Johnny Cueto Agrees To Push Back Opt-Out Date With Rangers
Veteran right-hander Johnny Cueto, who signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in late April, had an early-June opt-out opportunity but has agreed to push his out dates back, Ari Alexander of KPRC-2 reports. Cueto’s opt-out dates now fall on June 14 and on July 1. If he’s not on the roster by either date, Cueto will have the right to trigger the clause, giving Texas 48 hours to add him to the big league roster or else grant him his release.
The 38-year-old Cueto is looking for a rebound from last year’s rough showing in Miami, when he pitched in 13 games (10 starts) for the Marlins and posted an unsightly 6.02 ERA. The right-hander’s 17.9% strikeout rate was actually up from the prior season’s 15.7% mark but still well below average. His walk rate jumped from 5.1% with the 2022 White Sox to 6.9% last year, and despite working in a pitcher-friendly loanDepot Park setting, Cueto’s staggering 2.92 homers per nine innings were a career-worst mark (and the highest of any pitcher in MLB who tossed at least 50 innings).
Cueto has made four minor league starts with the Rangers: one at their Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League and three with Triple-A Round Rock. Combined, he’s totaled 18 innings with a 2.50 ERA, a 20.5% strikeout rate and a microscopic 2.7% walk rate (two walks, 73 batters faced). He’s also kept the ball on the ground at a hefty 55.3% clip.
It’s a tiny sample of work against lesser competition, but the results are nevertheless broadly encouraging. Texas clearly wasn’t ready to add Cueto to the big league roster just yet but presumably has interest in doing so — hence the mutual agreement to extend the opt-out window. It’s only natural for the Rangers to want to preserve the depth and perhaps take a look at Cueto sooner than later, given the mounting number of injuries among the team’s big league staff.
The Rangers entered the season knowing that Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Tyler Mahle all faced prolonged absences. Mahle (an offseason signee) and deGrom are recovering from 2023 Tommy John surgery. Scherzer underwent back surgery in December. Texas has since lost left-hander Cody Bradford to a stress fracture in his ribcage and more recently placed Jon Gray on the 15-day injured list due to a groin strain. Right-handers Nathan Eovaldi and Dane Dunning also had IL stints owing to a groin strain and shoulder strain, respectively, but both returned to the rotation in late May.
At present, the Rangers are going with a starting five that includes Eovaldi, Dunning, Michael Lorenzen, Andrew Heaney and minor league signee Jose Ureña. That quintet has delivered solid results on the whole, despite a spotty track record from Ureña and the late nature of Lorenzen’s signing with the team. However, the depth beyond those five names is suspect.
Former No. 2 overall pick Jack Leiter has pitched well in seven Triple-A appearances this season but has also been rocked for 17 earned runs through just 9 1/3 innings in his first three big league starts. He only just turned 24, so there’s plenty of time for him to figure things out, but he hasn’t looked ready for MLB opposition yet. Fellow righties Owen White and Cole Winn both ranked as top pitching prospects at one point, but neither has given ample reason to believe he can be a solution at the moment. Winn, a former No. 15 overall pick, has been moved to the bullpen and struggled in 11 MLB appearances this year. White has a 4.69 ERA in eight Triple-A starts with a lackluster 15.8% strikeout rate against a weighty 11.3% walk rate.
The Rangers’ hope is that Gray will only require a minimal stay on the injured list, thus allowing him to return in short order, but a setback for him or an injury elsewhere in the big league rotation would prove highly problematic. Keeping Cueto around gives Texas an additional option and affords the veteran righty the opportunity to continue ramping up. Cueto tossed six scoreless innings in his most recent appearance and for a second straight outing topped 80 pitches. He should be working without any pitch restrictions at this point, and it’s plenty feasible that a big league opportunity in Arlington will present itself before long.
