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Kluber, Leclerc, Santana Won’t Return To Rangers This Season

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SEPT. 9: Santana underwent elbow surgery and will miss seven to eight months, TR Sullivan of MLB.com tweets. That could jeopardize at least some of Santana’s 2021 campaign, which will be his final arbitration-eligible season. After Santana made a prorated $3.6MM this season, the Rangers will have to decide whether to keep him on the heels of a rough year.

SEPT. 5: Three injured Rangers players are done for the season, as manager Chris Woodward told reporters (including Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News) that Corey Kluber, Jose Leclerc, and Danny Santana won’t return to action in 2020.  Kluber and Leclerc were each already on the 45-day injured list with teres major problems, while Santana has been on the 10-day IL since August 28 due to a right elbow strain.

The Rangers expected all three to be key contributors this season, hoping for a repeat of Santana’s breakout 2019 numbers, Leclerc to return to his 2018 form after a somewhat shaky 2019, and for Kluber to bounce back from an injured-plagued 2019 season that ultimately closed the book on the former ace’s tenure in Cleveland.

Instead, Kluber pitched in just one inning of one game for Texas before hitting the IL with a grade 2 tear of the teres major muscle.  Leclerc only banked two games before suffering a strain in his own teres major muscle, while Santana has been limited to 63 PA in 15 games (and only a .145/.238/.273 slash line) thanks to two trips to the injured list.  A right forearm strain put Santana on the 10-day IL on August 2 and kept him out of action until the middle of the month.

Leclerc is under contract through at least the 2022 season, while Santana has one more year of arbitration eligibility remaining before hitting free agency in the 2021-22 offseason.  Santana obviously won’t earn much of a raise on his $3.6MM salary for 2020, but given how the Rangers (like many teams) are planning on a lower payroll next season, it is conceivable that Santana could be non-tendered and then pursued at a lower price than a salary in the ballpark of $3.6 or $3.7MM.

Of course, a big chunk of money will be coming off the Rangers’ books in the form of Kluber’s contract, as Texas is surely unlikely to exercise its $18MM club option on the veteran righty for the 2021 campaign.  With just 36 2/3 total innings pitched since the start of the 2019 season, Kluber will be hard-pressed to find anything more than a single guaranteed year on his next contract, though his track record could still land him another Major League deal.  We aren’t far removed, after all, from the dominant five-year stretch Kluber delivered in the Indians’ rotation from 2014-18 — 2.85 ERA, 10.1 K/9, 5.51 K/BB rate, two AL Cy Young Awards, and an average of 218 innings pitched.

Rangers Place Jose Leclerc On 45-Day Injured List

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5:40pm: The Rangers announced that Leclerc will be shut down for at least four weeks and will undergo platelet-rich plasma treatment later this week. He’s been placed on the 45-day injured list, which opens a spot on the 45-man roster.

5:05pm: Rangers closer Jose Leclerc has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 strain of the teres major in his right shoulder, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram). It’s the same diagnosis that recently sidelined Corey Kluber for the bulk of the 2020 season, though the club believes Leclerc’s injury to be a bit less severe. An exact timeline isn’t clear just yet, but Leclerc will miss a significant portion of the shortened 2020 season.

It’s not immediately cleae who’ll step into the ninth inning in Leclerc’s absence. Nick Goody got the call and converted a save last night with Leclerc unavailable, and he’s one of the more experienced arms in the Texas ’pen (despite being claimed off release waivers this winter). Veterans Jesse Chavez and Edinson Volquez are the only other relievers on the roster who have even two full years of Major League service time. A committee of sorts seems likeliest for now, although Goody’s perfect inning last night could give him the inside track if the Rangers opt to go with a set ninth-inning option.

