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Rangers Trade Daniel Robert To Phillies

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The Rangers have traded right-hander Daniel Robert, whom they’d recently designated for assignment, to the Phillies in exchange for minor league right-hander Enrique Segura, per announcements from both clubs. The Phillies optioned Robert to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Robert, 30, made his MLB debut with the Rangers in 2024 and pitched quite well in a small sample. He tossed 5 2/3 innings, holding opponents to two runs (3.18 ERA) on six hits and a pair of walks. He averaged just under 95 mph on his four-seamer, dodged hard contact of nearly any sort, and fanned six of his 26 opponents (23.1%).

It’s a tiny sample, of course, but Robert has also pitched well in the upper minors. It took several passes through Triple-A — he struggled there in 2022 and logged pedestrian numbers in 2023 before thriving in 2024 — but the recent results are impressive. Last year, Robert tossed 43 1/3 innings and notched a tidy 2.70 ERA. He punched out a weighty 31% of his opponents against a lower-than-average 7.7% walk rate. He’s picked up right where he left off so far in 2025, firing 11 2/3 frames with a 1.54 ERA, 34% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate.

Overall, Robert has a 2.45 ERA, 31.7% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 43.3% ground-ball rate in his past 55 Triple-A innings. That comes on top of his solid MLB debut in ’24. He’s averaged better than 95 mph during during that pair of Triple-A seasons and recorded a swinging-strike rate of nearly 14%. It’s been a nice run for the former 21st-round pick — who’s in the second of three minor league option years — making his DFA something of a surprise in the first place.

Given that recent run, it’s not a surprise that the Rangers were able to acquire a prospect in exchange for Robert — as opposed to the more common cash swaps we see involving players who’ve been designated for assignment. Segura entered the 2025 season ranked 21st among Phillies prospects, per FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen. He’s coming off a season in which he pitched well for six games with the Rangers’ Rookie-level club before moving up to Class-A at just 19 years old (about three years younger than the average player in that league).

Segura was hit hard in A-ball, as one might expect, but he’s been more effective there so far in 2025, his age-20 campaign. He posted a combined 5.76 earned run average in 75 minor league frames last year, all coming as a starter. This year, he’s tossed 17 innings with a 4.24 ERA, 25% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate. Those early rate stats represent modest gains over his 2024 levels (22 K%, 11.4 BB%).

Longenhagen highlights Segura’s projectable frame as reason to believe his stuff might play up as he continues to mature. That, paired with a smooth and repeatable delivery that is quite deceptive for right-handed opponents in particular, pushed him into the middle tiers of the Phillies’ prospect rankings at FanGraphs. Baseball America tabbed Segura 28th in Philadelphia’s system a couple years back, praising that same projectable build, his mechanics, and the potential for a plus slider.

Segura is a project, to be sure, but he’s a better prospect than most who are flipped in DFA trades, which seems reflective of the intriguing numbers Robert has posted over the past calendar year.

Rangers Select Tucker Barnhart, Designate Dane Dunning For Assignment

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6:12pm: Texas officially announced the Barnhart selection and Dunning’s DFA. They did not place Higashioka on the injured list tonight.

4:45pm: The Rangers are going to select catcher Tucker Barnhart to their roster, reports Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. That will give them some help behind the plate as Kyle Higashioka battles hamstring tightness. Right-hander Dane Dunning will be designated for assignment as the corresponding move. This will give the active roster a 14/12 split in terms of position players and pitchers, at least for now.

Higashioka played last night but it appears he hurt his hamstring in the process. Per Kennedi Landry of MLB.com and Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports, an injured list stint is possible but the MRI results are still pending. Whether he goes on the IL or not, it seems he might be unavailable for a day or two, so the club has brought up another backstop to support Jonah Heim.

Barnhart, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in the offseason. He has been playing for Triple-A Round Rock thus far, hitting .246/.354/.391 in 20 games for that club. He appeared in each big league season from 2014 to 2024, so this will be his 12th straight campaign if he gets into a game.

