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Rangers Re-Sign Charlie Culberson To Minor League Deal

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Charlie Culberson is returning to the Rangers on a minor league deal, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Culberson signed a minor league deal with the Rangers prior to last year’s season as well, eventually having his contract selected and playing 91 games.

Culberson spent his first five seasons getting limited playing time with the Giants, Rockies and Dodgers. With the Braves in 2018, Culberson burst forth for the best season of his career. In 113 games, he hit .270/.326/.466, wRC+ of 107. Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep up that pace the following year, with his line dropping to .259/.294/.437, wRC+ of 84. He was non-tendered at the end of that season and re-signed with Atlanta, getting into 10 more games as a Brave in 2020 before being outrighted at the end of that campaign.

Joining the Rangers last year, Culberson served a super-utility role for the club, spending time at every position on the diamond except center field, even logging two innings on the mound. His overall line wasn’t especially impressive, coming in at .243/.296/.381, earning a wRC+ of 85 in his 271 plate appearances. However, as Grant mentioned, Culberson was much better with the platoon advantage. In 144 plate appearances against lefties, he hit .346/.376/.556 for a wRC+ of 152. (His line against righties was a putrid .123/.206/.175, wRC+ of 10.)

The club has had a busy offseason, upgrading their position player mix with Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Mitch Garver and Kole Calhoun. They also added another multi-position guy yesterday when they signed Brad Miller. Given that Miller hits from the left, he and Culberson could make for a nice platoon pairing, perhaps at third base or in the outfield corners, depending on how some of the other players on the roster perform.

Rangers To Sign Dan Winkler To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers are signing reliever Dan Winkler to a minor league contract, pending a physical, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter links). Presumably, the right-hander will get a look in big league Spring Training once the deal’s finalized.

Winkler ranked third among Cubs relievers in innings last season, tossing 39 2/3 frames over 47 outings. The 32-year-old didn’t get particularly strong results, though, due in large part to control woes. Winkler walked 15.8% of batters faced while striking out a personal-low 21.1% of opponents. That led to a 5.22 ERA, even as opposing hitters managed only a .255 batting average on balls in play against him. The Cubs designated him for assignment in late August, and he elected minor league free agency after passing through waivers unclaimed.

It was the third consecutive season of mediocre strikeout and walk numbers for Winkler, who has posted an ERA near 5.00 in two of the past three campaigns. He did have an excellent 2018 season with the Braves, however, a year in which he worked 60 1/3 frames of 3.43 ERA ball with a 27.1% strikeout rate and a 7.8% walk percentage. Winkler’s control has been spotty aside from that year, but he’s maintained a fastball in the 93-94 MPH range and typically generated swinging strikes at an average or better clip.

Winkler will have to earn a big league roster spot, but he should have a good opportunity to do so in Texas. Rangers relievers ranked in the bottom ten in both ERA (4.80) and SIERA (4.48) last year. Joe Barlow, Spencer Patton, Brett Martin and perhaps Josh Sborz looked to have carved out season-opening roles, but the rest of the unit seems unsettled. Brandon Workman, Matt Bush, Justin Anderson and Jesús Tinoco are among the other players who’ll be in camp as non-roster invitees.

Rangers To Sign Jake Marisnick

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The Rangers are signing outfielder Jake Marisnick to a non-roster deal, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network.

Marisnick, 31 later this month, slumped to a 78 wRC+ last year in 198 plate appearances with the Cubs and Padres.  He’s known mainly for his glovework, and has predominantly played center field in his nine-year big league career.

Marisnick was drafted out of high school by the Blue Jays in the third round back in 2009.  In November 2012, he was on the other side of the blockbuster deal that sent Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, and Josh Johnson to Toronto.  He then joined the Astros at the 2014 deadline in a trade involving Jarred Cosart and Colin Moran.

From 2015-19, Marisnick got semi-regular playing time in Houston, averaging 116 games per season.  In 2015, ’18, and ’19, he led the Astros in defensive innings in center field.  Marisnick posted some stellar Statcast Outs Above Average marks in several of his seasons with the Astros.