Marcus Semien Trying To Play Through Neck Injury
Marcus Semien went 1-for-4 in the Rangers‘ 8-2 loss to the Marlins yesterday, marking his return to the lineup after sitting out Texas’ previous game. While off-days aren’t normally worth mention, Semien’s absence from Wednesday’s lineup ended a streak of 349 starts for the star second baseman, and it represented only his ninth missed game since the start of the 2019 season. The decision was made since Semien is dealing with a compressed nerve in his neck, as he told Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News and other reporters yesterday, and the hope is that resting both Wednesday and Thursday (when the Rangers didn’t have a game) will help get Semien back on track.
Marlins Acquire Shaun Anderson, Designate Woo-Suk Go
The Marlins on Thursday acquired recently DFA’ed right-hander Shaun Anderson from the Rangers in exchange for cash, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid (X link)*. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Miami designated right-hander Woo-Suk Go for assignment.
Anderson, 29, appeared in only two games with Texas, logging 3 1/3 innings and yielding a pair of runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts. This marks the fifth MLB season in which he’s seen action at the game’s top level. Anderson has previously suited up for the Giants, Twins, Orioles, Padres and Blue Jays — in addition to a prior run in the Rangers’ minor league ranks. He’s pitched 139 big league innings but struggled to a 5.83 earned run average in that time. He’s intrigued several teams over the years thanks in large part to a high-spin slider that has the potential to be a true bat-missing offering, but the rest of his arsenal hasn’t helped him reach passable results.
Anderson split the 2023 season between the Phillies’ Triple-A club and the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kia Tigers, making 14 starts for the latter. During that brief KBO run, he notched a respectable 3.76 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 61.7% ground-ball rate (though ground-ball rates in the KBO always tend to be higher than in MLB, it should be noted). Anderson is in his final minor league option year, so he can be sent back and forth between Miami and Triple-A Jacksonville freely without needing to pass through waivers.
Go, 25, was one of the top relievers in the KBO in recent years and made his way to North American ball via the posting system this winter. The Padres signed him to a two-year, $4.5MM contract but almost immediately cut bait on him, sending him to the Marlins as a financial counterweight in the Luis Arraez trade earlier in the month. He’s pitched well in Triple-A since the trade, logging nine innings with a 3.00 ERA. However, he’s fanned only 8.3% of his opponents against a 5.6% walk rate.
During his outstanding run with the KBO’s LG Twins from 2019-23, Go posted a collective 2.39 ERA with 139 saves, a 30.2% strikeout rate, a 10% walk rate and a ground-ball rate north of 60%. He missed time in 2023 with a lower back injury but still pitched 44 innings of 3.68 ERA ball with a 31.1% strikeout rate, 11.6% walk rate and massive 65.8% grounder rate.
Scouting reports on Go had his fastball topping out at 98 mph in the KBO, but when he reported to spring training reports out of Padres camp suggested he was in the 92-94 mph range, topping out just shy of 95 mph. Though the Friars had envisioned him as a potential entrant into their late-inning mix, the decision to instead option him (to Double-A) and then include him in the Arraez trade suggests they quickly became less enamored of him once he joined the organization. That the Marlins are now jettisoning him from the 40-man roster suggests they’re similarly unenthused about the right-hander’s chances of contributing at the MLB level.
Because of that $4.5MM contract, Go seems like a lock to clear waivers if he makes it there. Miami will have five days to explore trade possibilities before placing him on waivers becomes a necessity. Waivers themselves would then be a 48-hour process. If Go clears, he’d likely accept an outright assignment to Jacksonville, allowing him to continue collecting his salary while endeavoring to pitch his way into the Marlins’ big league bullpen plans.
*MLBTR originally mistakenly indicated the Marlins had formally announced the trade for Anderson and DFA of Go. The team had not done so yet at the time. We regret the error.
Rangers Place Evan Carter On Injured List; Reinstate Wyatt Langford, Nathan Eovaldi
The Rangers have reinstated outfielder Wyatt Langford and right-hander Nathan Eovaldi from the injured list, with Eovaldi starting tonight’s contest. In corresponding moves, outfielder Evan Carter lands on the 10-day IL due to back tightness while righty Yerry Rodríguez has been optioned out. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News was among those to relay the news prior to the official announcement on X (link one and two).
