Corey Seager Out At Least Four Weeks With Hamstring Strain
The Rangers announced that shortstop Corey Seager has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain. It’s a Grade 2 strain and comes with a minimum absence of four weeks, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. His roster spot goes to outfielder Leody Taveras, who has been activated from his own stint on the IL.
Seager, 29 this month, departed last night’s game in the fifth inning with some hamstring tightness. The news that he will now be out of action for a month or longer is certainly a blow to the Rangers, as Seager is one of the best players on the team. Signed to a 10-year, $325MM deal after the 2021 campaign, he played 151 games for the club last year and hit 33 home runs. His .245/.317/.455 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 117 and he provided solid shortstop defense, leading to a tally of 4.5 wins above replacement from FanGraphs. Seager was off to a scorching hot start here in 2023, hitting .359/.469/.538 through his first 11 games. He wasn’t going to be able to sustain that over a full season, but it’s nonetheless frustrating for him to be cut down in the middle of such a good stretch.
Seager will return later in the year, but the club will now have to try out some other options at shortstop in the meantime. Manager Bruce Bochy told Grant after last night’s game that the club isn’t thinking about moving Marcus Semien over, despite his lengthy experience at the position. He became a primary second baseman with the Blue Jays in 2021, in deference to Bo Bichette. He joined the Rangers in the same offseason as Seager and has stayed on the right side of the bag for the most part. It seems the Rangers would prefer he stay there.
That seems to leave Josh H. Smith and Ezequiel Durán as the top options for taking the job for the next little bit. Since Smith is a left-handed hitter and Durán a righty, it’s possible that they form a platoon. Smith is getting the start tonight as the Rangers face the Royals with right-hander Brad Keller on the mound. Smith has just 81 games of MLB experience thus far, walking in 11.6% of his trips to the plate but not finding many hits thus far. His .197/.318/.245 batting line amounts to a 72 wRC+. He’s fared much better in the minors, however, including hitting .290/.395/.466 in Triple-A last year. Durán has 65 games under his belt and a .233/.272/.354 batting line to show for it, leading to a wRC+ of 77. He hasn’t played shortstop in the big leagues yet but has plenty of experience there in the minors.
The one sliver of good news in this is that the club is getting Taveras back. He was slated to be the club’s everyday center fielder until he was shut down in Spring Training due to an oblique strain, but he’s now back after missing just two weeks of the regular season. He hit just .261/.309/.366 last year for a wRC+ of 93 but put up six Outs Above Average in center field. Adolis García has been getting most of the time in center so far this year with Bubba Thompson and Travis Jankowski also in the mix, while Durán and Smith helped out in left. With Taveras back in the middle, García and Robbie Grossman should be able to take the corners while Durán and Smith now move to the infield.
Rangers Select Sandy León, Place Mitch Garver On IL
The Rangers announced that they have selected the contract of catcher Sandy León. To make room on the active roster, fellow catcher Mitch Garver was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a mild left knee sprain. To open a spot on the 40-man, right-hander Spencer Howard was transferred to the 60-day injured list.
León, 34, has appeared in each of the past 11 major league seasons, suiting up for the Nationals, Red Sox, Marlins, Guardians and Twins. He is mostly viewed as a glove-first catcher, though he did have one tremendous season at the plate. With the Red Sox in 2016, he hit .310/.369/.476 for a wRC+ of 124. It seems fair to conclude there was some good fortune in there, as he had a .392 batting average on balls in play that season, compared to a career mark that’s now at .271. Even with that one stellar campaign, his career batting line is .210/.278/.314 for a wRC+ of 58. But on the other side of his game, he has racked up 34 Defensive Runs Saved and is considered a good pitch framer.
León will be taking the spot of Garver, 32, who lands on the shelf. It’s unclear how much time the club expects him to miss with this mild knee sprain, though he’ll now be ineligible to rejoin them for over a week. The slugging backstop has shown tremendous pop in his career, highlighted by a 31-homer campaign in 2019. However, injuries have hampered him significantly since then, going on the IL due to an intercostal strain, groin contusion, back tightness and forearm flexor muscle strain, with the latter issue ultimately requiring surgery. He was off to a hot start here in 2023, hitting a couple of home runs already while slashing .263/.364/.579 for a wRC+ of 160. Unfortunately, he’ll now have to put that on pause, with León stepping in to backup Jonah Heim. Getting back to health will be significant for both the club and Garver personally, as he’s slated to reach free agency at the end of this season.
