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Rangers Activate Willie Calhoun, Brock Holt

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The Rangers have activated Willie Calhoun and Brock Holt from the injured list, the team announced. Wes Benjamin and Anderson Tejada have been optioned to the Rangers’ alternate site.

Calhoun will make his first appearance of the season as the Rangers’ designated hitter tonight. He’s looking for a breakout season after struggling to establish himself as an impact bat since his arrival in Texas via the Yu Darvish trade of 2017. The 26-year-old stumbled to more dramatic effect in 2020, slashing just .190/.231/.260 in 108 plate appearances. Holt, for his part, was off to a strong start through four games after making the team on a minor league contract. He’ll take back the role of utility infielder from Tejada.

Benjamin has thrown 5 2/3 innings this season, allowing 3 earned runs on four hits and six walks while striking out five. The 27-year-old Illinois native made his ML debut last season for the Rangers, tossing 22 1/3 innings of 4.84 ERA baseball.

Brock Holt To Make Rangers’ Opening Day Roster

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The Rangers have informed utilityman Brock Holt he’ll break camp with the team, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News was among those to report. He has been in camp as a non-roster invitee, so the club will need to officially select his contract to the 40-man roster. Holt had the ability to opt out of that deal if not added to the roster this week, Grant notes. Texas has an open 40-man spot after passing right-hander Joe Gatto through outright waivers yesterday.

Holt, 32, was a valuable utility piece for the Red Sox between 2013-19, even earning a trip to the All-Star game in 2015. He stumbled to a miserable .211/.283/.274 line between the Brewers and Nationals in 2020, though, forcing him to settle for a non-roster deal this winter. Between a productive few weeks in Spring Training and the Rangers’ uncertain third base situation (where Rougned Odor appears the favorite for playing time), Holt will get another opportunity in Arlington. By making the club, he’ll lock in a $1.75MM base salary.

Among the others who’ll be on the season-opening roster (via Grant and Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram): Dane Dunning, Taylor Hearn, Wes Benjamin and Jonah Heim. None of that group is particularly surprising. Hearn and Benjamin played important roles in last year’s bullpen, while Dunning and Heim were acquired in offseason trades. All four are already on Texas’ 40-man roster.

Fellow offseason acquisition Khris Davis won’t be ready for the start of the season. He suffered a Grade 2 strain of his left quadriceps and will be out three to four weeks, per Wilson. Presumably, he’ll start the year on the 10-day injured list.

Rangers Announce Several Roster Moves

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The Rangers have signed veteran catcher John Hicks to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invitation, per a club announcement. Outfielder Adolis Garcia, who was designated for assignment earlier this week, will also be invited to Major League camp after going unclaimed on outright waivers, according to the Rangers. Texas also confirmed its previously reported minor league deals with Korean lefty Hyeon-jong Yang and with infielder Brock Holt.

Hicks, 31, didn’t play in the big leagues last year, instead spending the 2020 season at the Diamondbacks’ alternate training site. He’s appeared in parts of five big league seasons between the Mariners and Tigers, logging a combined .235/.280/.391 batting line with 28 homers and 15 doubles in 871 plate appearances.

He’s never graded out as a particularly strong framer, but Hicks has an above-average 31 percent caught-stealing rate at the MLB level and will add some depth to a Rangers club that is presently lacking in that department. Jose Trevino currently projects as the starter, with Jonah Heim and non-roster veteran Drew Butera serving as backup candidates. Top prospect Sam Huff got his feet wet in the big leagues last year, but he skipped both Double-A and Triple-A, so he’s likely in line for additional minor league seasoning.

Yang, as noted in the linked post above, is a former KBO MVP who has long had his sights set on pitching in the Majors. His decision to do so this winter wasn’t particularly well-timed, given not only the economic climate in MLB but also the fact that he’s coming off one of the rougher seasons of a generally strong career in South Korea. Still, he’s made 29 starts or more in each of the past eight seasons and prior to 2020 carried a 3.35 ERA over a seven-year stretch. If nothing else, the fact that he threw 172 1/3 innings last year — nearly 100 more than any MLB pitcher — ought to be of benefit while the Rangers look to monitor the workloads of the rest of their staff.