Leclerc, 26, showed the ability to miss bats in bunches as a rookie in 2017 but demonstrated alarming control issues that year. In 2018, he looked to have put everything together, though, when he fired 57 2/3 frames of 1.56 ERA ball with 12 saves, 13.3 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9. That electric showing led the Rangers to sign him to a four-year, $14.75MM extension in March 2019. He stumbled out of the gates last year, but after a miserable month of April the flamethrowing righty pitched to a 3.57 ERA with 86 strikeouts against 30 walks in 58 frames.

The Rangers still have Leclerc signed through at least the 2022 season, and his contract contains affordable options for the 2023 and 2024 seasons: $6MM and $6.25MM, respectively. Leclerc is earning $2.25MM in 2020 (about $810K, prorated) and is guaranteed $4MM in 2021 and $4.75MM in 2022.

8 AL West Pitchers Looking For Bounce-Back Years

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Our preseason series exploring potential bounce-back candidates for 2020 began with a look at several AL West hitters hoping to rebound. Let’s stay in the division and focus on a group of talented pitchers who want to put disappointing seasons behind them…

Corey Kluber, RHP, Rangers: Kluber was the Rangers’ highest-profile offseason pickup and someone who’s now near the front of a revamped rotation, but the Indians decided the 33-year-old was expendable in the wake of a truncated 2019. In a limited number of innings (35 2/3), Kluber came nowhere near his two-time Cy Young form, notching a 5.80 ERA/4.06 FIP, and didn’t pitch past May 1 as a result of a broken forearm. Kluber did strike out almost 10 batters per nine when he was healthy enough to take the mound, but he offset that with some of the worst walk (3.79 BB/9), groundball (40 percent) and average fastball velocity (91.6 mph) marks of his career. With the Rangers holding an $18MM option or a $1MM buyout over him for 2021, this is an especially pivotal season for Kluber.

Jose Leclerc, RHP, Rangers: Leclerc was an absolute force during a breakout 2018, but his run prevention numbers took noticeable steps backward because of control problems. He lost his job as the Rangers’ closer at one point early in the year and wound up with a 4.33 ERA and 5.11 BB/9 in 68 2/3 innings. However, the 26-year-old did get a lot better after a terrible May, and he also concluded with 13.11 K/9 and a career-high 96.8 mph average fastball velocity (1.5 mph better than he recorded during his dream ’18).

Andrew Heaney, LHP, Angels: Considering their lack of high-end pitching additions in the offseason, it’s particularly important for the the Angels to get a healthy and better version of Heaney in 2020. Injuries victimized Heaney last year, holding him to 95 1/3 innings of 4.91 ERA/4.63 FIP ball. He also struggled to induce grounders (33.6 percent), which helped lead to an 18.3 percent home run-to-fly ball rate. But Heaney did log 11.14 K/9 against 2.83 BB/9 with a personal-best average fastball velocity (92.5 mph) and a career-high swinging-strike rate (14.1 percent).

Lou Trivino, RHP, Athletics: Trivino had an outstanding rookie year from the A’s bullpen in 2018, but with the clear exception of his 97 mph-plus velocity, just about everything went downhill last season. Fewer strikeouts and more walks meant far more runs against, with Trivino’s ERA/FIP shooting from the twos and threes to 5.25/4.53 over 60 frames during a year that ended early because of rib issues. And Trivino wasn’t as lucky as he was a rookie, as his batting average on balls in play and strand rate each went the wrong way. On a more encouraging note, the 28-year-old did rank near the top of the majors in a few notable Statcast categories, including average exit velocity against (85.5 mph).

Joakim Soria, RHP, Athletics: Soria was another A’s reliever who may not have produced as the team hoped he would have in 2019. The A’s signed Soria to a two-year, $15MM deal in December 2018 after a terrific season between the White Sox and Brewers, but for the most part, he couldn’t match what he did then. That’s not to say Soria was bad – he still posted a 4.30 ERA/3.62 FIP with 10.3 K/9 and 2.61 BB/9, and his mean fastball velocity remained in the 93 mph range. Also, as with Trivino, Soria was something of a Statcast favorite, mostly earning good marks in that area.

