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Rangers Claim Jack Reinheimer; Outright Eddie Butler, Ronald Herrera

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Nov. 22: Butler has rejected his outright assignment and will instead enter free agency, according to Gerry Fraley of SportsDay. Acquired as part of the return for Cole Hamels, Butler’s departure leaves the Rangers with just two players from the Hamels trade still under team control.

Nov. 20: The Rangers announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed infielder Jack Reinheimer off waivers from the Cubs and also outrighted Eddie Butler and Ronald Herrera to Triple-A Nashville after the pair of righties cleared waivers.

Reinheimer, 26, has just 40 big league plate appearances under his belt, most of which came with the Mets in 2018. He’s batted just .143/.250/.143 in the Majors but can play all over the infield. He’s spent parts of three seasons in Triple-A, hitting .278/.343/.371 in 1376 PAs — rather timid production given the hitter-friendly nature of the Pacific Coast League. Reinheimer does have a minor league option remaining, so he can give Texas some infield depth next season.

Butler, 28 in March, was knocked around for a 5.62 ERA in 49 2/3 innings between the Cubs and Rangers in 2018. Texas acquired him as a secondary piece in the trade that sent Cole Hamels to Chicago, but the one-time premium prospect didn’t fare well in his limited time in the big leagues with the Rangers. Butler, the 46th overall pick by the Rockies in 2012, has a career 5.80 ERA in 263 2/3 innings.

Herrera, 23, was traded from the Yankees to the Rangers one year ago to the day in a move intended to create some roster flexibility in New York with the Nov. 20 deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft looming. He didn’t pitch in 2018, though, after experiencing shoulder troubles in Spring Training and ultimately requiring surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his right arm.

Players Added To The 40-Man Roster

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Tonight marks the deadline for players to be added to their respective organizations’ 40-man rosters. Over the nine hours, there’ll be a flurry of moves, ranging from minor trades (like the one the Indians and Rays made yesterday), waiver claims and players being designated for assignment or outrighted. Each will be made to clear room for players who need protection from this year’s Rule 5 Draft. As a reminder, players who signed at 18 years of age or younger and have five professional seasons are eligible, as are players who signed at 19 or older and have four professional seasons under their belts.

Here’s a rundown of players who’ve been added to their respective 40-man rosters (which will be updated throughout the day)…

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Rangers Sign Jeff Mathis

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NOVEMBER 20: The Rangers have announced the signing.

NOVEMBER 19: Mathis will receive a $6.25MM guarantee, per Rosenthal (via Twitter). He’ll get $3.25MM in 2019 and $3MM in 2020, Jon Heyman of Fancred adds on Twitter.

NOVEMBER 15: The Rangers have agreed to a contract (pending physical) with free agent catcher Jeff Mathis, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). It’s said to be a two-year deal for the veteran receiver, with financial details not yet known.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way up front: Mathis is already 35 years of age and he’s an exceedingly unproductive hitter. Of course, even when he was 25 the deficiencies with the bat were well known. Over his 14-year MLB career, Mathis has rarely wavered too far from the anemic .198/.258/.306 mean batting line he has produced through 2,694 trips to the plate.

For virtually any other player, that sort of accumulation of statistics would not even be possible, simply because the opportunity would dry up. Mathis, though, is a rare bird. Not only is he still at the top of the class in many of the measurable tools of the trade, but he’s also regarded as a game-management savant.

Mathis just wrapped up a two-year pact with the Diamondbacks that promised him $2MM annually. For their money, the Snakes got 129 total games and just under 1,000 total innings behind the plate (plus three at second base and one on the hill).

During his time in Arizona, Mathis carried a 48 OPS+ that sits just shy of his lifetime 52 OPS+ mark. He also turned in a masterful 2018 pitch-framing effort, scored better than anyone but Tucker Barnhart at smothering balls in the dirt, and graded as average in controlling the running game. With his famed pitcher-whispering abilities mixed in, it’s eminently arguable that Mathis is the game’s best defender behind the dish — which, in fact, was the assessment of Sports Info Solutions (Twitter link).

