oh well…more ab for Merrifield I suppose
That escalated quickly.
Profar is last man standing in the OF race it seems. Rios is off the board now so Profar, Voit, Gurriel and Sano seem to be the best of whats left
Hand, Smith, and Britton are left, but they may not necessarily be the best value if their asking prices are what I would expect. Then again, Wacha and Moore got less than I expected die to spring training getting going already.
Unless Hand found something. Take it from a Jays fan, he’s not worth a bag of balls
Smith? He had it, not sure why he lost it.
Britton ?????? I’d certainly be willing to give him a chance. 75% of his former performance is 90% better than the rest of the league
Grossman at $ 2m guaranteed is not a bad signing, but Profar would have been the better bet on success. But obviously Profar demands so much money that no team signs him.
Gruß,
BSHH
They will play Grossman vs lefties and Brad Miller vs righties to form one decent left fielder
Grossman caught whatever was ailing the whole Tigers team last year. If you get his 2021 version you’ll be ecstatic, or even his 2020 version will be worth it. Good signing.
He is good enough to get a major league contract. No problem for me.
If it’s Grossman Miller instead of duran Thompson Smith I’m not going to be thrilled
With Bochy down there. I am definitely a Rangers Fan !
He’s a Bochy type – a grind-it-out gamer sort. This signing should work out.
As long as Miller is playing well and he’s just the PH LF a few times a week
If you’re expecting him to be your every day LF option, even during injury. Well… good luck
He’s going to be a useful player for here and there use. Bochy knows full well how to best use someone like that.
If he has to be an everyday guy, all signs will point to “oh oh”.
I’m a big fan of performance based contracts for these players. Far to many guys get overpaid and underperform (Ozuna), but on the flip side there are plenty of guys who sign very team friendly deals and get paid pennies…. I’m all for giving these guys an incentive to earn significantly more money much like sales jobs. Give them a base so the team feels they are invested and make the “commission” so lucrative that these guys are stupid motivated to hit their goals. Bet baseball dramatically improves in overall quality