Carter’s back has been bugging him for a few weeks. Between May 8 and May 18, he only took two plate appearances for the Rangers. He’s been in the lineup more regularly of late but still hasn’t had a hit in about three weeks. It seems like the back problems have contributed to his lackluster results on the year. He was hitting .236/.328/.472 through May 4 but has a batting line of just .053/.100/.053 since then.
Coming into the season, it was possible to envision Texas having two regular players battling each other for the Rookie of the Year crown, but it hasn’t played out that way thus far. Carter’s recent slide has dropped his season-long batting line to .188/.272/361. Langford, meanwhile, hit just .224/.295/.293 through 129 plate appearances before landing on the IL due to a right hamstring strain. Langford will now get a chance to improve his numbers while Carter takes some time to rest up and get healthy for later in the season.
Injuries have also been a key storyline for the Texas rotation all year long. They knew long ago that Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle would be on the IL for the first half, as each of them underwent Tommy John surgery in the middle of last season. Then Max Scherzer required back surgery in the offseason. There was a time when it seemed like he could come back in mid-May but he has been delayed by thumb soreness and his timeline is still up in the air.
Since the season started, the Rangers have also seen Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning, Michael Lorenzen and Cody Bradford miss time on the injured list. All that has left Andrew Heaney as the only consistent member of the rotation this year.
Some of those IL stints have now ended, including Eovaldi’s today, so the rotation currently consists of him, Heaney, Dunning, Lorenzen and José Ureña. The club used Gerson Garabito for a spot start on Sunday and it seemed he could stick around for now as a long reliever.
The various injuries up and down the roster have seemingly prevented the defending champions from charging out of the gate this year, as they are currently 25-29 on the season. But the American League West is surprisingly weak so far this year, as the Astros are also struggling. The Rangers are second to the Mariners, just 3.5 games back and still very much in it.
Getting Eovaldi back on the mound is obviously helpful, as he had a 2.61 ERA prior to hitting the IL with a groin strain and had a 3.63 ERA for the Rangers last year. Langford could slot into the designated hitter role that Adolis García has been in recently, pushing García back to the outfield next to Leody Taveras and a rotation of Ezequiel Durán, Robbie Grossman and Derek Hill, with Carter hopefully jumping back into that mix once he’s healthy.
Rangers Designate Shaun Anderson For Assignment
The Rangers announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Shaun Anderson for assignment. In a corresponding move, right-hander Gerson Garabito had his contract selected from the minors. Garabito is scheduled to start today’s game against the Twins, which would be his major league debut.
Anderson was selected to the club’s roster earlier this month after signing on a minor league deal back in April. A third-round pick by the Red Sox in the 2016 draft, Anderson made his big league debut with San Francisco in 2019 and pitched to mediocre results in a swing role, with a 5.44 ERA and 4.77 FIP in 96 innings of work across 28 appearances (16 starts). Major league innings have been hard to come by for the righty since then, as he made just 35 big league appearances across five organizations between 2020 and 2022. The results left something to be desired, as well; he pitched to a 6.85 ERA with a 5.57 FIP in that time.
The righty’s struggles at the big league level led him to try his luck overseas during the 2023 campaign, and he signed with the Korea Baseball Organization’s KIA Tigers. Anderson pitched as a starter with the club and found some success overseas, with a 3.76 ERA in his 14 appearances. He returned to stateside ball late in the campaign on a minor league deal with the Phillies, but his improved results in Korea did not carry over as he surrendered 28 runs (including 11 homers) in 11 starts for the club’s Triple-A affiliate down the stretch.