Yusei Kikuchi, LHP, Mariners: On the heels of an excellent tenure in his homeland of Japan, Kikuchi was a high-profile signing for the Mariners entering the 2019 campaign. They guaranteed Kikuchi $56MM on a contract that could max out at $109MM, but Year 1 of the deal probably didn’t go to the Mariners’ liking. In his first season in the majors, the 28-year-old recorded a 5.46 ERA/5.71 FIP – both among the worst in the game – across 161 2/3 innings. He relied primarily on a fastball-slider-curve mix, but all three of those offerings ranked among the least effective of their kind, per FanGraphs. Kikuchi did walk fewer than three hitters per nine, though his K/9 (6.46) placed sixth from the bottom out of 75 pitchers who accumulated at least 150 innings.

Carl Edwards Jr., RHP, Mariners: It wasn’t long ago that Edwards was a key component of the Cubs’ bullpen. As recently as 2018, he put up a 2.60 ERA/2.93 FIP with 11.6 K/9 across 52 innings, though that stellar production did come in spite of a 5.54 BB/9 and a lowly 28.9 percent groundball rate. Edwards found a way to dodge home runs then, as he gave them up on just 3.8 percent of the many fly balls he allowed, but he wasn’t able to do so during an abbreviated, shoulder injury-plagued 2019 in the majors. Edwards only totaled 17 innings between the Cubs and Padres (his other 17 2/3 frames came in Triple-A ball), and he gave up HRs 15 percent of the time en route to an abysmal 8.47 ERA/5.74 FIP. His control got worse along the way, as he surrendered almost seven walks per nine, and so did his strikeout rate. Edwards fanned a little over 10 hitters per nine, but his strikeout percentage fell almost six points from the prior year, while his swinging-strike rate dropped nearly 4 percent. Still, for $950K, you can’t fault the Mariners for rolling the dice.

Yoshihisa Hirano, RHP, Mariners: Hirano’s another low-cost bullpen flier for the Mariners, whom they inked for $1.6MM last month. No doubt, they’re hoping they get a version of Hirano closer to 2018 than ’19. The former Diamondback recorded a 2.44 ERA/3.69 FIP in his first year in the majors, but those numbers rose to 4.75 and 4.04, respectively, last season. Hirano also generated fewer ground balls, gave up more home runs and issued more walks, though he did see his K percentage go up almost 4 percent, finishing with 10.36 per nine. Like the Edwards signing, there’s little to no harm from the M’s perspective in taking a chance on a rebound.

Rangers Notes: Globe Life Field, Rendon, Rodriguez

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We’ll check in on some news coming out Arlington over the past 24 hours.

  • Globe Life Field, the new ballpark slated to open in 2020, caught fire yesterday afternoon (reported with video by Anthony Andro). Fortunately, no one was injured, relays Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, who notes that the blaze was quickly contained by the Arlington Fire Department. A team spokesperson confirmed to Wilson that work will continue on the facility while an investigation into the fire’s cause is underway. Globe Life Field is slated to host its first exhibition game March 23. Texas’ regular-season home opener is March 31. Whether the incident will delay completion of the facility is not yet clear.
  • Texas put forth a six-year, $192MM offer to Anthony Rendon, which fell well shy of the seven-year, $245MM bid that wooed him to Anaheim. That figure, though, may not have been as high as Texas was willing to go for the superstar third baseman. The club viewed their $192MM proposal as a “starting point,” per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, but Rendon’s camp seemingly never reengaged with them before he signed with the Angels. Whether and to what extent the Rangers would have gone further is unclear.
  • Having missed out on Rendon and seemingly not in play for Josh Donaldson, the Rangers may now pivot to the trade market to address holes on the roster, Grant further reports. Among those drawing interest from other teams are catching prospect Sam Huff and reliever Emmanuel Clase, in addition to the previously-reported José LeClerc.
  • Rendon pursuit notwithstanding, the Rangers didn’t come away from San Diego empty-handed. One executive tells the Athletic’s Peter Gammons (via Twitter) that Texas’ signing of left-handed reliever Joely Rodríguez to a two-year, $5MM deal was “the most underrated move of the Winter Meetings.” Rodríguez hasn’t had much success in affiliated ball, but he thrived in Japan, working to a 1.85 ERA with a 103:28 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 87.2 innings in NPB. Interestingly, Gammons notes that Rodríguez is now reportedly sporting a 97-99 MPH fastball. In his most recent MLB action, he averaged just 94.07 MPH on his four-seamer, per Brooks Baseball.