For the Rangers, this move comes after the club rather surprisingly chose to bid adieu to Robinson Chirinos. The club chose to pay him a $1MM buyout rather than picking up his option for $4.5MM, an outwardly reasonable sum for the 34-year-old. Chirinos has steadily produced league-average-or-better offensive numbers over recent years but is not valued nearly so much for his efforts behind the dish. In particular, Chirinos received quite poor grades for his throwing and framing in 2018.

While Chirinos is reputedly a valued clubhouse leader, he evidently did not impress the team quite as much in squeezing value from the pitching staff. That’ll be the chief duty of Mathis, who’ll presumably see a fair bit of action and take a leading role in guiding a still-largely-undetermined group of hurlers. He could be paired with (and teach the dark arts to) Jose Trevino, utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and/or minor-league signee Jett Bandy, though the Rangers could still add options to the mix.

Adrian Beltre Retires

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After a brilliant career that spanned parts of 21 seasons, Adrian Beltre announced today that he is retiring from baseball. Via a Rangers press release, Beltre has issued the following statement:

After careful consideration and many sleepless nights, I have made the decision to retire from what I’ve been doing my whole life, which is playing baseball, the game I love.

I have thought about it a lot and although I appreciate all the opportunities and everything that baseball has given me, it’s time to call it a career. I have enjoyed the privilege of playing professional baseball since I was 15 years old. I have been blessed to have played 21 seasons at the highest level in Major League Baseball.

I want to thank God, my amazing wife Sandra for your unwavering and unconditional love, support and understanding throughout my entire baseball career, my three awesome children, Cassie, A.J and Camila for being the best baseball kids, my parents, and my entire family for all your love and support.

I also want to thank my agents, Scott Boras, Mike Fiore and the entire Boras Corp. for always believing in my talent. A huge THANK YOU goes to the numerous teammates, managers, coaches, and staff members from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and especially the Texas Rangers. These past eight seasons playing in a Rangers’ uniform have been the best of my career and were made possible thanks to Rangers’ owners Ray Davis, Bob Simpson, and Neil Leibman, General Manager Jon Daniels, Nolan Ryan, and the late Don Welke.

I also owe a huge part of my success in Texas to the amazing Rangers’ fans. You guys are the best!

I also have to acknowledge and thank Tommy Lasorda for believing in this young kid from the Dominican Republic when others thought I was too young to be called up to the Big Leagues.

To all my fans in the Dominican Republic, the United States and Latin America, my sincerest THANK YOU for your continuous support throughout my career. While I will forever cherish the memories from my time playing the greatest game on earth, I am excited to become a fulltime husband and father, and I am ready to take on the next chapter of my life.

It’s been one hell of a ride!

Muchas gracias,

Adrian Beltre

The march to Cooperstown now begins in earnest for Beltre, one of the greatest third basemen to ever play the game. Signed by the Dodgers out of Santo Domingo in 1994, Beltre debuted in the Majors as a 19-year-old just four years later and never looked back. While his first season didn’t yield quality results, Beltre improved greatly in his age-20 campaign and cemented himself as a star in the years to follow. Beltre ultimately accrued more than 20 years of Major League service time, spending at least five years with each of the Dodgers, Mariners and Rangers (in addition to one year with the Red Sox in 2010).

Already a highly regarded player in the first half of his career, Beltre is the rare player who actually improved with his age. While most players begin to fade in their early to mid-30s, Beltre seemingly won a staredown with Father Time. Incredibly, he’d never made an All-Star team prior to his 31st birthday, but he was named to four Midsummer Classic rosters over the final nine seasons of his career. After hitting a combined .270/.325/.453 with superlative defense from 1998-2009, Beltre exploded to hit .307/.358/.514 from 2010-18. Along that remarkable 21-year journey, his glovework scarcely deteriorated, making him one of the best all-around players in the game for the better part of two decades.

Beltre will retire as a career .286/.339/.480 hitter, with 477 home runs, 636 doubles, 38 triples and 121 stolen bases on his resume. He totaled 3166 hits as a Major Leaguer, scored 1524 runs and knocked in another 1707 runs. In addition to his four All-Star nods — which, in retrospect, was far too few — Beltre won four Silver Sluggers, five Gold Gloves and a pair of Platinum Gloves. Even that considerable amount of hardware feels light — particularly on the Gold Glove front, as Beltre is the runaway all-time leader in Defensive Runs Saved at any position since the stat was introduced in 2003. No one is even close to Beltre’s towering mark of 222, with Andrelton Simmons’ 184 DRS currently sitting in a distant second place.