Rangers, Brock Holt Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers are in agreement on a minor league contract with free-agent infielder/outfielder Brock Holt, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). The contract would pay the Lagardere Sports client $1.75MM if he makes the roster. He’ll be in Major League Spring Training.

Holt, 32, had a strong run with the 2018-19 with the Red Sox, hitting at a combined .286/.366/.407 while playing above-average defense at each of second base, third base and the outfield corners. Holt, who also has time at shortstop, still found something of a tepid market last winter and settled for a one-year deal with the Brewers. Things didn’t pan out in Milwaukee, however, as Holt hit just .100/.222/.100 before being cut loose. He bounced back after latching on with the Nationals, however, hitting at a .262/.314/.354 clip in 70 trips to the plate.

With the Rangers, Holt joins fellow non-roster invitee Charlie Culberson as a veteran bench option for manager Chris Woodward. With Isiah Kiner-Falefa now ticketed for everyday work at shortstop and Nick Solak likely getting the lion’s share of time at second base, Holt and Culberson will battle Rougned Odor for playing time at the hot corner as the Rangers organization awaits the eventual arrival of top prospect and former first-rounder Josh Jung.

Nationals Sign Brock Holt

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The Nationals have agreed to terms with free-agent infielder Brock Holt, according to Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. Holt had been designated and released by the Brewers earlier this week. The Nats will have to make a corresponding move to clear a spot for Holt on the roster.

Holt, formerly of the Red Sox, will join the Nats as an option to play virtually anywhere on the diamond. He’s in line to serve as depth primarily at third base and in the corner outfield.

As MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted on Thursday when Holt was released, he can be signed for a prorated version of the league minimum salary, which comes out to a hair under $100K. That made him a viable target for interested teams, despite an abysmal start to the season with Milwaukee.

After signing a one-year deal with the Brewers in the winter, Holt’s Milwaukee tenure was short-lived following a 3-for-30 stretch in his first 16 games.

Still, the 32-year-old Holt can point to a more passable .270/.340/.374 batting line during his seven years in Boston. As a depth option, he’ll offer another left-handed bat, a welcome balance to the right-handed Howie Kendrick and Josh Harrison.

Brewers Release Brock Holt

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The Brewers have released utilityman Brock Holt, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. He’d been designated for assignment over the weekend.

Holt, 32, established himself as a versatile jack of all trades in parts of seven seasons with the Red Sox — particularly in the two-year lead up to his first foray into free agency. In 662 plate appearances from 2018-19, Holt posted a combined .286/.366/.407 batting line with 10 homers, 32 doubles, four triples and eight steals. Along the way, he saw time at all four infield positions and in both outfield corners, with defensive metrics casting an especially favorable light on his work at second base — his primary position in Boston.

Despite a strong two-year platform, however, Holt was met with a rather tepid market in free agency. He lingered in limbo until signing a late, one-year deal with Milwaukee that promised him $3.25MM in the form of a $2.5MM salary and a $750K buyout on a $5MM option for the 2021 season.

Holt’s time in Milwaukee could scarcely have gone worse. He appeared in 16 games and took 36 plate appearances with only a .100/.222/.100 batting line to show for it (3-for-30 with four walks, a sacrifice and one hit-by-pitch). He was deployed only in the outfield corners and at third base during his brief stint as a Brewer.

Assuming he’s already cleared release waivers, Holt will now be a free agent who is eligible to sign with any club for the prorated league minimum — about $97K between now and season’s end. That sum would be subtracted from the $430K the Brewers still owe him (in addition to the aforementioned option buyout). While the Brewers clearly didn’t find a trade partner in the early stages of Holt’s DFA limbo period, he could certainly draw interest as a bench piece on a contending club now that he can be had for a relatively minimal sum.