Broadly speaking, he’s been a glove-first catcher. He has a career .241/.318/.351 batting line, production which translates to a wRC+ of 78. He has tapered off a bit in recent years, with a .208/.286/.255 line and 58 wRC+ since the start of 2022, which is why he had to settle for a minor league deal.

Defensively, his framing marks have been subpar for his entire career, but better recently. With both Baseball Prospectus and Statcast, his early-career framing was considered poor, but closer to average over the past six years. His blocking and throwing have been more consistently strong. He’ll step in as Heim’s backup until Higashioka is ready to return to action.

Dunning, 30, was only added to the roster on Monday. The Rangers are in a patch of playing 13 straight games, leading to heavy use of the pitching staff. Caleb Boushley tossed two innings on Sunday, so the Rangers swapped Dunning in to take over as the club’s long man. Dunning entered last night’s game with the Rangers up 12-0 after six innings, relieving starter Jacob deGrom. Dunning absorbed the final three frames as they went on to win 15-2. He allowed two earned runs on four hits and two walks.

He’ll now head into DFA limbo and will likely be placed on waivers. Back in March, he was passed through outright waivers unclaimed, which allowed the club to keep him as non-roster depth and bring him back this week.

He and the club avoided arbitration in November, agreeing to a salary of $2.66MM this year. No club was willing to claim him and take on that salary just over a month ago, not too surprising since he had a 5.31 earned run average last year. He posted a 5.40 ERA in five starts for Round Rock before being called up this week. Since he has more than three but less than five years of service time, he will have the right to elect free agency if he clears waivers again. However, doing so would mean forfeiting what’s left of that money, so he would likely accept as he did last month.

Most clubs operate with the 13-pitcher maximum at all times but the Rangers should be okay at 12 for a short spell. Since Dunning was the only reliever to pitch last night, the rest of the bullpen got a night off. Perhaps another pitcher will be added if Higashioka goes on the IL. Or if he avoids the IL, Barnhart might be bumped off the roster for a fresh arm.

Photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images

Guardians Acquire Matt Festa From Rangers

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1:57pm: Festa indeed had an opt-out opportunity in his minor league deal tomorrow, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. It seems likely the Guardians will bring him to the big leagues soon, though the team has not yet announced as much.

9:35am: The Guardians announced Wednesday that they’ve acquired right-hander Matt Festa from the Rangers in exchange for cash. Festa isn’t on the 40-man roster at the moment, although given the timing of the move, it’s fair to wonder whether this trade was prompted by an opt-out or upward mobility clause in his minor league deal with Texas. If that’s the case, he’ll likely be selected to the major league roster in the next day or two.

Festa, 32, has pitched in parts of five big league seasons between the Mariners, Mets and Rangers. He carries a career 4.60 ERA in 117 1/3 MLB frames, during which he’s punched out one-quarter of his opponents and issued walks at a 10.3% clip. Festa has shown promise at times, most notably with the 2022 Mariners, but he’s yet to find consistency in the majors. Injuries have played a notable role, particularly a 2020 Tommy John procedure that wiped out his entire season and sidelined him for most of the 2021 campaign as well.

Entering the 2024-25 offseason, Festa was on the Rangers’ 40-man roster. He lost his spot when Texas signed Chris Martin. The Cubs picked him up in exchange for cash following that DFA. Chicago ultimately designated Festa for assignment as well, after which he cleared waivers, elected free agency and returned to the Rangers on a minor league deal.

Festa is now Cleveland-bound and will head to the Guards on the heels of a dominant showing in Triple-A. The right-hander has rattled off 14 2/3 shutout innings, striking out 32.3% of his opponents against an 11.3% walk rate. Festa has kept the ball on the ground at a hearty 47.1% clip and done a terrific job avoiding hard contact (85.9 mph average exit velocity, 23.5% hard-hit rate). He hasn’t made any big changes to his arsenal or seen a noticeable change in velocity, but the results are impressive nonetheless.