Pitching Rumors: Ryu, Leclerc, Betances, Hader, Thor

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Earlier this week, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register and other reporters that he has discussed a new deal for Hyun-Jin Ryu with agent Scott Boras. For now, though, Ryu’s under the impression his longtime club isn’t particularly interested in bringing him back. “If the Dodgers wanted to re-sign me, they would have told my agent,” the left-hander said (via Yonhap News Agency). “I haven’t heard from him yet, and honestly, I don’t have much to tell you right now.” Ryu and Madison Bumgarner, another potential Dodgers target, represent the two best free-agent starters left in a market that has lost Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg over the past few days. Should the Dodgers fail to sign either of them, it’s unclear where they’ll turn if they’re determined to land another high-end starter.

  • Rangers right-handed reliever Jose Leclerc is generating “a lot of interest” from other clubs, Levi Weaver of The Athletic tweets. That said, it’s not known whether the Rangers are open to trading their most valuable reliever – whom they signed to a team-friendly extension last offseason. The hard-throwing Leclerc, 25, is controllable for five more seasons (including two club options) and is only due a guaranteed $12.25MM over the rest of his deal. That’s one of the reasons he’d likely bring back a quality haul in a trade, which could create a conundrum for general manager Jon Daniels.
  • It appears increasingly likely that reliever Dellin Betances’ time with the Yankees is up. There’s no “active dialogue” between the Yankees and the free-agent righty’s camp, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports. The 31-year-old Betances was excellent as a Yankee until injuries derailed him in 2019, when he faced a total of two batters. It seems the Yankees have turned their attention to another established reliever, Brewers lefty Josh Hader, whom they’re reportedly pursuing on the trade market. But Sherman throws a bit of cold water on that, writing that the two teams “did not seem to have substantial traction” in talks as the Winter Meetings wrapped up.
  • The Mets just added two starters in Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha, giving them at least viable rotation candidates. Those somewhat modest signings won’t affect righty Noah Syndergaard’s place on the team’s roster, though. GM Brodie Van Wagenen continues to insist the Mets are not going to trade Syndergaard, Sherman relays. In fact, with Jacob deGrom, Syndergaard, Marcus Stroman, Steven Matz, Porcello and Wacha as the Mets’ top six starters, Van Wagenen’s of the belief that they have the deepest rotation in baseball.

West Notes: Posey, Leclerc, La Stella, Padres

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This has been a career-worst offensive season for Giants catcher Buster Posey, but the hip surgery the potential Hall of Famer underwent a year ago may be among the reasons for his decline at the plate, as John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle observes. If so, there’s hope Posey will bounce back in 2020, when he’ll turn 33. “It’s at least a year before you get back closer to what you were. Hey, this guy wasn’t able to do much during the winter,” outgoing manager Bruce Bochy told Shea. “We had to watch his workload this spring, and we’ve done it during the season, to be honest.” If Posey doesn’t come close to revisiting his prior form early next year, it could give the Giants all the more reason to hasten the promotion of their No. 1 prospect, catcher Joey Bart, whom they chose second overall in the 2018 draft. Whenever Bart does arrive in San Francisco, he’ll have a tremendous mentor in Posey. “One of the greatest gifts you can give to a young player is to have his back and support him whenever he gets here and try to help him grow,” said Posey, who expresses a willingness in Shea’s piece (which is worth a full read) to eventually see more time at first base if necessary. The 2020 campaign will be the eighth season of a nine-year, $167MM contract for Posey, owner of a full no-trade clause.