As for Howard, he was placed on the 15-day IL on Opening Day due to a lat strain. It’s unclear how long he’ll be out of action, though he’s now ineligible to return until late May at the earliest. The 60 days are counted from his initial IL placement, not from today’s transfer. Though he was a highly-touted prospect during his time with the Phillies, he has a 7.09 career ERA through his first 111 2/3 innings. He was pushed way down the club’s depth chart when they remade their rotation this winter, acquiring Jake Odorizzi while signing Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney. Howard wasn’t going to be the most essential member of the staff, but he’s now the third depth starter on the 60-day IL, alongside Odorizzi and Glenn Otto. The rotation is still in good shape for now, with Martín Pérez and Jon Gray joined by those three offseason signees, but those guys have some notable injury histories of their own, meaning the weakened depth could be an issue down the road.
West Notes: Musgrove, Rodriguez, Phillips, Sborz
Padres manager Bob Melvin told reporters today (including Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune) that right-hander Joe Musgrove “tweaked” his shoulder in his most recent rehab start, and could have his next rehab start pushed back by a day or two as a consequence of this. Musgrove opened the season on the injured list due to a fractured toe he suffered during Spring Training. In Musgrove’s absence, the club has opted for a six-man rotation with Yu Darvish and Blake Snell being followed by Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, Nick Martinez, and Ryan Weathers.
An All Star in 2022, Musgrove has blossomed into a top of the rotation arm since being traded to the Padres ahead of the 2021 season. Over the past two campaigns, Musgrove has posted a 3.06 ERA with a 3.64 FIP while notching 387 strikeouts in 362 1/3 innings of work. Those numbers put him among the more durable starters in the game today in addition to his quality run prevention numbers and above-average strikeout rate. 2023 is the first year of Musgrove’s five-year, $100MM extension that he signed with the club last summer.
More from around MLB’s western divisions…
- Per Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com, Angels manager Phil Nevin told reporters today that right-hander Chris Rodriguez suffered a setback in his rehab from shoulder surgery. While Rodriguez is still throwing, but he is stepping away from facing live hitters as the Angels plan to take his rehab process slowly. Rodriguez hasn’t pitched since he made his major league debut in 2021, impressing with a 3.64 ERA and 3.14 FIP in 29 2/3 innings of work. When healthy, Rodriguez figures to be in the mix alongside Griffin Canning and Tucker Davidson for a swing role on the major league pitching staff.
- Dodgers manager Dave Roberts provided some clarity on the club’s preferred bullpen usage yesterday, telling reporters (including Jack Harris of the LA Times) that right-hander Evan Phillips is his preference to hand the ball to in the ninth inning if everyone’s available. That being said, Roberts stopped short of properly anointing Phillips the closer, leaving the door open for Phillips to be used in other roles in certain situations. Teams have moved away from having a designated closer in recent seasons, preferring to try and maximize performance by playing matchups, though given Phillips’s 1.41 ERA in 76 1/3 innings since joining the Dodgers in 2021, it’s no surprise he’s Roberts’s preference for save situations over other back-end options like Brusdar Graterol and Alex Vesia.
- The Rangers have announced that right-hander Josh Sborz has started a rehab assignment in Triple-A as he looks to return from a sprained ankle that sent him to the injured list to open the season. Sborz struggled badly in 2022 while dealing with elbow issues throughout the season, posting a 6.45 ERA in 22 1/3 innings of work, though his 32% strikeout rate did leave reason for optimism headed into the season. Once healthy, Sborz could factor into the Texas bullpen in a middle relief role currently held by the likes of Ian Kennedy and Taylor Hearn.
Jake Odorizzi To Miss 2023 Season Due To Shoulder Procedure
Rangers right-hander Jake Odorizzi underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his shoulder and will miss the entire 2023 season, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.
Needless to say, this is an awful development for both Odorizzi and the club. The Rangers went into the offseason looking to upgrade a rotation that posted a 4.63 ERA last year, which placed them 25th out of the 30 clubs in the league. They were also set to lose Martín Pérez, their most effective starter last year, to free agency. By the end of the offseason, they had re-signed Pérez, traded for Odorizzi and signed free agents Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney. Those five, along with incumbent Jon Gray, totally overhauled the rotation and allowed them to go into spring with six established big league starters.
Though that’s a strong group on paper, there were also injury concerns sprinkled throughout it, with Odorizzi being no exception. Though he made at least 28 starts in each season from 2014 to 2019, the last few years have seen a few health issues creep in. He only made four starts in 2020, going on the injured list due to an intercostal strain, chest contusion and right middle finger blister. In 2021, a right pronator muscle strain and right foot soreness each resulted in IL stints, limiting him to 104 2/3 innings. Last year, lower left leg discomfort kept him out of action about six weeks and he tallied just 106 1/3 innings.