Red Sox Notes: Xander, Bloom, Barnes, Holt

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A clause in Xander Bogaerts’ six-year, $120MM contract extension with the Red Sox will allow the shortstop to gain full no-trade protection once he reaches seven full years of service time.  With the 2020 season’s prorated service time calendar in mind, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal recently observed that Bogaerts will hit that seven-year threshold on September 6, leaving Rosenthal wondering whether the Sox could accelerate their rebuild by offering Bogaerts prior to the August 31 trade deadline.

Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom didn’t completely dismiss the concept of a Bogaerts trade during a recent appearance on WEEI’s Greg Hill Show (hat tip to WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford), though that was because, as Bloom noted, “philosophically, I would never want to come out and just unequivocally say somebody is untouchable.”  Even if Bogaerts isn’t officially “untouchable,” Bloom stressed that “Xander is a core player for us….I don’t think we’re doing our job if we’re not listening, but it doesn’t mean that it’s something we’re trying to do by any stretch.”

In regards to Bogaerts’ impending acquisition of no-trade rights, Bloom said “I don’t think something like that would change our approach here….I know that news has been out there but it’s not something that is at front of mind for us in terms of how we’re approaching the deadline.”

More from Fenway Park…

  • Matt Barnes could be a much likelier trade candidate for the Sox, as the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier reports that Barnes was a popular target for rival teams both at last year’s deadline and in the offseason.  The Red Sox weren’t ready to move Barnes in July 2019 but could be more open to the concept now; Boston has already dealt two relievers and seem to be going into at least a mini-rebuild or reload in advance of the 2021 campaign.  Barnes might now get some save chances with Brandon Workman gone, both because Barnes is the logical next man up as closer and perhaps due to the team’s desire to showcase Barnes prior to the deadline.
  • After the Brewers designated Brock Holt for assignment earlier today, speculation immediately arose among Boston fans that the longtime fan favorite could be a fit to return to the Sox roster.  Speier threw some cold water on that speculation, however, noting that adding a veteran like Holt would run counter to the the team’s desire to get a look at younger players who could be longer-term pieces.

Brewers Designate Brock Holt For Assignment

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The Milwaukee Brewers designated Brock Holt for assignment and selected Jace Peterson from their alternate site, the team announced.

The move comes as a bit of a surprise, given that Holt signed this past offseason and the Brewers have a club option for a second year. That said, the long-time Red Sox utility man had gotten off to a horrendous start. Through 36 plate appearances, Holt was hitting just .100/.222/.100 with 9 strikeouts and without an extra-base hit. The career .269/.338/.370 hitter obviously can do better, but in a shortened season, the Brewers clearly decide they did not have time to wait for a turnaround.

Holt signed for a $3.25MM guarantee after spending the past seven seasons with the Red Sox. The expectation was that Holt would fill in around the infield, but the Brewers aren’t short on other options – Peterson included – and Holt simply wasn’t hitting.

Peterson, 30, stands to replace Holt both on the roster and in his role. Capable of playing just about anywhere on the diamond, Peterson has bounced around, but appeared in the majors every season since 2014. The Brewers will be his fifth team, after the Padres, Braves, Orioles, and Yankees.

NL Central Notes: Cubs, Castellanos, Holt

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The Cubs were among the many teams experiencing delays in COVID-19 testing, as today’s results from this weekend’s batch of tests were late to arrive, writes Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times. The delay proved to be brief, and general manager Jed Hoyer told the media this afternoon that all of the team’s tests came back negative. That’s obviously good news for the organization, though they’ll need to continue with caution and Hoyer acknowledged that they’ll likely be faced with positive results at some point.

With that in mind, Hoyer understandably opted not to discuss the possibility of extensions for core players or any trade that might eventually be on the horizon (Twitter link via Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune). “At this point, our focus is on making sure this season is operating effectively,” Hoyer said. The Cubs have a number of potential extension candidates — Javier Baez and Kris Bryant among them — and could very arguably use some rotation help following Jose Quintana’s injury. There are obviously more pressing issues for the Cubs and other teams at the moment as they prioritize health-and-safety protocols in the buildup to this year’s shortened season.