That didn’t stop the Rangers from signing Anderson to a minor league deal back in April, however, and he was selected to the roster earlier this month. Anderson ultimately made just two appearances in a Rangers uniform before being DFA’d. In 3 1/3 innings of work, he allowed two runs on six hits and a walk while striking out three in a performance that was good for a 5.40 ERA and 2.23 FIP. The Rangers will now have seven days to trade Anderson or attempt to pass him through waivers. As a player who has already been outrighted previously in his career, Anderson would have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency should he clear waivers.
Replacing Anderson on the club’s roster is Garabito, a 28-year-old righty who made his pro debut with the Royals back in 2013. Garabito worked his way through the minor leagues across seven seasons in the Royals system before electing minor league free agency and joining the Giants, for whom he pitched to a 4.71 ERA in 11 appearances at the Triple-A level during 2021 season. Garabito subsequently left affiliated ball to pitch in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic over the next three seasons, racking up a 2.86 ERA in 69 1/3 innings of work during that time.
Garabito returned to stateside ball when he landed with the Rangers on a minor league deal prior to the 2024 season and has impressed in seven appearances split between the Double- and Triple-A levels with a 2.05 ERA in 30 2/3 innings of work with an enticing 30.8% strikeout rate. The Rangers evidently have seen enough for Garabito to offer him his first shot at big league action, which figures to come against Minnesota later today amid a slew of injuries to the Rangers rotation that have left key pieces such as Nathan Eovaldi and Jon Gray sidelined.
Rangers Place Jon Gray On 15-Day Injured List
The Rangers are placing right-hander Jon Gray on the injured list due to a groin strain, manager Bruce Bochy announced this morning (X link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). The team is terming it a “mild” strain, but it’ll nevertheless be enough to sit Gray down for at least the next 15 days. In a corresponding move, Texas will select the contract of right-hander Jesus Tinoco from Triple-A Round Rock. Left-hander Cody Bradford is being transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to accommodate Tinoco’s addition. Bradford has already missed six weeks with a back strain and stress fracture in his ribs.
Gray joins an an entire rotation’s worth of starters on the injured list in Texas. The Rangers are also without Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Tyler Mahle, Nathan Eovaldi and the aforementioned Bradford at the moment. That’ll leave Texas with a rotation including Andrew Heaney, Dane Dunning, Michael Lorenzen, Jose Ureña and a yet-to-be-determined fifth option. (Tinoco is a reliever and won’t step onto the starting staff.) The top depth options on the 40-man roster include Jack Leiter and Owen White. While Leiter has thrived pitching in Triple-A, both of those once-vaunted prospects has struggled in the big leagues this season.
Subtracting Gray from the roster would be a notable blow even without that litany of other injuries. The former No. 3 overall draft pick is out to perhaps the best start of his career, pitching to a tiny 2.21 ERA through his first 57 frames of the season. Gray’s 23.7% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 44.4% ground-ball rate are all at or slightly better than the league average. His ERA is being helped out by a microscopic 3.3% homer-to-flyball rate that’s helped him average just 0.32 homers per nine frames this season. But even metrics that normalize home run rate (e.g. his 3.68 SIERA) suggest Gray has still been a decidedly above-average hurler thanks to that strong blend of whiffs, grounders and walks (or lack thereof).
Tinoco, 29, will return for a second stint with the Rangers. He pitched in the Texas organization in 2022, famously giving up Aaron Judge’s record-breaking 62nd home run late in the season. That’s a down note in what was otherwise a strong year. In 20 2/3 frames with the Rangers he logged a 2.18 ERA — albeit with lackluster strikeout and walk rates of 21.4% and 11.9%, respectively.
Tinoco spent the 2023 season with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and handled himself well for the most part, but he returned stateside on a minor league pact with the Rangers over the winter. He’s gotten out to a decent start in Round Rock, pitching to a 3.80 earned run average and fanning just over 30% of his opponents in 21 1/3 innings. Overall, Tinoco has pitched in parts of four MLB seasons and compiled 66 2/3 innings with a 4.05 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate, 13.9% walk rate and 44% grounder rate. Command has clearly been an issue for him throughout his professional career, and that’s been the case again in 2024, evidenced by an 11.2% walk rate in Round Rock.
