Rangers Release Burke Badenhop
The Rangers have released right-hander Burke Badenhop, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports. The 33-year-old ACES client had signed a minor league deal with Texas early in the season after missing out on a spot in the Nationals’ bullpen as a non-roster invitee in Spring Training.
Badenhop pitched 4 2/3 innings with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate this year, allowing five runs on eight hits and a walk with three strikeouts in that small sample of work. While not a household name, Badenhop has carved out a role as a steadily productive middle reliever over the past seven seasons in the Majors. In that time, he’s averaged 58 games/66 innings per year to go along with a 3.50 ERA, 6.1 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a 54.4 percent ground-ball rate. Badenhop hasn’t been on the disabled list since 2009, so a club looking for some durable bullpen depth could certainly give the righty a look on a new minor league deal. Last year, Badenhop posted a 3.93 ERA in 66 1/3 innings as a member of the Reds’ bullpen.
Rangers To Purchase Cesar Ramos' Contract
- The Rangers will purchase the contract of southpaw Cesar Ramos on Monday so he can make a spot start in place of the injured Cole Hamels, Texas executive VP of communications John Blake tweets. There is no word yet on the corresponding moves that would create roster space for Ramos; Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram speculates that Keone Kela could be moved to the 60-day DL and Alex Claudio could head to Triple-A. Only ten of Ramos’ 251 career games have been starts, though he made seven starts as recently as 2014 with the Rays. Ramos posted a 2.75 ERA and 2.87 K/BB rate in 52 1/3 relief innings with the Angels last season before being rather surprisingly non-tendered. He signed a minor league deal with Texas in January.
Rangers Notes: Hamels, Darvish
The Rangers have scratched southpaw Cole Hamels from his start Monday against the Yankees because of left groin soreness, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News was among those to report (on Twitter). Hamels also missed a start last year because of a sore groin, but the club doesn’t believe the injury is serious. It’s currently unclear who will start in his place Monday.
- In other news concerning an integral member of the Rangers’ rotation, right-hander Yu Darvish is fully healthy and on track for a mid-May return, general manager Jon Daniels told MLB Network Radio on Sunday (Twitter link). Darvish, who missed the 2015 campaign after undergoing Tommy John surgery, could begin a rehab assignment May 1 and rejoin the Rangers on May 16, Grant wrote earlier this week.
Rangers Notes: Hamilton, Gimenez, Mazara
- Josh Hamilton and Chris Gimenez are both playing games in extended spring training, Rangers manager Jeff Banister told reporters (including MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan). Gimenez could start a rehab assignment as soon as Monday, as the catcher looks to return after being sidelined for a month by an ankle infection. Hamilton faces a longer road back to the bigs, as he’ll play in extended spring games for the next week and then some minor league action. Banister said the Rangers want to see Hamilton get around 35 plate appearances before considering a return to the MLB roster. Hamilton has battled left knee problems all offseason, and has already undergone two operations and a stem cell/PRP injection within the last eight months.
- The Rangers have a solid history of producing good young position players, MLB.com’s Phil Rogers writes, and Nomar Mazara is one of the most exciting of them all. The 20-year-old Mazara has made a huge impact in his first taste of big league action, taking a .378/.419/.514 slash line over 43 PAs into Saturday’s play.
Yu Darvish To Delay First Rehab Appearance
- Rehabbing Rangers ace Yu Darvish will throw another live BP session before beginning his rehab assignment, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. The righty hasn’t suffered any kind of setback, but hopes to refine his offspeed offerings before reporting to Double-A to begin his march back to the majors.
Keone Kela To Miss Three Months Due To Elbow Surgery
10:08pm: Rangers executive vice president of communications John Blake announced tonight that Kela will indeed undergo surgery to remove the bone spur. Kela will have the operation tomorrow, and Wilson tweets that he’ll be out for three months.
4:17pm: Rangers setup man Keone Kela is headed to the disabled list with an impingement in his right elbow, the club announced today. Right-hander Phil Klein will be recalled from Triple-A Round Rock to take Kela’s spot on the 25-man roster. Both Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (links to Twitter) and Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (link) have tweeted that surgery seems likely Kela, with Grant suggesting a 12-week timeline for his recovery. That would sideline Kela past the All-Star break and mark a significant hit to the Rangers’ bullpen. Wilson does tweet that the Rangers are confident that there is no damage to Kela’s ulnar collateral ligament, making Tommy John surgery unlikely.