Nonetheless, Odorizzi seemed like a solid pickup for the Rangers. Amid all those injuries, he still posted ERAs of 4.21 in 2021 and 4.40 last year. He also didn’t cost much, as Atlanta agreed to cover $10MM of his $12.5MM salary as part of the trade. The only piece the Rangers sent the other way was Kolby Allard, who had struggled to a 6.07 ERA in his big league career thus far.
Unfortunately, the Rangers will ultimately get nothing out of the deal, as Odorizzi will become a free agent after this lost season. He was slowed in camp by some arm fatigue and general manager Chris Young recently gave a vaguely ominous update that Odorizzi would likely be out “longer than shorter,” which was followed by the righty getting placed on the 60-day injured list for Opening Day. That ruled him out for the first couple of months of the season but this news now means he will miss his entire age-33 campaign.
Going into 2021, Odorizzi was signed by the Astros to a two-year, $23.5MM deal. That contract came with a $6.5MM player option for 2023 that had a $3.25MM buyout, though those two figures would jump to $12.5MM and $6.25MM if Odorizzi made 30 appearances over 2021 and 2022. He ended up making 46, easily pushing those numbers up. In August of last year, the Astros flipped Odorizzi to Atlanta for left-hander Will Smith. At season’s end, Odorizzi triggered that player option before getting flipped to Texas.
The Rangers still have that strong front five in deGrom, Eovaldi, Heaney, Pérez and Gray, but they will now proceed without their planned #6 starter. Right-hander Dane Dunning and left-hander Cole Ragans are probably the club’s top depth options now, though both are working in the big league bullpen in the early parts of this season.
AL West Notes: McCullers, Blackburn, Taveras
Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. is making progress in his rehab, with the Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome noting the right-hander is currently ahead of schedule. McCullers, who is currently rehabbing from an elbow strain, is throwing from 90 feet off flat ground and is on the verge of starting to throw on back-to-back days. Rome notes that it’s possible McCullers begins throwing off the mound sometime this month, providing a bit of clarity to McCullers’s timetable, which to this point has involved few details.
McCullers, 29, is entering the second season of his five-year, $85MM extension with the Astros this year. The right-hander has struggled badly with injuries in recent years, having pitched just 265 innings since the end of the 2018 season, and having made more than 22 starts just once in his career to this point, in 2021. When he has managed to pitch, however, McCullers has been excellent. He sports a career 3.48 ERA that drops to 3.16 when looking at his work following his 2019 Tommy John surgery. For his career, he’s posted a fantastic 55.1% groundball rate in addition to a solid 25.6% strikeout rate, though he has walked 9.8% of batters faced in his career, a figure that’s jumped to 11.1% over the last two seasons. Still, McCullers stands clearly as among the best starters in the game when healthy. Houston is currently using a rotation of Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia, Jose Urquidy, and top prospect Hunter Brown while McCullers is on the shelf.
More from around the AL West…
- Athletics righty Paul Blackburn told reporters, including Matt Kawahara of The San Francisco Chronicle, that his torn fingernail is fully healed and he’s scheduled to pitch for Low-A Stockton in a rehab assignment on Friday. From there, he’ll head to Triple-A Las Vegas and begin to build up stamina toward his 2023 season debut with the A’s, with the current plan being for him to build up to five innings before joining the big league club. An All Star for Oakland last season, Blackburn posted a 4.28 ERA (87 ERA+) in 111 1/3 innings of work last season, though his season line is pulled down by his 9.25 ERA in his final five starts of the season before he headed to the injured list with right middle finger inflammation that would eventually end his 2022 season.
- Per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, Rangers outfielder Leody Taveras took batting practice from the right side today as he works his way back from a low-grade oblique strain he suffered during Spring Training. According to Grant, Taveras could be headed toward a rehab assignment this weekend with the potential for a return to the Rangers as soon as next week. Given Taveras’s plus glove in center field, a quick return would be a huge boon to the club’s defense, allowing Adolis Garcia to shift to right field and Robbie Grossman to slide over to his natural position in left.
Rangers, Rafael Ortega Agree To Minor League Deal
The Rangers are in agreement with Rafael Ortega on a minor league contract, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (on Twitter). The deal allows him to opt out on April 29 if he’s not added to the roster, reports MLBTR’s Steve Adams (Twitter link). If Ortega secures a big league roster spot, he’d lock in a $1.5MM base salary, according to Adams.