The Astros traded Marisnick to the Mets in December 2019, but he played only 16 games in 2020 due to hamstring injuries.  Marisnick inked a $1.5MM free agent deal with the Cubs for 2021, but suffered another hamstring strain in May.  At the trade deadline, the Cubs shipped him to the Padres for Anderson Espinoza as part of their sell-off.  Marisnick struggled to find his hitting stroke in 54 plate appearances with the Padres, who declined their end of his $4MM mutual option after the season.

The Rangers committed $500MM to new infielders Corey Seager and Marcus Semien prior to the lockout, but haven’t yet moved to aggressively upgrade their outfield.  They added Kole Calhoun, and are projected to play Adolis Garcia and Nick Solak as well.

Guardians Among Teams Exploring Matt Olson Trade

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Matt Olson is among the highest-profile trade targets on the market at the moment, and although the teams most often linked to him have been the Yankees, Rangers and Braves (presumably as a fallback if Freddie Freeman signs elsewhere), Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that the Guardians are also “in the mix” for the Athletics’ All-Star first baseman. Cleveland is currently exploring upgrades of varying quality at first base, in the outfield and in the bullpen, Rosenthal adds.

Armed with one of the deepest farm systems in the sport, the Guardians could easily put together a compelling package to pry Olson from Oakland. Cleveland is particularly deep in terms of controllable middle infield prospects, with shortstops Brayan Rocchio, Jose Tena, Tyler Freeman and Gabriel Arias all climbing the ranks behind presumptive big league double-play tandem Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez.

It’s possible that Gimenez himself could be of interest to the A’s or another trade partner; the 23-year-old switch-hitter struggled in 210 plate appearances with Cleveland last season but had a big showing in Triple-A and isn’t far removed from being regarded as one of the sport’s most promising prospects himself. He’s also controllable via arbitration through at least the 2026 season. Of course, Cleveland is deep in prospects at other positions as well. Outfielders George Valera and Steven Kwan, righty Daniel Espino and third baseman/outfielder Nolan Jones have all garnered attention on prospect rankings.

As for the fit regarding Olson, it’s a pretty straightforward one. No team in baseball got less production from its first basemen than Cleveland did in ’21.  Bobby Bradley, Yu Chang, Jake Bauers, Owen Miller, Josh Naylor and even Harold Ramirez (two plate appearances) and Roberto Perez (one plate appearance) all saw time in the lineup at first base but combined for a disastrous .207/.275/.389 batting line. Olson, meanwhile, hit a career-best .271/.371/.540 while blasting 39 home runs and playing his typical brand of Gold Glove caliber defense.

The question for the Guardians is whether they’d be able to retain Olson beyond the 2023 season, when he’s currently scheduled to become a free agent. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Olson to earn $12MM in arbitration this coming season, and he’d be owed one more raise for that ’23 campaign. If Olson replicates this past season’s production, he’d surely command more than $30MM in total over the next two seasons.

That’s a steep price for a Guardians club that is also looking at two more years of control over franchise cornerstone Jose Ramirez. A perennial MVP candidate, Ramirez has seen his own name bandied about the rumor mill, though he’s seemed like a long-shot, at best, to be moved this offseason. On the one hand, pairing up Ramirez and Olson would give the Guardians a dynamic heart-of-the-order pairing around which to build for the next two years.

It’d be a surprise to see the typically low-payroll Guardians extend both (or even one) to the type of nine-figure deal either could command, but a 2022-23 core of Olson, Ramirez, Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale and Franmil Reyes would give Cleveland plenty of high-quality talent at the heart of the roster. And, if things did truly go south and push the front office to consider a sell-off, both Olson and Ramirez would remain among the most sought-after players available whenever they hit the market.

Rangers Sign Matt Moore To Minors Deal

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The Rangers have signed Matt Moore to a minor league deal, tweets Jeff Wilson. Moore is already in camp today.

Before making his MLB debut, Moore was often ranked alongside Mike Trout and Bryce Harper as a trio of generational talents that were about to join the big leagues. Unfortunately, Moore hasn’t delivered on that hype to the same degree as Trout and Harper.