  • Rangers right-hander Jose Leclerc was one of baseball’s standout relievers in 2018, but this season got off to a horrific start for the 25-year-old. After he yielded 10 earned runs on 13 hits and eight walks (with 13 strikeouts) in 8 1/3 innings in April, the Rangers removed Leclerc from the closer’s role at the outset of May. Leclerc has since revived his season and regained the job, though, and odds are that he’ll enter 2020 as the Rangers’ go-to game-ending option, according to manager Chris Woodward (via Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram). “As of right now, yeah,” Woodward said when asked if Leclerc’s the in-house favorite to close next year. The presence of Leclerc – he of the 4.10 ERA/3.66 FIP with 13.15 K/9, 5.09 BB/9 and 13 saves on 17 tries over 63 2/3 innings – should enable the Rangers to focus on more pressing needs when the offseason arrives, Wilson writes.
  • Injured Angels infielder Tommy La Stella was aiming for a mid-September return just a couple weeks ago, though he still hasn’t come back from the fractured right tibia he suffered July 3. Now, with just two weeks left in the Angels’ season, there’s still no timetable for a comeback, Bill Ladson of MLB.com relays. It seems possible we’ve seen the last of La Stella in 2019, which would put him in company with a few notable out-for-the-year Angels in Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and Justin Upton. The 30-year-old La Stella unexpectedly earned the first All-Star nod of his career before landing on the IL, on the strength of a .300/.353/.495 line with 16 home runs and 2.2 fWAR in 312 plate appearances.
  • Padres catcher Luis Torrens hasn’t played in the majors since 2017, the season after the club acquired him during the Rule 5 Draft. Torrens, then 21, was clearly in over his head that year. He batted a meager .163/.243/.203 in 139 plate appearances in the bigs, but the Padres still haven’t given up on him a couple years later. And Torrens performed so well at the Double-A level this season that he’ll be in the mix to win a major league spot next spring, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune suggests. Not only has Torrens hit .300/.373/.500 with 15 homers in 397 trips to the plate this year, but his defensive progress has impressed the San Diego organization. “The video I see, his energy behind the plate is incredible,” said Padres bench coach Rod Barajas, a former MLB catcher. “He’s a spark plug back there.” It seems Torrens will be part of a battle that will also consist of Francisco Mejia, Austin Hedges and Austin Allen next spring. In the meantime, he’ll start “a few” games in the majors before this season ends, per manager Andy Green.

Rangers Notes: Kiner-Falefa, Pence, Closer, Volquez

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The Rangers have essentially put an end to Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s days as a catcher, writes Jeff Wilson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram. Kiner-Falefa, 24, was drafted as an infielder and didn’t suit up behind the plate until being asked to learn the position in 2016. He’s logged 30-plus games behind the dish each year since that 2016 campaign, and manager Chris Woodward said this week that Kiner-Falefa might catch on rare occasions, but he’ll now function primarily as an infielder. Learning such a demanding position in the upper minors and at the MLB level is no easy task, and Kiner-Falefa candidly acknowledged that while he was 100 percent dedicated to learning the craft, he was still uncomfortable behind the plate. “When I was catching this year, I was feeling a lot of pressure just based on the pitcher’s career,” he said. “I did everything I could to call the game the right way, be the best receiver I could possibly, and I kind of forgot everything else.” Kiner-Falefa added that he feels as though he’s “home” again, returning to his infield roots.