Ortega has played for five teams over parts of six big league seasons dating back to 2012. Much of his early-career work came in a depth capacity. He logged a decent amount of action over the past two years with the Cubs, playing in 221 games. Ortega posted decent offensive numbers in that time, combining for a .265/.344/.408 line in 701 plate appearances.
Despite that solid showing, Chicago non-tendered him at the start of this past offseason. Ortega signed a minor league deal with the Yankees and spent the spring in their camp. The lefty-hitting outfielder had a bizarre .158/.327/.474 line over 38 exhibition at-bats. He struck out 12 times but drew ten walks and connected on three home runs. New York stuck with the out-of-options Estevan Florial and signed Franchy Cordero to take the outfield bench spots on the season-opening roster. Upon being informed this week that he wouldn’t make the team, Ortega triggered an opt-out clause and was granted his release.
It didn’t take long for the 31-year-old to find a new landing spot. Outfield is a significant question mark for Texas, particularly early in the season. Adolis García is assured of one spot. That’d ideally be in right field but he started in center field today. That’s due to a season-opening injured list stint for presumptive starting center fielder Leody Taveras, who sustained an oblique strain this spring. Robbie Grossman and utilityman Josh H. Smith got the nod in the corners flanking García.
With Taveras out, it’s easy to see the appeal for Ortega in signing on with Texas. The organization will have a little less than a month to evaluate both his performance at Triple-A Round Rock and Taveras’ health status before deciding whether to give him an MLB look. Ortega is out of minor league option years, so if he secures a 40-man roster spot at any point, Texas would have to keep him in the majors or designate him for assignment.
Rangers’ Ricky Vanasco Undergoes Knee Surgery
Rangers right-hander Ricky Vanasco recently injured his knee fielding a ground ball and had surgery to repair his meniscus, per Kennedi Landry of MLB.com. He is expected to be out of action for the next four to six weeks.
It’s surely a frustrating development for the 24-year-old, as he also had the 2020 season canceled by the pandemic and then missed all of 2021 recovering from Tommy John surgery. In spite of those setbacks, he was added to the club’s 40-man roster in November of 2021 to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. Baseball America has considered him one of the top 30 prospects in the system in three straight years starting in 2020.
He was able to return to the mound last year, making 23 starts between Class-A Advanced and Double-A. His 4.68 ERA wasn’t terribly special, but he did strike out 28.9% of batters faced. It’s likely that a 12.7% walk rate helped put some of those earned runs on his ledger, but that’s fairly understandable given his long layoff. Unfortunately, he’ll now have to face another layoff, missing at least a few weeks here to start 2023. Once he returns to health, he’ll look to get back in a good groove.
Rangers To Select Ian Kennedy, Travis Jankowski; Place Glenn Otto, Jake Odorizzi On 60-Day IL
The Rangers announced to reporters, including Kennedi Landry of MLB.com (Twitter links), that they are selecting right-hander Ian Kennedy and outfielder Travis Jankowski to their 40-man roster. In corresponding moves, right-handers Glenn Otto and Jake Odorizzi will be placed on the 60-day injured list.
Kennedy, 38, spent many years as an effective starter but has made the transition to relief work recently. He started the 2021 season on a minor league deal with the Rangers and eventually made 32 appearances with the club, posting a 2.51 ERA while striking out 27.8% of batters faced. He got flipped to the Phillies and saw his ERA tick up to 4.13 after the deal but it was still a solid enough season that the Diamondbacks gave him a deal for $4.75MM plus incentives. Unfortunately for both sides, that didn’t work out, as he posted a 5.36 ERA last year with a 19% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and 24.4% ground ball rate. He had to settle for a minor league deal this offseason but fared well in spring, registering a 2.25 ERA in eight innings, striking out eight opponents and walking three. He’ll give the Rangers an experienced hurler to add to their bullpen mix.
Jankowski, 32 in June, is a veteran outfielder who has appeared in each of the past eight major league seasons. He’s never really been much of a threat at the plate, as shown by his .236/.319/.310 career batting line. That amounts to a wRC+ of 77, indicating he’s been 23% below league average. However, he provides value on the basepaths and in the field. He’s stolen 72 bases in his 470 career games. His work in the outfield has been graded as worth +21 Outs Above Average, +16 Defensive Runs Saved and he has a mark of 11.0 from Ultimate Zone Rating. Leody Taveras was slated to be the club’s regular center fielder between Adolis García and Robbie Grossman but Taveras recently suffered an oblique strain. The club has some younger outfielders on the roster like Bubba Thompson and Ezequiel Durán but adding Jankowski will give them an experienced glove-first option.