Beltre earned $219MM in one of the greatest careers we baseball fans will ever have the privilege to witness. Fangraphs tallies his career at 84 wins above replacement, while Baseball-Reference pegs him at a whopping 95.7 WAR. As surefire a Hall of Famer as one can find, Beltre will take his place among the game’s elite in five years once he’s eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot.

Rosenthal’s Latest: Mets, Syndergaard, Rangers, Minor, Orioles

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Star right-hander Noah Syndergaard has drawn trade interest this offseason, but if the Mets do deal him, it’s not going to be for a package of prospects, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (subscription required). Rather, because the Mets aim to contend in 2019, they’d need to make a trade that improves their roster both now and in the future, according to Rosenthal. Moving Syndergaard would likely cause significant damage to the Mets’ rotation heading into 2019, though, so they’d almost have to sign a replacement in free agency, Rosenthal notes. To this point, the Mets have been “very engaged in the marketplace,” a representative for a free-agent starter tells Rosenthal.

Syndergaard’s not the only established Mets hurler whose future is in question, per Rosenthal, who adds that all of their starters are generating interest. Syndergaard’s fellow ace, National League Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom, isn’t going anywhere, sources tell Rosenthal. The rest of the Mets’ rotation – which consists of Zack Wheeler, Steven Matz and Jason Vargas –  isn’t as impressive, though Wheeler and Matz are appealing. Wheeler, healthy for the first time since 2014, is coming off a terrific season, but he only has a year of control remaining; Matz is an injury-prone lefty who was a mixed bag in 2018, but he’s still just 27 and has three years of control left; Vargas, meanwhile, endured a disastrous 2018, and with a guaranteed $10MM left on his contract, the Mets may be fortunate to find a taker for him. However, as with Syndergaard, the Mets’ goal in giving up any of Wheeler, Matz or Vargas would be to better themselves in the near and long term, Rosenthal writes.

More rumblings from Rosenthal…

  • Even though the Rangers’ rotation is perilously thin, the rebuilding club would likely trade its top starter, left-hander Mike Minor, for the right offer, Rosenthal suggests. Minor’s drawing interest on the heels of his first season in Texas, which signed him to a three-year, $28MM guarantee last December. When he joined the Rangers, Minor was coming off an excellent season as a full-time reliever for the Royals, but he returned to a starting role in 2018 and posted a 4.18 ERA/4.43 FIP with 7.57 K/9 and 2.18 BB/9 over 157 innings (28 starts). Minor has an affordable $19MM left on his contract, though his 10-team no-trade clause could block some prospective suitors from acquiring him.
  • After a drawn-out search, the Orioles finally named a general manager, Mike Elias, whom they hired Friday. Elias is now seeking a manager for the Orioles, and it’s “more likely” he’ll hire an experienced skipper than a neophyte, Rosenthal relays. However, Elias isn’t necessarily aiming to make a high-profile hire, per Rosenthal, who writes that the O’s next manager could be a “caretaker.”

Coaching Notes: Rangers, Twins, Rockies, Jays, Phillies

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Many teams are putting the finishing touches on their coaching staffs, though there are still some openings. Here are the latest moves:

  • The Rangers announced that they have hired Julio Rangel as their new pitching coach. He’ll come over from the Giants organization, where he had served as the minor-league pitching coordinator. The 43-year-old Rangel also spent 11 years in the Indians system but has never previously worked at the MLB level as a player or coach.
  • Rounding out their staff under new skipper Rocco Baldelli, the Twins announced the additions of third-base coach Tony Diaz and first-base coach Tommy Watkins. The 31-year-old Diaz comes over from the Rockies, while Watkins is moving up from a minor-league managerial role in the Minnesota system. Yesterday, the club finalized deals with its coaches dedicated to pitching.
  • Also departing the Rockies will be hitting coach Duane Espy, the club announced. It’s not clear what the team’s plans are in this area. For the time being, at least, assistant hitting coach Jeff Salazar is evidently remaining in his role.
  • The Blue Jays will hire Guillermo Martinez to become their new hitting coach, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports. Martinez is just 34 years of age, but obviously made quite an impression in his first year as minor-league hitting coordinator in Toronto. He played professionally but never reached the majors. Previously, Martinez coached in the minors with the Jays and Cubs.
  • To complete their staff, the Phillies announced, they’ll install Dave Lundquist as assistant pitching coach. He was most recently the organization’s Triple-A pitching coach, so this was a natural profession. The former big leaguer has worked his way up the chain in the Philadelphia organization since landing there in 2008.

