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Rangers To Purchase Contract Of Kyle Lohse

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The Rangers have announced that they’ll purchase the contract of Kyle Lohse in time for him to start tomorrow’s ballgame. Righty Nick Martinez has been optioned to open an active roster spot.

[Related: Updated Rangers Depth Chart]

Lohse, 37, joined the Texas organization on a minor league deal earlier in the season and has been working at the Triple-A level. Over 58 2/3 innings through ten starts, he has put up a rather unsightly 5.06 ERA, though a 61.4% strand rate isn’t doing him any favors.

While Lohse’s minor league performance doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence, the Rangers are in need of rotation arms and will see what he has left in the tank. And there’s at least some reason to hope that the veteran can deliver useful innings for a big league staff.

Across his 15 MLB campaigns, Lohse owns a 4.37 ERA with 5.8 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9. His earned run average ballooned to 5.85 last year, but that broke a string of four consecutive years in which Lohse’s ERA never drifted above the mid-3’s. Beyond that, the underlying peripherals looked much the same as ever and Lohse was still working at his customary ~89 mph level with the fastball.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/16/16

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the game.

  • The Rangers sent lefty reliever Andrew Faulkner to Triple-A and recalled righty Nick Martinez, according to John Henry of MLB.com. Prior to the move, Faulkner tossed 4 1/3 innings for the Rangers and allowed four earned runs, five hits and three walks while striking out just one batter. Martinez logged extensive time in the majors last season, totaling 125 innings of 3.96 ERA ball with Texas. ERA estimators like FIP (4.98) and xFIP (4.99) thought far less of his performance. He’ll serve as a long reliever and spot starter for the Rangers.
  • The Brewers have called up righty Zach Davies from Triple-A Colorado Springs to make a spot start against the Pirates on Sunday, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter link). In a corresponding move, they sent outfielder Keon Broxton down to Colorado Springs. Davies, whom the Brewers acquired from the Orioles last year, fared respectably in his first big league action in 2015. In six starts (34 innings), he put up a 3.71 ERA to go along with a 6.35 K/9 and 3.97 BB/9. Broxton went without a hit and struck out 11 times in 18 plate appearances before the demotion.
  • The Orioles have released righty Todd Redmond, their Triple-A Norfolk Tides affiliate tweets. The 30-year-old Redmond pitched a combined 152 innings for the Blue Jays in 2013 and 2014, appearing as both a starter and as a reliever, but spent most of last season with Toronto’s Triple-A team. The O’s signed him to a minor-league deal in November, but he struggled after being sent to Norfolk, allowing 15 runs in five innings there. In his big-league career, Redmond has a 4.25 ERA, 7.9 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 171 1/3 innings.

AL West Roster Decisions: Rangers, Angels, A’s

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Hanser Alberto, Ryan Rua, and Justin Ruggiano will all make the Rangers’ roster, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News was among those to tweet.  Ruggiano, 34 in April, inked a one-year, $1.65MM major league deal with the Rangers in December.  Even though the late-February addition of Ian Desmond has made Ruggiano’s presence something of a luxury, it sounds like Texas will hang on to the veteran to start the year.

Here’s a rundown of some of the more important roster decisions to take place in the AL West today:

  • Nick Martinez has been optioned by the Rangers, which will likely make A.J. Griffin the team’s fifth starter, as The Associated Press writes.  Griffin, 28, has not pitched in a major league game since 2013 thanks to a Tommy John operation in the spring of 2014.  In 47 starts between 2012 and 2013, Griffin pitched to a 3.60 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9.
  • Veteran righty Al Alburquerque has been optioned by the Angels, per a club announcement. That may line up Cam Bedrosian for the final pen spot. He’s rung up an impressive number of opposing hitters via strikeout this spring.  Alburquerque had a rough year in 2015, but he chalked up his struggles to an offseason battle with the Chikungunya virus.  Last year, the 29-year-old (30 in June) pitched to a 4.21 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 4.8 BB/9.
  • The A’s have optioned Jesse Hahn, as MLB.com’s Jane Lee tweets.  The move likely means that Felix Doubront will serve as Oakland’s fifth starter.  The A’s acquired Doubront from the Blue Jays at last year’s trade deadline in exchange for cash.  The left-hander went on to make eight starts and three relief appearances for Oakland and posted a 5.81 ERA.

AL West Notes: Martinez, Wilson, Astros, Davis

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The Rangers optioned right-hander Nick Martinez to Triple-A following yesterday’s poor outing versus the Twins, and as Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News points out, it looks like the option will be a costly one for Martinez. The 25-year-old has already spent 18 days in the minors this season, and barring a quick recall due to an injury, his collective time at the Triple-A level will likely be large enough to prevent him from accruing a full year of service time, thus delaying his free agency by a season. However, as Grant stresses, this isn’t an instance of a team manipulating service time. Rather, Martinez’s poor outing exhausted the bullpen yesterday and eliminated the possibility of working with a short relief corps for a few days. Martinez’s recent play hasn’t done him any favors, either; he’s pitched to a 6.25 ERA over his previous 11 outings after a brilliant start to the season.

Here’s more from the AL West…

  • There’s been no final decision made on whether or not Angels lefty C.J. Wilson will undergo season-ending surgery, writes MLB.com’s Greg Garno. Wilson had a second opinion from Dr. Neal ElAttrache recently, and while the meeting revealed nothing new, per manager Mike Scioscia, the decision is solely up to Wilson. “Once he gets all the information, I’m sure we’ll get the results from it and see what C.J.’s decision is,” said Scioscia. The Angels are currently waiting for Wilson to “digest” all of the info and make the call, according to Scioscia. Wilson reportedly has eight bone spurs in his elbow which will need to be surgically removed at some point.
  • The Astros have had a rough stretch of games on the road, but GM Jeff Luhnow tells the Houston Chronicle’s Evan Drellich that he’s confident due to the quality of pitching he’s received as well as the quality of upper-level players who will join the team in September. The Astros currently have a logjam of corner/DH options that will be magnified by the return of George Springer. As Drellich writes, though, it’s difficult to justify the loss of a player like Chris Carter for little to no return (that is, by way of DFA or waiver claim) when expanded rosters are just under two weeks away.
  • Alex Hall of Athletics Nation makes a case for the A’s to cut ties with Ike Davis sooner rather than later. As Hall notes, Davis hasn’t hit since coming off the DL in May, and his $3.8MM salary figures to increase even after a down season simply due to the nature of the arbitration process. Davis only has a year of team control remaining anyhow, so he’s not likely to be a long-term piece in Oakland, and the A’s could do well to replace him with a cheaper set of lottery tickets in 2016 as opposed to paying him north of $4MM. Davis was already acquired for very little last offseason, Hall points out, and a season marred by injury and more poor performance at the plate will sap him of any meaningful trade value this winter. Releasing him now would give Davis a chance to latch on with a contending team that wants to roll the dice on his previous success in the season’s final six weeks, which would be beneficial to both Davis and the A’s, Hall concludes.

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