The news on Otto isn’t terribly shocking, as it was recently reported he would be shut down for the next three weeks due to a lat injury and is still getting further testing. Even if that three-week shutdown period returned him to health, he would then need a few more weeks to ramp back up to game shape. As for Odorizzi, during that same update on Otto, general manager Chris Young gave the vague but ominous report that he’d be out “longer than shorter” due to arm fatigue. While no firmer diagnosis has been provided, it seems the club doesn’t expect him back in the next two months.
With Otto and Odorizzi both facing extended absences, starting depth will likely be an ongoing focus for the club. The rotation has plenty of talent in Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Andrew Heaney, Jon Gray and Martín Pérez, but there’s also plenty of injury history in that group. For the next couple of months, the club’s rotation depth is probably going to be topped by Cole Ragans and Dane Dunning, though both of those hurlers seem set to start the season in the big league bullpen.
Rangers Re-Sign Dominic Leone To Minor League Deal
The Rangers announced Wednesday that they’ve re-signed veteran reliever Dominic Leone to a minor league deal after his recent release. Texas also announced the signing of righty Robert Dugger to a minor league deal and optioned lefty John King to Triple-A Round Rock. Both Leone and Dugger have been assigned to Round Rock as well.
Leone, 31, is a veteran who has pitched in the past nine major league seasons. He has a career 3.69 ERA in 353 big league games. The past few years have been remarkably inconsistent, as he posted a bloated 8.38 ERA in the shortened 2020 season, but dropped that all the way to 1.51 in 2021. Last year, it evened out at a more reasonably 4.01 mark in 49 1/3 innings with the Giants. He struck out 23.4% of batters faced last year but also walked 10.8%.
That control has long been an issue for Leone, as he hasn’t posted a walk rate below 10% since 2018. Here in spring this year, he posted a 2.16 ERA over his eight appearances, but walked eight hitters and only struck out five. He wasn’t able to get himself a roster spot and the Rangers released him a few days ago, though they’ve evidently worked out a new pact to keep him around to get some work in Triple-A and serve as depth.
As for Dugger, 27, he has appeared in each of the past four seasons, suiting up for the Marlins, Mariners, Rays and Reds. He has a 7.17 ERA in his career over 27 games and 86 2/3 innings. Though his 6.19 ERA last year is roughly in line with his previous work, he did get an encouraging bump in the strikeout department. He had only punched out 14.4% of opponents in his first three seasons but got that up to 26.4% in 16 innings last year. Then again, he only struck out 18.4% of hitters in the minors, so that bump might be small sample noise.
It’s unclear whether the Rangers view Dugger as a starter or a reliever, but he’s done his share of both over the past few years. He can perhaps give the club a bit of depth in both areas of their roster. The starting rotation is already proceeding without Jake Odorizzi and Glenn Otto, as both are dealing with injuries, while the bullpen will be without Brett Martin for much of the season due to shoulder surgery.
Rangers Re-Sign Sandy Leon
3:35pm: The Rangers announced that they’ve re-signed Leon to a new minor league contract.
12:15pm: The Rangers are re-signing veteran catcher Sandy Leon, tweets Robert Murray of FanSided. He spent spring training in camp with Texas but was released over the weekend. He’ll return — presumably on a new minor league pact — after surveying the market for other opportunities.
The veteran Leon, 34, had a solid spring with Texas, slashing .250/.333/.406 with a homer and two doubles through 36 plate appearances. Texas is set behind the plate with Jonah Heim and Mitch Garver expected to split catching duties, but Leon will give the club plenty an experienced backstop whose abilities with the glove and working with young pitchers are both highly respected.
Leon split the 2022 season between the Guardians and Twins, posting a combined .169/.298/.211 batting line in a tiny sample of 86 plate appearances. Outside of a clear outlier season back in 2016, when he slashed .310/.369/.476 with the Red Sox, he’s been a glove-first backup option. Since that standout season with the bat, Leon is a .190/.260/.292 hitter in 1167 plate appearances. Despite that lack of offense, he’s regularly turned in above-average to plus framing grades with strong marks in Defensive Runs Saved — all while thwarting a respectable 25.4% of stolen base attempts against him.
Beyond Heim and Garver, Texas also has Sam Huff as an option in the upper minors. Leon will give them a veteran complement who can be called up to serve as a backup if needed, whereas the organization likely prefers to continue getting Huff regular reps to the extent possible.