Rangers Announce Five Members Of Coaching Staff

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The Rangers announced five members of their 2019 coaching staff Wednesday, including the hiring of Dodgers assistant hitting coach Luis Ortiz as their new hitting coach. In addition, Texas announced that bench coach Don Wakamatsu and third base coach Tony Beasley are returning to the staff in those roles next season. Bullpen coach Hector Ortiz will move to the role of first base coach, while 2018 first base coach Steve Buechele has been named a special assistant in the baseball operations department. Jayce Tingler, meanwhile, will return for a second stint with the coaching staff as the player development field coordinator.

Luis Ortiz, 48, served on the Dodgers’ coaching staff under newly hired manager Chris Woodward this past season. The new role with the Rangers represents a homecoming of sorts. While he’s not a native of Texas — Ortiz was born in the Dominican Republic — he began his coaching career in the Rangers system and spent the 2008-12 seasons as a hitting instructor/coordinator for the organization. Since that time, he’s been a field coordinator and hitting coordinator with the Padres and spent another two seasons as an assistant field coordinator in the Indians organization.

Tingler previously served as an outfield/baserunning coach in 2015-16 before spending the 2017-18 seasons as an assistant GM in the front office. He was a popular managerial candidate this offseason and connected to multiple vacancies, though he clearly remained with the Rangers organization. He has eight years of minor league managerial experience under his belt — all in the Rangers system.

The remaining decisions for the Rangers all center on the pitching side of the equation. With Hector Ortiz moving to first base coach, they’ll need to add a new bullpen coach. Texas also formally announced what was reported earlier this week by MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan — that pitching coach Doug Brocail will not have his contract renewed. Beyond that, the Rangers also announced that assistant pitching coach Dan Warthen will not be asked back for the 2019 season, either. Those decisions “will be announced in the near future,” per tonight’s release.

Rangers Part Ways With Pitching Coach Doug Brocail

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The Rangers have decided not to bring back pitching coach Doug Brocail, per TR Sullivan of MLB.com (via Twitter). The Texas organization has been evaluating its staff to serve with new manager Chris Woodward.

Brocail had been in his post for three seasons. The long-time MLB hurler took over for Mike Maddux after the 2015 campaign. Before that, he had worked in the Astros organization as a pitching coach at the MLB level and on the farm.

West Notes: Rox, Realmuto, Padres, Rangers, Mariners

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Despite the struggles of the Rockies’ catchers in 2018, it doesn’t appear they’ll be among the most ardent suitors for Marlins backstop J.T. Realmuto, Thomas Harding of MLB.com hears. It’s unclear, though, whether Colorado will make a less splashy attempt to upgrade over its current trio of Chris Iannetta, Tony Wolters and Tom Murphy, a woeful offensive group in 2018. Realmuto was the game’s premier catcher last season, on the other hand, but his refusal to sign an extension with the Marlins makes him a prime trade candidate. With two years of arbitration control remaining, Realmuto would bring back an impressive haul, but it doesn’t look as if it’ll come from Colorado.