The lefty got a cup of coffee with the Rays in 2011 as a 22-year-old and then seemed to be making good on his prospect status in 2012. He threw 177 1/3 innings in 31 starts with a 3.81 ERA, 23.1% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk rate. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been as good since, with the 2.4 fWAR he put up that season still his career best.

After just ten innings in 2014, Moore had to undergo Tommy John surgery, which wiped out the rest of that season and much of the next. His first full season after the surgery, 2016, was a nice enough bounceback, as he threw 198 1/3 innings with an ERA of 4.08, 21.2% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate. Things trended the wrong way over the next couple of seasons, though, as Moore’s ERA was 5.52 and then 6.79 in 2017 and 2018. Knee surgery wiped out his 2019 after just ten innings.

In 2020, however, he was able to turn the ship around in Japan after signing with the SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball. He made 13 starts and logged 78 innings with an ERA of 2.65. He parlayed that into a $3MM deal to join the Phillies last year, but was unable to bring his success across the ocean. In 73 innings with the Phils last year, he put up an ERA of 6.29, along with subpar strikeout and walk rates of 18.9% and 11.4%.

Moore will surely hope to get another crack at a comeback in Texas. Despite the club’s wild spending spree this offseason, they still have question marks when it comes to the pitching staff. Jon Gray, who signed before the lockout, will surely be at the front of the rotation. They also signed veteran Martin Perez a couple of days ago to take another spot. Beyond that, the other names on the chart are younger arms with limited experience. Dane Dunning and Taylor Hearn should be in the mix for spots, along with other candidates like A.J. Alexy, Kolby Allard, Spencer Howard and Glenn Otto. As the club continues moving out of their recent rebuild, they will want to give opportunities to some of that group, as performance warrants. But if they should struggle to make the transition to the big leagues, a veteran like Moore could potentially step in and give the club some innings.

Rangers Not Planning Big Spend On Third Base

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  • Top Rangers prospect Josh Jung could miss the entire season due to shoulder surgery, and the Rangers traded Isiah Kiner-Falefa to the Twins earlier today.  Despite these two losses, Rangers president of operations Jon Daniels told reporters (including Jeff Wilson) that the club wasn’t intending to make a big investment at third base going forward.  This would mean that Texas is going to roll with internal options like Yonny Hernandez, Andy Ibanez, Nick Solak or possibly some minor league infielders that could make their MLB debuts at some point in the season.  Or, given how aggressive the Rangers have been in revamping their roster this winter, it could be that Daniels was just engaging in some gamesmanship, and is on the lookout for some more established third base help.

Derek Falvey Discussed Kiner-Falefa/Garver Trade

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The Twins and Rangers combined on one of the most interesting early moves of the post-lockout period, agreeing to a trade earlier today that will see Isiah Kiner-Falefa and pitching prospect Ronny Henriquez head to Minnesota, while catcher Mitch Garver was dealt to Texas.  Speaking with reporters (including MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park) about the deal, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said the Twins were first in touch about Kiner-Falefa before the lockout, and Garver wasn’t initially part of trade talks until it became that such a notable price was necessary to pry Kiner-Falefa away from the Rangers.

Twins Acquire Isiah Kiner-Falefa For Mitch Garver

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The Twins and Rangers are in agreement on a deal that will send infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa to Minnesota, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Kiner-Falefa and a prospect will head to Minnesota in exchange for catcher Mitch Garver, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network. Pitcher Ronny Henriquez is the prospect heading to Minnesota in the deal, per Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press.

For the Rangers, this is yet another headline-grabbing move in what has been a very busy offseason for the club. Prior to the lockout, they threw around big money to add various players, with the two biggest names being shortstop Corey Seager and second baseman Marcus Semien. The addition of those two infielders, along with the impending arrival of prospect Josh Jung, led to immediate speculation that Kiner-Falefa could be a trade candidate. But when Jung underwent shoulder surgery last month, that seemed to swing the pendulum towards Texas keeping Kiner-Falefa as their everyday third baseman. However, that has now proven not to be the case, as he is headed for Minnesota.