More from the NL Central…

  • The designated hitter will be implemented in the National League for at least the 2020 season, but Reds slugger Nicholas Castellanos made clear this week that he hopes to remain in the outfield on a regular basis rather than serve a a primary DH (link via John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer). “I don’t want to DH,” Castellanos plainly stated. “…I like being in National League where I get to play defense every day. A goal of mine is to become a better and better defender every year that I play – every game that I play is probably a more appropriate answer.” Castellanos went on to note that he’d of course play wherever skipper David Bell asked him to on a given day, and he spoke optimistically about the Reds’ chances in 2020. At least occasional time at DH seems likely for Castellanos and others, though; the Reds have him, Jesse Winker, Nick Senzel, Shogo Akiyama, Aristides Aquino, Phil Ervin and Scott Schebler all in the mix for outfield reps.
  • Brewers infielder Brock Holt tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that like many other players, he’s not particularly comfortable playing in 2020. However, Holt also feels that given his contractual status — he’s on a one-year deal after facing a surprisingly tepid market in free agency this past winter — he has little choice but to suit up if he hopes to continue playing. “If I didn’t play, it would be hard for me to find a job next year,” says Holt, who is making the difficult decision to leave his pregnant wife and child in Texas for three months rather than bring them to Milwaukee. “…If I was in a different situation contractually, it’s definitely something I would have considered with my wife being pregnant.”

The Brewers’ Infield Picture

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Those following the Brewers at a distance may not have paid much attention to their tempered approach to the offseason. It’s easy to look at their winter and see a modest collection of stopgaps to stanch the roster bleed of departing vets like Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas. Look a littler closer, however, and you’ll find President of Baseball Ops and GM David Stearns created a two-year window of flexible and affordable contracts to keep Craig Counsell’s squad in contention, writes Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

With Christian Yelich and Josh Hader, the Brew Crew have some of the best high-end talent in the game, but they’ve done a nice job filling out the infield with one-and-one contracts for Brock Holt, Eric Sogard, Justin Smoak, and Jedd Gyorko. Along with trade acquisition Luis Urias, the Brewers found a grab bag of roster pieces to power their infield engine in a wide-open NL Central. Holdovers Keston Hiura and Orlando Arcia join the extensive group of infielders vying for playing time.

Though Arcia is still just 25-years-old and has notched some big performances for the Brewers in recent seasons, his grip on everyday at-bats is loosening. Urias’ injury has provided Arcia with a last-ditch opportunity to prove his mettle. He certainly brings attitude and flair to the diamond, but two seasons of a .228/.277/.333 line dims the outlook on Arcia’s offensive potential for sure. Still, of the newcomers in the clubhouse, only Urias really threatens Arcia’s everyday status at short.

Of all rostered Brewers not named Yelich, Hiura has the highest ceiling. Thus, the onus lies largely (if unfairly) on his shoulders to make up the offensive production left behind by Grandal and Moustakas (who put up a combined 7 oWAR last season per baseball-reference). He put up a robust .303/.368/.570 line in just 84 games as a 22-year-old after being called up last season (139 wRC+). His power numbers have fluctuated throughout his professional career, but the hit tool has consistently played, and the Brewers are counting on Hiura to do some damage from the middle of their order.

The final piece of the infield puzzle for Counsell is long-time face-of-the-franchise Ryan Braun. Braun could see a majority of his time at first base with Avisail Garcia and Ben Gamel lining up with Yelich and Lorenzo Cain in the outfield. The exact formula for the rest of the lineup has no shortage of variables, but Counsell has proven himself an adept engineer. Importantly for Milwaukee, if any of the newly-acquired pieces fail to meld, they’ve maintained the flexibility, financially and structurally, to pivot.

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