More out of Arlington…

  • Hunter Pence isn’t bothered by seeing his role with the club reduced as Texas auditions younger players down the stretch, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. Rather, he took the reduced role in stride and called a team meeting to urge that the entire roster buy into the youth movement. “I’m going to put my best foot forward no matter the situation,” Pence explained. “I’m happy every day I am at the park, and I’m going to give everything I have … Part of being on a team is not worrying about playing time. Whether I play less, more or the same, I will give what I have.” Fellow veteran Shin-Soo Choo echoed the sentiment, praising Woodward’s communication and the manner in which he cares for his players. Choo is under contract with the Rangers next season, so the play of the team’s young talent down the stretch could impact his role next season. Pence, a strong candidate for Comeback Player of the Year, is a free agent at season’s end, though one can only assume he has interest in re-upping with his hometown team.
  • While Shawn Kelley had been closing games for the Rangers prior to landing on the injured list last month, he’ll return to a setup role now that he’s been activated, Woodward said yesterday (link via Brian Dulik of MLB.com). Jose Leclerc lost the handle on ninth-inning duties earlier this season but has regained that role for the time being despite a recent blown save and a total of four runs allowed in seven innings since the All-Star break. With Texas fading from Wild Card contention, it makes sense to put Leclerc back into the role the club envisioned when signing him to an extension during Spring Training. The Rangers are obviously invested in helping the flamethrowing young righty return to form and surely still hope that he’ll be a top-tier late-inning option for them for the foreseeable future.
  • The Rangers announced yesterday that veteran righty Edinson Volquez is embarking on a minor league rehab assignment, beginning with the club’s Rookie-level Arizona League affiliate. The 36-year-old Volquez made a brief return from his second career Tommy John surgery early in the season, only to go down with another elbow issue that has sidelined him since April. Volquez initially feared a third tear of his UCL, but it seems he’s avoided that fate. Now, he hopes to make it back to a big league mound for one last run in 2019 so that he can retire on his own terms following the season.

NL Trade Rumors: Gore, Padres, Mets, Leclerc, Nats, Braves, Jays

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Some buzz from around the National League as we approach the deadline…

  • The Mets’ surprise acquisition of Marcus Stroman has sparked even more rumors about a possible Noah Syndergaard trade, with the Padres one of the teams (if pessimistically so) still in talks about Syndergaard.  While the Padres have a deep farm system’s worth of prospects to offer, one name that isn’t available is top pitching prospect MacKenzie Gore, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweets.  Gore has been mentioned as a possible trade chip in quite a few speculative deals since the offseason, though the Padres reportedly consider the young left-hander to be next to untouchable.  Ironically, the Mets themselves may have contributed to the Padres’ stance on not including Gore in a Syndergaard trade — since the Mets didn’t have to give up even a top-100 MLB.com-ranked prospect for Stroman, San Diego can argue that a consensus top-10 arm like Gore is too much to give up for Syndergaard.
  • Also from Morosi, the Nationals have interest in Rangers righty Jose Leclerc.  Washington has been connected to a wide range of relievers, and Leclerc boasts a 3.99 ERA, 3.27 K/BB rate, and a huge 13.7 K/9 over 47 1/3 IP for Texas this season, not to mention a long-term contract that could keep him until team control through the 2024 campaign.  Needless to say, all these attributes would require a big return to pry him loose from Texas, which could be tricky for a Nats organization that isn’t overly deep on minor league talent.
  • The history between Atlanta general manager Alex Anthopoulos and the Blue Jays led to some speculation that the Jays and Braves were resistant to trading with each other.  Though The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal recently noted that Toronto’s “stance has softened,” it might not have dropped altogether, as The Athletic’s David O’Brien tweeted that “the word was that Toronto would deal with him [Anthopoulos], but would ask for more from [the] Braves” in talks involving Marcus Stroman than they would from other teams.  Stroman is off the table now, of course, though it would be interesting to know if this reported stance from the Jays extends to other trade chips who could be on Atlanta’s radar, like Ken Giles.