Cleveland’s bullpen has been solid but not up to its usual level of excellence. Guardians relievers have combined for a 3.72 ERA, and that includes three rough innings from position players Austin Hedges and Will Wilson in mop-up work. However, former All-Stars Emmanuel Clase and Paul Sewald have both struggled, with each sporting an earned run average north of 6.00.

Quality contributions from Cade Smith, Joey Cantillo, Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin and Jakob Junis have helped to offset those troubles, and Festa could soon get a crack at chipping in himself. The Guardians currently have veterans Vince Velasquez and Kolby Allard in the bullpen, both of whom signed minor league deals. Neither can be optioned to Triple-A, but their presence speaks to the unsettled nature of Cleveland’s final couple bullpen spots.

Poll: Should The Rangers Be Worried About Marcus Semien?

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On balance, Rangers fans are surely happy that the club signed Marcus Semien prior to the 2022 season. After all, his second year with the club saw him make the AL All-Star team, finish as a finalist for the AL MVP award for the third time in his career, and join the rest of the Rangers in hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy after bringing home the first World Series championship in franchise history. Flags fly forever, so in a sense that surprising seven-year, $175MM contract that Texas brass shelled out to convince Semien to join a team coming off a 102-loss season is already a resounding success.

Perhaps that’s a good thing, as Semien has shown some worrying signs as he enters his mid-thirties. Last season represented a notable step back from his star-level production thanks primarily to a down season at the plate. In 159 games for the Rangers last year, the veteran hit .237/.308/.391 with a 99 wRC+. It was a step back from the 126 wRC+ he had posted the previous year, but hardly out of the ordinary. 2024 was the seventh year in a row where Semien had alternated a relatively average offensive season with one where he mustered up enough offense to finish third in AL MVP voting. It’s a trend that stretched across three different teams, starting during his time in Oakland in 2018 with a pedestrian season that he followed up by crushing a then career-high 33 homers in 2019.

The trend continued when he suffered a down season during the 60-game 2020 campaign, though Semien came roaring back with a 45-homer season and 6.0 fWAR in 2021 as a member of the Blue Jays. That was the platform campaign Semien put together ahead of his decision to sign with the Rangers, and overall the first three years of that deal have been successful overall with a .254/.320/.433 (111 wRC+) with 14.8 fWAR. Despite his pedestrian season offensively last year, Semien still managed to piece together a four-win campaign thanks to him offering some of the most defensive value in the entire sport with his work at second base. Among all qualified players regardless of position last year, Semien’s +19 Outs Above Average were eclipsed by only fellow second baseman Andres Gimenez. His Fielding Run Value was similarly impressive, as his +14 figure was tied with Gimenez for the league lead among all infielders.

That sort of wizardry with the glove can make up for a pedestrian bat, but it can’t make up for the sort of numbers Semien has put up in 2025 so far. In Semien’s first 115 plate appearances this year, he’s hit a paltry .155/.226/.223, good for a 30 wRC+. That’s 70% worse than league average, and the third-weakest offensive performance in the majors among qualified hitters so far this year. That sort of offensive production is nearly impossible to make up for with the glove and on the bases, and that’s assuming Semien can replicate his elite defense from last year despite being just a few months shy of his 35th birthday. With three years and $72MM still remaining on his contract after this year, Semien’s age and brutal start to the season are clear causes for worry in Texas.

Fortunately, Semien’s underlying offensive numbers do provide reason for at least some optimism. Semien’s .175 BABIP won’t stay more than 100 points below his career mark (.281) all year long. In the power department, his 8.1% barrel rate is actually the highest he’s posted since his 45-homer campaign with the Blue Jays back in 2021, though his 31.7% hard-hit rate is the lowest its been in a 162-game season since 2017. The more concerning metrics are those regarding his plate discipline. While Semien’s 8.7% walk rate is largely unchanged from last year’s 8.9% figure, his strikeout rate jumped from 14.6% in each of the past two seasons to 20.0% so far in 2025.

