The Rangers are going to select the contract of first baseman Jared Walsh, with Jeff Wilson of Rangers Today among those to relay the news. Walsh was in camp on a minor league deal but will be added to the roster prior to Opening Day. Wilson adds that the club outrighted infielder José Barrero, creating an opening on the 40-man roster. They will still need two more roster spots for Wyatt Langford and José Ureña but could perhaps accomplish that by moving Tyler Mahle and Max Scherzer to the 60-day injured list.
Walsh, 30, seems like he will be the club’s regular first baseman for a while. Nathaniel Lowe suffered an oblique strain a couple of weeks ago, forcing the Rangers to pivot to backup plans. Walsh hit three home runs this spring and walked at a 14% clip. He also struck out in a third of his plate appearances but produced a solid batting line of .250/.368/.458.
If he can carry that over into the regular season, it will make for a feel-good comeback story. He hit .280/.338/.531 for the Angels over the 2020 and 2021 seasons, leading to a 130 wRC+ seemingly establishing himself as a mainstay of that club in the process.
But the last two years have been a struggle. He hit just .215/.269/.374 in 2022 and ultimately required surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome. Last year, he had to deal with neurological issues, including insomnia and headaches, while hitting just .125/.216/.279. The Angels outrighted him off the roster at the end of the year and Walsh secured a minor league deal with the Rangers.
If Walsh can overcome those two rough years and get back to the form he showed prior to that, it would be a nice find for the Rangers. It might lead to a bit of a squeeze when Lowe gets back but that would be a good problem for the Rangers to have. Walsh doesn’t have roster flexibility since he’s out of options but he does have between three and four years of service time, meaning he could be retained beyond this season if he hangs onto a roster spot for the whole campaign.
Barrero, 26 next week, was just claimed off waivers from the Reds last month. He’s hit just .186/.242/.255 in his big league career thus far but has played both middle infield positions and center field. He’ll stick with the Rangers as non-roster depth.
Is Walsh going to be the next angel killer like Napoli? Glad he made it to the roster hopefully his health scare is behind him.
Good for Walshy, we wish him well, I hope he drives in many on his way to many 10-9 Ranger loses. 😉
Omg hes going to walk us off at least twice this year. He used to pitch to, so dont count him out of becoming Ohtani now that hes left.
Walsh, despite the strikeouts looked a lot better at the plate this spring than he did at anypoint last season. How long his stay with the Rangers is is going to be interesting
Did we fix him?
He had thoracic outlook syndrome. I believe he had surgery not sure if any players have came back from it. strasburg retired from it, and yes it’s more a pitching injury but Walsh was a two way player.
“Two way player”? In what way?
In his first season he was used primarily as a relief pitcher.
In the majors that year he played 24 games at first and pitched in five games. In the minors he played 58 games at first and pitched in 13. So on the season it was 82 games at first and 18 as a pitcher, so it’s not accurate to say he was used primarily as a relief pitcher but he was definitely a two-way player that year.
@socalball I was talking more about college, since t.o.s. Is from repetitive arm motion. Either way doesn’t matter it’s pretty much a career killer, and I hope he can turn it around.
I hadn’t ever looked at his college numbers. In his first year, 2013, he played 33 games in the field and pitched in 17, but that included 5 starts. He also played in the Cape Cod League that summer and was used exclusively as a pitcher, except for one game in the outfield. Between college and the Cape Cod League he pitched over 70 innings that year, I didn’t realize he’d pitched that much, and I assume he pitched a lot in high school, too.
Not nearly enough cases of the injury with hitters to call it “pretty much a career ender”
@noahpm zunino and Nola. I’m sure there’s more. really didn’t pay attention to it until recently. But anyway he’s on the pitcher side, was drafted as one that developed as a better hitter. It affects strength and overall the body with migraines that causes insomnia sounds like a b**ch. he removed a rib to elevate it, but sounds like it’s definitely a up hill battle. I feel like there’s was more cases just got diagnosed recently
I could see 250. 17-20 homers in 110-120 games 300. On base % solid for a league minimum.
Better at the plate than what Robbie Grossman did last year
Is there an opening on the roster for ABs?
He’ll platoon with Duran at 1B until Lowe comes back. After that he will either take AAA assignment or move on to the next team.
He’ll play first until Lowe returns. After that, who knows? The Rangers will give most of the DH reps to Langford, and Lowe never sits.
Good for him. The neurological issues he faced sounded horrific.
Long COVID sucked enough on its own, hard to imagine doing what he was able to do since the recovery isn’t linear and symptoms can be unpredictable. Glad to see him at least on the mental side seemingly in a state where he’s fully functional. That and TOS together must’ve been totally debilitating.
He’s also outrageously smart and cool. Consistently one of the best interviews and dudes on the team.
All the best luck to him! Hope he stays healthy.
Can the Red Sox just “select” Wyatt Langford from the Rangers ?
Wouldn’t be shocked if he’s better than Lowe. That dude was killing me at the end of last season for fantasy.
Yes. Another good add by CY.