The Twins had Andrelton Simmons as their primary shortstop last year. Despite showing the defensive skills he has long been known for, Simmons had a dismal year at the plate, hitting .223/.283/.274, wRC+ of 56. Yesterday, he signed with the Cubs for a modest $4MM salary, showing that the Twins weren’t terribly motivated to bring him back into the fold. With Kiner-Falefa, they’ve brought in a player with a similar profile to Simmons, but more reasons to be optimistic about his future performance. Like Simmons, Kiner-Falefa is a glove-first player, winning a Gold Glove in 2020 and finishing third among MLB shortstops in the Fielding Bible’s voting this past season. His bat has been below average thus far in his career, having never put up a wRC+ higher than 94. However, he’s still relatively young, turning 27 later this month, compared to the 32-year-old Simmons. He also hit .271/.312/.357 last year for a wRC+ of 85, not great numbers but certainly better than what Simmons provided. He’s also projected for an arbitration salary of $4.9MM, per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, and comes with an extra year of control beyond that.

But in order to make that solid addition to their infield, the Twins have had to send a valuable player the other way. Garver had a tremendous breakout season in 2019, hitting .273/.365/.630, wRC+ of 155. That would be exceptional production for any player but was especially impressive for a catcher. Injuries limited him to just 23 games of anemic production in the shortened 2020 season, but he bounced back well last year. Despite still dealing with injuries and only playing 68 games, his 2021 line was .256/.358/.517, wRC+ of 137. Last year, the Rangers split the catching duties almost evenly between Jose Trevino and Jonah Heim, who put up wRC+ tallies of 60 and 64, respectively. Garver is capable of producing at a much higher rate, but comes with concerns given the injuries of the past few years, making him a high-risk, high-reward option for Texas. He won’t be a huge risk from a financial standpoint, however, as he’s projected for an arbitration salary of $3.1MM this year, with another year of control remaining after that.

The reason the Twins could afford to part with such a talented catcher as Garver was the emergence of Ryan Jeffers. Making his MLB debut in 2020, he played 26 games and hit .273/.355/.436, wRC+ of 120. In 2021, he got off to a rough start, hitting .147/.216/.176 before getting demoted at the end of April. After showing signs of improvement in Triple-A, he was recalled in June and hit .206/.277/.433 the rest of the way, good enough for a wRC+ of 92. Although that’s clearly a drop-off from Garver’s numbers, Jeffers is turning 25 years old in June and comes with five remaining years of control. The Twins clearly felt that it was worth taking the chance on the younger player as their regular catcher in order to upgrade their infield.

Of course, that’s not all the Twins added, as they also brought Ronny Henriquez over in the deal. The 21-year-old right-hander split last season between High-A and Double-A, making 16 starts in 21 total games. In 93 2/3 innings, his 4.71 ERA wasn’t especially impressive, but the Twins were surely intrigued by his 27.1% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate, both of those being better than average. The club certainly needs arms after losing Jose Berrios to trade, Kenta Maeda to injury and Michael Pineda to free agency. Henriquez likely won’t provide immediate help in that regard, given that he’s never pitched above Double-A, but he could potentially be a factor later in the season.

Circling back to the Rangers, with Kiner-Falefa out of the picture and Jung on the shelf for around six months, they will have to decide what do about third base for this season. In-house options include Andy Ibanez, Nick Solak, Yonny Hernandez and Sherten Apostel. They could also turn their attention towards outside addition, although a tweet from Jeff Wilson casts doubt about a pursuit of Kris Bryant.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rangers, Brandon Workman Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers are signing reliever Brandon Workman to a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link). Presumably, the 33-year-old will get a look in big league camp.

Workman, a UT-Austin product, has seven years of big league experience to his name. He worked in a swing capacity with the Red Sox from 2013-14, but he lost most of the following two seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. Upon returning from that procedure in 2017, Workman moved full-time into relief and found a fair amount of success.