That increase in strikeouts has been due to an increase in whiffs, especially outside of the strike zone. Semien’s swinging strike rate this year is up to 10.9%, a full two points higher than his career mark of 8.9% and the highest he’s posted since his 21-game cup of coffee with the White Sox back in 2013. When looking at pitches outside of the strike zone, Semien is making contact just 45.5% of the time, down more than ten points from last year. Even though Semien can expect some positive regression in the power and BABIP departments, his newfound issues with whiffs outside of the strike zone could limit his ability to be an above-average bat in the majors if not corrected.

How do MLBTR readers think Semien’s 2025 season will play out? A rebound on at least some level appears all but guaranteed, given that Billy Hunter of the 1953 St. Louis Browns is the last player to post a 30 wRC+ or lower while qualifying for the batting title. The real question appears to be whether Semien will be able to get his offense back to a level that would allow his defense to make him an above-average major leaguer. Have your say in the poll below:

Rangers Designate Daniel Robert For Assigment

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The Rangers announced that they have selected right-hander Dane Dunning and optioned right-hander Caleb Boushley, two moves that were reported earlier today. To open a 40-man spot for Dunning, right-hander Daniel Robert has been designated for assignment.

Robert, 30, was added to the club’s 40-man roster in July of last year. By the end of the season, he had made four appearances and logged 5 2/3 innings with two earned runs allowed. He has been on optional assignment for all of this year, so that is the totality of his big league experience to this point.

His work in the minors has been intriguing, though with some control issues. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has thrown 136 2/3 innings for Triple-A Round Rock. He has allowed 4.15 earned runs per nine innings with that club, who play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He had an 11.5% walk rate in that time but also punched out 28.7% of batters faced.

He’s been far better than that more recently. From the start of 2024 to the present, he has a 2.45 ERA in 55 Triple-A innings. His 31.7% strikeout rate is quite strong and he has only walked 7.8% of opponents.

Despite the strong minor league work, he has been nudged off the roster. Perhaps that’s because of his late-bloomer status. A two-way player in college who hardly pitched, his professional ascent was interrupted by the canceled 2020 season and a few injuries. When he made his major league debut in July of last year, he was on the cusp of his 30th birthday, which was in August.

Now that he’s been nudged off the roster, the Rangers will have one week to figure out his fate. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so any trade talks will have to come together in the next five days. Given his strong minor league numbers and the fact that he’s still optionable for the rest of this season and one additional year, it’s possible he’ll garner some interest from other clubs.

Photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images

Rangers To Select Dane Dunning

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Right-hander Dane Dunning is going to be added to the Rangers’ roster, per Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News. Fellow righty Caleb Boushley will be optioned to get Dunning onto the active roster but the club will need to make a corresponding move to open a 40-man roster spot. The club has not announced the moves yet.

Dunning, 30, was outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster just ahead of Opening Day. He had just wrapped up a tough spring showing, allowing 10 earned runs in 11 innings. He also had a pretty rough campaign in 2024. He posted a 5.31 ERA around some injured list stints last year. He had come into the season with a 4.16 career ERA, so that was a notable jump. Over the course of the season, he was bumped to the bullpen and also optioned to the minors for a while.

Since being outrighted, he’s been pitching out of the rotation for Triple-A Round Rock. He has a 5.40 ERA across five starts for that club, pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His 22.6% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate are both close to average but he has allowed four home runs, a rate of 17.4% per fly ball.

He’s likely ticketed for a long relief role with the big league club. The Rangers have Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle, Patrick Corbin and Jack Leiter making up their current rotation. The team has completed six contests in a 13-game stretch without an off-day, leading to heavy bullpen usage. Of their eight relievers, all of them have pitched at least twice in the past six days. Luke Jackson, Chris Martin and Robert Garcia have each pitched in three of the past four days.

With the staff fairly gassed, Dunning will provide manager Bruce Bochy with a guy who could potentially take a few innings of mop-up duty. Dunning tossed 5 1/3 innings in his most recent outing, which was on Thursday. He still has an option remaining, so he can be optioned back down to Round Rock whenever the need for a fresh arm arises again.