Kela, who just turned 23, had an excellent rookie season with the Rangers in 2015, logging a 2.39 ERA with 10.1 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a 50.6 percent ground-ball rate. This particular issue dates back to last season, Grant tweets, as Kela was diagnosed with the bone spur in September but elected to undergo a platelet-rich plasma injection to alleviate the pain. Per Grant, general manager Jon Daniels gets the impression that “[Kela] wants to feel 100 percent” this time around.
As I noted in reviewing the Rangers’ offseason, the club has amassed a deep stock of bullpen talent, so the Rangers are at least well-equipped to handle the loss of their outstanding setup man. In addition to closer Shawn Tolleson, the Rangers have Sam Dyson, Jake Diekman, Tom Wilhelmsen and an intriguing upside play in right-hander Tony Barnette, who was signed out of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball this offseason. The Rangers had enough relief depth that they were rumored to be discussing a swap of a bullpen arm for a fifth starter with the Indians late in Spring Training, although with Kela potentially missing three months, it seems fortuitous that a deal never came to fruition.
Fangraphs On Beltre Extension
- Fangraphs’ Craig Edwards examines the two-year, $36MM contract extension to which Adrian Beltre agreed with the Rangers, writing that Beltre’s steady excellence at the plate and in the field gives the contract significant bargain potential. Perhaps more interestingly to some, Edwards juxtaposes Beltre’s age-31 through age-36 seasons with some of the game’s all-time great players and does the same with projections for his upcoming seasons, noting that Beltre is building quite the Hall of Fame case.
Daniels: No Significant Trade Talks Since Chirinos Injury
Rangers GM Jon Daniels said in an appearance on 105.3 FM The Fan that his club has not made an effort to trade for an impact catcher since Robinson Chirinos‘ injury (transcript via the Dallas Morning News). To this point, Daniels says that other clubs haven’t called and marketed potentially available catchers: “No, nobody has really … the guys we’ve heard from the most are the agents who have either free agent catching guys that got released out of camp, or maybe they have a catcher at Triple-A with somebody where maybe they’ve got an out or want us to trade for them.” Daniels said that the Rangers have looked into adding some more organizational depth — defense-first, quality makeup catchers — but is more focused on getting Chirinos healthy than acquiring a potential replacement.
Rangers Notes: Beltre, Daniels, Gallo
- The Rangers‘ decision to extend Adrian Beltre was “probably one of the easiest” of Jon Daniels’ tenure with the club, the GM told reporters (including T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com) yesterday during the official press conference to announce Beltre’s new two-year, $36MM contract. There was a great deal of speculation and, in fact, assumption that the two sides would work out a new deal this offseason, and Beltre joked that the negotiations weren’t settled until two weeks into the season since “I wanted Giancarlo Stanton money, 13 years and $400MM.”
- Keeping Beltre through the 2018 season won’t have any impact on top prospect Joey Gallo‘s future with the Rangers, Daniels said, aside from a probable position shift. “Joey has a ton of talent and a ton of ability. He has played the outfield and played first base. Those may be options down the line. We’re not making that decision today,” Daniels said. Mitch Moreland is a free agent this winter, so first base could be Gallo’s best option given that Nomar Mazara and Shin-Soo Choo look to have the corner outfield spots spoken for in 2017 and beyond. It’s also not out of the question that Gallo could play around the diamond until Beltre’s extension is up, and then take over as the regular third baseman.
- Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram likes the Beltre extension for the Rangers, as Beltre is still producing at a high level despite just turning 37 years old. The $18MM average annual value is the cost of doing business, in terms of keeping Beltre off the open market and keeping his contract status from becoming a greater distraction throughout the rest of the year.
Yu Darvish Nearing Return
- In other news regarding Japanese starters, Rangers ace Yu Darvish threw a live batting practice session Sunday and will engage in another Thursday before beginning a rehab assignment with Double-A Frisco on or near April 26, T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). Darvish is recovering from Tommy John surgery, which caused him to miss all of last season. His 50-pitch BP session Sunday drew raves from pitching coach Doug Brocail, tweets the Dallas Morning News’ Evan Grant. “The breaking ball was crisp. The slider was unbelievable,” Brocail said. “The fastball was good and hard with both two- and four-seamers. He threw strikes in a lot of good areas. As we measured it, there were a lot of 0-2 and 1-2 counts.” A May 11 return to the Rangers could be within reach for Darvish if all goes well during his rehab stint, per Grant.