  • The Padres are rife with major league-caliber outfielders, meaning they’re going to “have to make some decisions and calls on” that area of their roster this offseason, general manager A.J. Preller said this week (via AJ Cassavell of MLB.com). Out of the Padres’ current group of outfielders, Cassavell classifies Wil Myers, Travis Jankowski, Hunter Renfroe and Franmil Reyes as trade candidates, adding that one of the latter two is likeliest to end up on the move. As right-handed sluggers with defensive limitations, Renfroe and Reyes offer similar skill sets, observes Cassavell, who notes that dealing one of the two would enable San Diego to move Myers from third base back to the outfield. The 27-year-old Myers, who owns the Padres’ second-richest contract (he’s guaranteed $64MM through 2023), saw his first real action at third base in 2018. Advanced metrics assigned Myers mixed reviews over a fairly small sample of appearances (36), as he accounted for one DRS and minus-5.4 UZR.
  • The Rangers elected to decline catcher Robinson Chirinos’ option for 2019 because of both the salary they’d have owed him ($4.5MM) and his defensive woes, according to Jeff Wilson of the Star-Telegram. Chirinos was one of the majors’ worst defensive catchers in 2018, but it was still a surprise that Texas let him become a free agent. After all, the 34-year-old did offer solid offensive production for the fifth straight season, hitting .222/.338/.419 (103 wRC+) with 18 home runs in 426 plate appearances, and exercising his option hardly would’ve broken the bank. Further, the Rangers don’t seem to have a full-time replacement on hand, as they’re not of the belief either Jose Trevino or Isiah Kiner-Falefa is ready for No. 1 duties, per Wilson. Texas is in the market for a primary backstop as a result, and though there are several established veterans on the open market, Wilson suggests Chirinos’ successor could arrive via trade.
  • Like their AL West rival in Arlington, the Mariners are seeking a starting catcher, having traded Mike Zunino to Tampa Bay on Thursday. With Zunino gone and the Mariners down to unproven 29-year-old David Freitas as their top option, Greg Johns of MLB.com runs down potential catcher acquisitions for the club. Considering the state of Seattle’s roster, GM Jerry Dipoto may attempt to trade for an experienced backstop who’s controllable for the next three to five years, writes Johns, who lists some potential targets in his piece.

AL West Notes: Correa, A’s, Beltre

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Astros shortstop Carlos Correa announced today at a team benefit that he underwent surgery to repair a deviated septum last Monday.  The nasal affliction, said the 24-year-old, was inhibiting his ability to breathe normally, especially when running the bases.  Arguably the centerpiece of the team’s 2017 championship run, the former #1 overall pick slumped to a career-worst .239/.323/.405 games last season.  He especially struggled in the season’s second half, posting a putrid 45 wRC+ and 24% hard contact rate over 133 PA following a return from the DL after a bout of lower back soreness.  During multiple gatherings with the reporters on a crusty Minute Maid Park surface, the former Rookie of the Year made no effort to draw a nexus between the respiratory issues and his poor performance, but did note that he doesn’t expect to have surgery to address the lower-back ailment, with the Houston Chronicle’s Brian T. Smith tweeting that the shortstop is “doing well” right now.

In other news from around the division . . .

  • On the heels of a wildly successful 2018 season, the A’s have announced changes to the team’s player development program, reports The Athletic’s Melissa Lockard. The club, apparently, is piggybacking on recent trends in the rookie-level Arizona League, where select teams – namely, the Padres, Indians, Cubs, and Giants – have added a second ’affiliate’ to compete in the league.  In this case, it seems the move is an effort to acclimate newly-signed international players to the American way of life (and professional baseball in the country) at a far more rapid rate than in the past.  Eddie Menchaca, who managed the lone AZL affiliate for the club last year, will reprise his role as manager for one of the teams, in addition to fulfilling his newly-appointed duties as Latin American player development supervisor.  The club’s farm, responsible in no small part for the team’s periodic, oft-unforeseen success over the last two decades, is ranked middle-of-the-pack in Baseball America’s latest update.
  • Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News cites a source “close” to Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre in declaring that a decision on the 39-year-old’s future could come “within a week or so.”  Beltre, of course, is deeply contemplating retirement, with a recent report by FanCred’s Jon Heyman noting that “the belief” is that the 21-year-veteran is leaning in that direction. If he is to return, Beltre seems to have given conflicting directives in the way of his future, with Grant noting that the Ranger dignitary “would like” to return to Texas but is most interested in playing for a contending team, of which category the 2019 Rangers are decidedly unlikely to fall into.  The article, which details possible positional alignments for the 2019 club, in addition to revelatory quotes from GM Jon Daniels, is well worth a full read for Ranger fans of all sorts.
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