Photo courtesy of William Purnell, Imagn Images

Orioles Claim Walter Pennington

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The Orioles have claimed left-hander Walter Pennington off unconditional release waivers, reports MLBTR’s Steve Adams. The Rangers had designated the lefty for assignment last week. His transaction tracker at MLB.com listed him as released by the Rangers over the weekend but the O’s put in a claim. The Orioles had an open 40-man spot and won’t need to make a corresponding move.

Pennington, 27, made his major league debut with the Royals last year but was flipped to the Rangers in July as part of the Michael Lorenzen trade. Between those two clubs, he tossed 18 innings in the big leagues last year. He allowed 3.00 earned runs per nine, with a 20.2% strikeout rate, 13.1% walk rate and 45.3% ground ball rate. He has posted some strong minor league numbers in recent years. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, he logged 134 innings on the farm with a 2.69 ERA, 28.6% strikeout rate, 10.2% walk rate and grounders on more than half of the balls in play he allowed.

This year, Pennington hasn’t pitched in any official action. The Rangers optioned him to Triple-A Round Rock on March 9th. Per his transactions tracker, he was transferred to the club’s Arizona Complex League affiliate on March 28th. MLBTR has learned that he is healthy and has been working on some mechanical stuff in extended spring lately.

The O’s had an open roster spot and are intrigued enough to bring him into their system, with the southpaw likely reported to Triple-A Norfolk soon. The Orioles aren’t hurting for lefty relievers, as they currently have Keegan Akin, Gregory Soto, Cionel Pérez and Grant Wolfram on the big league squad. Still, clubs always like to add more pitching depth when they can and both Pérez and Wolfram have poor numbers at the moment.

Photo courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images

West Notes: Arraez, Padres, Leiter, Tovar, Tellez

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It was a week ago tonight that Luis Arraez was carted off the field in Houston after he collided with Astros second baseman Mauricio Dubon during a play at first base.  Early concerns of a neck or jaw injury dissipated when Arraez was back in the Padres’ clubhouse later that night after a trip to the hospital, and though Arraez was placed on the concussion-related injured list, the three-time batting champ feels he will miss just the minimum seven days.

Arraez took part in a full workout with some other injured Padres players on the field today, and told MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell that he is free of concussion symptoms.  Tuesday would mark the earliest that Arraez is eligible to be activated, and he is now just “waiting for the doctor, whatever he says” about a possible okay to resume playing.

As for San Diego’s other injured players, Jason Heyward might also be activated Tuesday, as was working out on the field and is also nearing the 10-day minimum date after his IL placement for knee inflammation.  Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that Jackson Merrill and Brandon Lockridge (both out with hamstring injuries) are expected to take part in a live batting-practice session at the Padres’ spring camp on Monday, and Merrill was also feeling good enough to take part in today’s defensive workout.  Jake Cronenworth (rib fracture) is feeling good enough to take part in some light fielding drills, but Sanders notes that Cronenworth hasn’t yet attempted diving for balls.

With the weekend wrapping up, here are some more items from the NL and AL West divisions…

  • The Rangers activated Jack Leiter from the 15-day IL today, with right-hander Gerson Garabito heading to Triple-A in the corresponding move.  A blister issue had kept Leiter from pitching since April 2, and some rust was apparent, as Leiter allowed two earned runs (on four walks and two hits) over 3 1/3 innings in Texas’ 3-2 loss to the Giants.  Leiter tossed 76 pitches and was on a pitch count anyway, though obviously the Rangers would’ve preferred to see the former top prospect get a bit deeper into the game.  Leiter still has an impressive 2.03 ERA over 13 1/3 innings this season, and will continue in the rotation at least until some of the club’s other injured starters return to action.
  • Ezequiel Tovar was eligible to be activated off the Rockies’ 10-day injured list this weekend, but manager Bud Black told the Denver Post’s Jeff Saunders and other reporters that Tovar will need another 7-10 days of recovery time.  Tovar is dealing with a left hip contusion and hasn’t played since April 15, leaving the struggling Rockies short one of their few breakout players from the 2024 season.
  • Rowdy Tellez was a late scratch from the Mariners’ lineup today, as the slugger is apparently still feeling sore after being hit on the hand by a pitch in Saturday’s game.  X-rays were negative on Tellez’s hand, he told Shane Lantz of the Seattle Times and other reporters, so it appears to be a precautionary move on the Mariners’ part.  Seattle has an off-day on Monday, so Tellez will receive two full days off before his next attempt to play.