Rangers Sign Nabil Crismatt To Minor League Deal
The Rangers have signed right-hander Nabil Crismatt to a minor league deal, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News on X. The righty will report to Triple-A Round Rock in the coming days.
Crismatt, 29, returned to free agency earlier this week. He has bounced on and off the Dodgers’ roster a couple of times this year. He signed a minor league deal with that club in the winter and was added to the roster in late March. He pitched in one game before being designated for assignment and accepting an outright. He was selected again in late April and made four more appearances before losing his roster spot yet again.
Around those transactions, the results in his small sample of work have been decent. Crismatt has allowed two earned runs in seven major league innings so far this year, striking out six opponents without issuing a walk. His 12 2/3 Triple-A innings this year have produced a 5.68 ERA, though with some positive signs. He has struck out 28.8% of batters at that level with no walks given out. The high ERA is on account of three home runs surrendered, a 55.6% strand rate and .353 batting average on balls in play.
He had a frustrating 2023 season but was in good form in the two seasons prior to that. Last year, a hip strain cost him a couple of months of the season and he struggled when on the mound. He had an 8.31 ERA in 13 MLB innings as well as a 6.86 ERA in 59 Triple-A innings.
He spent 2021 and 2022 as a long reliever with the Padres. He threw 148 2/3 innings over 95 appearances with a 3.39 ERA. His 21.6% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate were close to average but he got ground balls at a strong clip of 50.6%.
The Dodgers frequently churn players through the final spots of their bullpen, which has put Crismatt on the transaction logs a few times. This time, he’ll switch organizations and see if he can carve out a role in Arlington. The Rangers currently have ten pitchers on the injured list, though Dane Dunning is expected to come off the IL and start today’s game. That will still leave them with Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Tyler Mahle, Cody Bradford, Nathan Eovaldi, Brock Burke, Carson Coleman, Austin Pruitt and Josh Sborz on the shelf.
Crismatt has some decent numbers this year and also has the impressive track record during his time with the Padres. If the Rangers need a fresh arm at some point in the coming weeks, perhaps Crismatt will get the call. If he does so, he’s out of options but also has less than three years of major league service time, meaning he could be retained beyond this season if he holds a roster spot at the end of the year.
Rangers Select Derek Hill
The Rangers announced that they have selected the contract of outfielder Derek Hill. Infielder Davis Wendzel was optioned after Sunday’s game, opening up a spot on the active roster. To open a 40-man spot, right-hander Austin Pruitt was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Prior to the official announcement, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News relayed on X that Hill was with the club.
Hill, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in the winter and has been playing in Triple-A so far this year. He has eight home runs in 142 plate appearances for Triple-A Round Rock this year and is currently batting .333/.387/.659 overall. Even in the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League, that still translates to a 150 wRC+, or 50% better than league average.
The Rangers will be hoping that this represents some kind of turnaround for Hill, who has struggled in previous major league tries. He has 304 big league appearances to this point, mostly with the Tigers but also spending some time with the Nationals. He only hit four home runs in that time and had a line of just .229/.279/.314.
His performance in Triple-A this year has obviously been vastly better than that, but it’s not the first time he’s found success at that level. He 11 homers in 83 Triple-A games in the Nationals’ system last year while slashing .317/.373/.509 for a 119 wRC+. That got him a look in the majors but he was outrighted less than a month later after failing to transfer his strong results to the big leagues.
He doesn’t need to hit too much to be a useful player since his wheels allow him to steal some bases and run down some balls in the outfield. The Rangers will give him a try to see if this is the time where things finally click for him in the show.
The Rangers have been dealing with a few injuries to their outfield mix, which is likely part of the reason they called upon Hill today. Wyatt Langford has been on the injured list for a couple of weeks due to a hamstring strain. Evan Carter has only started once since May 8 due to some back stiffness. Adolis García has been dealing with some forearm soreness recently after colliding with Marcus Semien on a shallow fly ball. García last started on Saturday and isn’t the lineup tonight.