The right-hander worked at least 39 innings with an ERA below 3.30 in every season from 2017-19. He was an utterly dominant late-game option in 2019, when he pitched to a 1.88 ERA in 71 2/3 frames and saved 16 games. Few pitchers could match the combination of strikeouts (36.4%) and grounders (51.1%) Workman put up that season, although he did walk a fine line with his control (15.7% walk percentage).

Workman had been a capable strike-thrower for his career until 2019. But he’s continued to dole out plenty of free passes in recent seasons even as his strikeout and ground-ball numbers have fallen back to ordinary levels. Over the past two seasons, he’s suited up with three clubs (the Red Sox, Phillies and Cubs) and combined for 47 2/3 innings of 5.66 ERA ball. He’s been hit at a .330/.426/.522 clip, with a dramatically reduced 20.3% strikeout rate and an elevated 14.3% walk percentage.

Those past two years of struggles dictate that Workman will have to pitch his way back into the big leagues as a non-roster player. Still, it’s sensible for the Rangers to take a look at a reliever who’s not too far removed from finding major league success. Texas’ bullpen mix is almost entirely wide open, with Joe Barlow and Spencer Patton perhaps the only right-handed locks for season-opening spots.

Report: “Industry Expectation” That Clayton Kershaw Will Return To Dodgers

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For months, it has been widely anticipated that Clayton Kershaw’s next destination will be one of the Dodgers or Rangers. Buster Olney of ESPN hears (Twitter link) “heavy industry expectation” the three-time Cy Young Award winner will be returning to Los Angeles.

Kershaw has kept his plans for the 2022 season fairly quiet, although at last check, it sounded as if he intended to continue playing. That wasn’t a given at the outset of the offseason, though. The Dodgers made the surprising decision not to issue Kershaw an $18.9MM qualifying offer, and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman suggested that decision was to give the eight-time All-Star more time to mull his future.

I know (Kershaw) wants to take a little time with (his wife) Ellen and figure out what’s best for them and also more importantly, get to a point where he feels good health wise. We have no reason to believe that he won’t,” Friedman said in November. Los Angeles’ lead executive made clear the decision not to tag Kershaw with a QO wasn’t at all motivated by the team not wanting him to return in 2022. “We’ve made it very clear that if Kersh wants to come back, he will always have a spot with what he’s meant to this organization — not just looking back but with what we think he can do for us next year.”

Kershaw has already cemented himself as one of the greatest pitchers in both franchise and major league history. He’s won five ERA titles in Dodger Blue, posting a sub-3.00 mark in eleven of his last thirteen seasons. Last year’s 3.55 figure was his highest since his 2008 rookie season. That that kind of still-impressive run prevention was Kershaw’s worst in thirteen years is remarkable, and his underlying numbers reinforce that he remains a very valuable pitcher.

Last season, Kershaw struck out a lofty 29.5% of batters faced while walking a minuscule 4.3% of opponents. His 16.7% swinging strike rate was a personal best, the number one mark in the league among pitchers with 100+ innings. Kershaw ranked sixth in strikeout/walk rate differential (25.2 percentage points) and fifth in SIERA (3.10). That’s top-of-the-rotation caliber production on a rate basis, although his market has been clouded by a late-season health scare.

The southpaw missed two months between July and September due to inflammation in his elbow/forearm area. He returned to make a few starts but dealt with renewed discomfort in his final regular season outing. That forced him to undergo a season-ending platelet-rich plasma injection, although he avoided surgery and has generally been expected to be a full-go for the start of the upcoming campaign.

Plenty of teams would be in touch with Kershaw’s reps at Excel Sports Management were he shopping his services around the league. However, there’s never been any indication he’s considering signing anywhere other than the Dodgers — with whom he’s spent his entire career — or his hometown Rangers. Texas, which is managed by former Dodgers coach Chris Woodward, has been open about their desire to bring him back to the Dallas area. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News wrote last night that Texas had the payroll flexibility to make a run at both Kershaw and A’s first baseman Matt Olson, two players whom the club apparently regards as special targets. However, it has always seemed that Kershaw’s decision would come down to his preferred fit more than the amount of dollars teams would put on the table.

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