Rockies Acquire Alan Trejo, Plan To Select His Contract Sunday

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The Rockies have acquired utility infielder Alan Trejo in a trade with the Rangers. Texas receives cash considerations in return. According to Thomas Harding of MLB.com, the Rockies plan to add Trejo to their active roster ahead of Sunday’s series finale with the Reds. They will need to free up space for him on both the 26 and 40-man rosters.

This trade reunites Trejo with the team that drafted him in 2017. He made his MLB debut for the Rockies in 2021 and played in 174 games for Colorado between 2021-24. In that time, he slashed .228/.276/.334, good for just a 54 wRC+ given the harsh park adjustments for the hitter-friendly Coors Field. While Trejo never offered much with the bat, he was a versatile defender, capable of playing second base, third base, and shortstop.

After he was designated for assignment last summer, Trejo became a free agent for the first time in his career and inked a minor league pact with the Dodgers. He spent the final three months of the 2024 season with Triple-A Oklahoma City. He then elected free agency again in November and latched on with the Rangers over the offseason. While he earned an invitation to big league camp, he failed to make Texas’s Opening Day roster.

Trejo got off to a rough start in 2025 for the Round Rock Express, the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate. Through 19 games, he hit just .211 with a .599 OPS and a 45 wRC+. Nonetheless, the Rockies clearly missed his versatile glove on their bench, so they’re bringing him back into the fold. With Ezequiel Tovar, Thairo Estrada, and Tyler Freeman on the injured list, the Rockies were short enough on infielders before Aaron Schunk hit the 10-day IL with a groin strain earlier today. Trejo will provide some much-needed depth. Presumably, he will take third-string catcher Braxton Fulford’s spot on the active roster. The Rockies called Fulford back up on Saturday when Schunk was placed on the IL, just a day after Fulford was optioned to Triple-A.

Rangers Place Kumar Rocker On Injured List

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The Rangers are placing Kumar Rocker on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder impingement, manager Bruce Bochy told the team’s beat (including Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News). Gerson Garabito has been recalled to add an extra bullpen arm for the time being.

Spring Training injuries to Cody Bradford and Jon Gray opened the door for Rocker to begin the season as the fifth starter. The former #3 overall pick had blitzed through the minor leagues late last season. Rocker was utterly dominant following his return from Tommy John surgery, posting a 1.96 ERA with 55 strikeouts over 36 2/3 minor league innings. He held his own over his first three MLB starts, allowing five earned runs with 14 punchouts across 11 2/3 frames.

It has been a completely different story through the first month of this season. Rocker has been hit hard in three of his five outings. None was worse than last night’s start in Sacramento. Rocker failed to make it out of the second inning while giving up five runs in a loss to the A’s. He has surrendered an 8.10 earned run average overall. He’s striking out just 16.8% of opponents. His swinging strike rate — which had sat at a plus 13.3% mark over his three MLB appearances last September — is down to 10.8%. Rocker’s fastball is still sitting above 95 MPH on average, but the stuff clearly hasn’t been sharp.

Bochy didn’t provide a timeline for Rocker’s return. He’ll be out for at least a couple weeks, and it’s possible the Rangers will option him back to Triple-A Round Rock once he’s healthy. Patrick Corbin is in the major league rotation after his late signing delayed his season debut by a couple weeks. Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Tyler Mahle are at the top of the staff. Jack Leiter is on the IL because of a blister, but he made it through 4 2/3 scoreless innings during a rehab start on Tuesday. There’s a good chance he’ll be activated for Sunday’s game in San Francisco. He has worked 10 innings of one-run ball over his first two starts.

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