Hill gets a start tonight in the outfield next to Leody Taveras and Ezequiel Durán, with Robbie Grossman in the designated hitter slot. The playing time distribution going forward will likely depend upon those aforementioned health situations and the performance of everyone stepping in at the moment.
If Hill can find some success, he can be retained well into the future since he has less than two years of major league service time. However, he is out of options and can’t be easily sent back down later in the year.
As for Pruitt, he landed on the IL April 21 due to a right knee medial meniscus injury. He’ll now be ineligible to return until 60 days from that initial IL placement. That means he could be reinstated in about a month’s time if he’s healthy by then, though it’s unclear when the clubs expects him to be back in game shape.
Rangers Notes: Garcia, Bradford
Adolis Garcia and Marcus Semien collided in pursuit of a fly ball in shallow right field in Saturday’s game, leaving Garcia with a sore forearm that kept him out of Sunday’s game. The issue was serious enough that Garcia underwent an MRI, but manager Bruce Bochy told MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry (X link) and other reporters that the outfielder received “pretty good” results from the tests. Since the Rangers don’t play on Monday, the team is hopeful that another day of rest will have Garcia ready for the start of their series Tuesday against the Phillies.
- Sticking with the Rangers, Cody Bradford told Landry and other reporters that the stress fracture in his rib isn’t improving, even if the injury is no longer causing him pain. Bradford has been shut down from throwing for the time being, and it isn’t yet known how long this shutdown might extend his recovery timeline. Bradford hasn’t pitched since April 10 due to a lower back strain that led to his initial placement on the 10-day injured list, but the rib fracture was discovered near the end of April, and it was expected that Bradford would likely miss the rest of May. The left-hander had a sterling 1.40 ERA in his first 19 1/3 innings of the season, but his injuries have made him one of an incredible six starting pitchers on the Rangers’ IL.
Josh Jung Projected For Longer Recovery Timeline From Wrist Surgery
Rangers third baseman Josh Jung suffered a fractured wrist after being hit by a pitch in his fourth game of the season, and wrist surgery was required to fix the problem. Initially given a rough six-week recovery timeline, that projection was lengthened to 8-10 weeks since the surgery was more complicated than expected, thus sending Jung from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day IL.
Unfortunately for Jung, he’ll now face an even longer absence, as Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes that Jung will likely be out until at least the start of July, or perhaps closer to the All-Star break. It will be 10-14 days before Jung knows whether or not he’ll be given the green light to start swinging a bat, and assuming that Jung is cleared, it’ll be another 3-4 weeks of full baseball activities and minor league rehab games before an IL activation is feasible.
The situation still seems quite fluid, and the fact that Jung has already had his timeline pushed back twice isn’t a good sign. There’s also the uncertainty that comes from any hitter recovering from wrist surgery, as it is common for batters to need some extra re-adjustment time after an injury that so directly impacts their ability to control a bat and swing properly. A minor league rehab assignment should theoretically help Jung shake off some of this rust, though there’s no substitute for facing Major League pitching.
Jung’s first full MLB season saw him finish fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting, as he hit .266/.315/.467 with 23 home runs over 515 plate appearances. That impressive regular season was followed up by a .308/.329/.538 slash line and three homers in 70 during the playoffs as the Rangers went on to capture their first World Series championship. Jung’s emergence as a building block has already paid dividends with one ring, and the Rangers are certainly hoping he can be a lineup fixture for years to come, though this wrist surgery is a very unfortunate setback.
As Grant notes, the Rangers haven’t yet been hurt by Jung’s absence since Josh Smith has stepped up. Smith has hit .280/.375/.432 in 152 PA this season, earning an increasing large share of the playing time at third base even if Smith’s left-handed bat adds to the overall lefty tilt of the Texas lineup.