Braves Targeting Pitching From Royals, Rangers

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The Braves have a relatively strong hold on the National League East as they have pushed their lead back up to 5 1/2 games over the Nationals and 6 1/2 games over the Phillies. Much like their trailers in the East, the Braves are exploring reinforcements for a bullpen that has let the club down at times.

Much like other contenders, the Braves have looked into acquiring lefty Jake Diekman from the Royals, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (via Twitter). Diekman remains one of the most likely players to move before Wednesday’s deadline, but the Royals are apparently in no rush to make a decision. Bowman names Ian Kennedy as another name that makes sense for the Braves, though the Royals are less interested in paying down the money owed Kennedy, making him a less likely target.

Though the same targets seem to make their way around the rumor mill from team-to-team, the Braves have not yet been tied to oft-rumored Tigers Shane Greene, Nicholas Castellanos or Matthew Boyd. A more likely trading partner for Atlanta is the Rangers, who can offer Mike Minor for the rotation or right-hander Jose Leclerc out of the pen.

Both Rangers come with future years of control, with Leclerc in particular being an interesting target as the 25-year-old recently signed an extension that has him under contract for five years after this season (through 2024). After recording 12 saves with a 1.56 ERA 59 games last season, Leclerc struggled out of the gate this year, ultimately losing his closer’s role and even taking a few turns as an Opener. That said, he turned things around since the slow start, currently holding a 4.02 ERA (3.31 FIP) in 47 games, making him worth 1.0 WAR by measure of both Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs.

It would be at least understandable if the Rangers were looking for a mulligan on the Leclerc extension, but that’s not to say they’re looking to sell low on their power righty. The Braves plethora of pitching in the upper levels of the minors give them the bullets they need to acquire whomever they need, should they decide to pull the trigger.

Rangers’ Jose Leclerc, Chris Martin Drawing Interest

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It wasn’t long ago that the Rangers looked as if they were likely to buy at the July 31 trade deadline, but the club’s now plummeting down the standings. Losers of seven straight, the Rangers sit 50-49 and six games back of a wild-card spot. The club could sell before the deadline as a result, with Mike Minor, Hunter Pence and Danny Santana representing a few of its players who have drawn reported interest of late. Add right-handed relievers Jose Leclerc and Chris Martin to the group, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

Between Leclerc and Martin, the former clearly boasts more trade value. Leclerc’s a season removed from performing like one of the game’s very best relievers, and he’s controllable for the foreseeable future at team-friendly prices. After Leclerc’s dominant 2018, the Rangers locked him up to a four-year, $14.75MM guarantee with club options for $6MM (2023) and $6.25MM (’24).

Although the 25-year-old Leclerc hasn’t been the force he was last season, he has largely moved past a dismal opening to 2019. Leclerc owned an ERA upward of 7.00 through April, causing the Rangers to remove him as their closer, but that number is now a more palatable 4.20. The hard-throwing Leclerc’s 3.44 FIP is far better, while his 13.6 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 comprise an above-average K/BB ratio (3.09).

Martin – another high-velocity option – has been effective this season, but the 33-year-old is down to his last couple months of team control. He’s making $2.25MM to close out the two-year, $4MM contract he signed with the Rangers in 2018 after pitching in Japan over the previous two seasons.

Martin walked just over a batter per nine innings last year in his stateside return, but the figure has shrunk to a tiny .73 this season. He’s also striking out 9.97, helping Martin to the majors’ leading K/BB ratio (13.67) among qualified relievers. Martin has also posted an attractive ERA (3.16), though FIP (4.06) isn’t nearly as bullish. It’s also worth noting home runs have become an extreme problem for Martin, who has yielded 1.95 per nine after averaging a bit more than one over the same span in 2018. Oddly enough, Martin’s newfound HR troubles have come despite a massive groundball increase. He has induced them 49 percent of the time in 2019 after doing so at a 40.5 percent clip last season.

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