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Angels Acquire Deck McGuire, Designate Juan Graterol For Assignment

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The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve acquired right-hander Deck McGuire from the Rangers in exchange for cash. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, catcher Juan Graterol has been designated for assignment. McGuire will head to Triple-A Salt Lake, per the Angels’ announcement.

Texas claimed the 28-year-old McGuire from the Blue Jays last Friday, but he appeared in just one game with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate before being designated for assignment in order to clear a spot on the roster for the return of Elvis Andrus. Now, McGuire will change organizations for the second time in a span of less than a week.

A former first-round pick (11th overall by the Blue Jays in 2010), McGuire has yet to establish himself as a viable Major League arm. Prior to the 2018 season, in fact, he’s posted largely unsightful numbers at the Triple-A level. However, McGuire enjoyed a strong season with the Reds’ Double-A club in 2017 and carried that success with him back to the Jays organization in 2018, pitching to a 3.22 ERA with 8.1 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, 0.6 HR/9 and a 39.7 percent ground-ball rate in 44 2/3 innings at Triple-A Buffalo.

After making eight promising starts in Buffalo, the Jays summoned him to the Majors, where he was tagged for six runs on nine hits and five walks with seven strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings of relief. But the Rangers and Angels, apparently, both saw enough in his work out of the Buffalo rotation to hold some interest in seeing if the former top prospect can emerge as a late bloomer at the big league level. For the Halos, McGuire will at the very least serve as a spot start/depth option in the upper minors — an important addition following injuries to Shohei Ohtani, Matt Shoemaker, J.C. Ramirez and Nick Tropeano.

Graterol, meanwhile, has made just one plate appearance for the Halos this season, going 1-for-1 with a single. He’s been up and down with the club on multiple occasions dating back to 2016, however, and has now been designated for assignment by the Angels on three different occasions. The first of those instances saw Graterol bounce around the league, briefly landing with the D-backs, Reds and Blue Jays before making his way back to Anaheim. The defensively-sound backstop is a career .222/.225/.283 hitter in 103 MLB plate appearances but carries a more encouraging .290/.318/.349 slash in 449 PAs at the Triple-A level.

Rangers Seek To Spread Infield Playing Time

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  • The Rangers have a crowded infield mix now with Elvis Andrus re-joining the active roster. As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News explains, the organization hopes to keep all of its primary options on the field quite often, allowing Jurickson Profar to continue receiving ample opportunities while also letting Rougned Odor work through his struggles at the plate. Skipper Jeff Banister says this will be accomplished by utilizing third baseman Adrian Beltre as a DH with some frequency and allowing Andrus some extra rest. Utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa, meanwhile, is going to attempt to add to his versatility by suiting up behind the dish, as Grant tweets. It’ll be interesting to see how this situation plays out for the struggling Rangers, who could weigh trades involving several of these players. In particular, Beltre (who’ll be a free agent at season’s end) and Andrus (who can opt out of his contract) seem to be plausible candidates.

Rangers Designate Deck McGuire

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The Rangers have designated righty Deck McGuire for assignment, per a club announcement. That’s the roster move for the activation of shortstop Elvis Andrus.

McGuire was only just claimed off waivers, so the Texas organization evidently intended all along to try to sneak him back through waivers. If he clears, the 28-year-old will presumably take up a place on the depth chart at Triple-A while not occupying a 40-man spot.

Though he has seen MLB action in each of the past two seasons, McGuire hasn’t thrown enough innings to tell us much. But he does have loads of experience in the upper minors, having reached Double-A in his first season as a pro, way back in 2011. Over 335 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level, McGuire carries a 5.09 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9.

Rangers Activate Elvis Andrus

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The Rangers announced Monday that they’ve activated shortstop Elvis Andrus from the 60-day disabled list and recalled right-hander Ricardo Rodriguez from Triple-A Round Rock. Catcher Jose Trevino was optioned to Double-A Frisco in one corresponding move, while Ryan Rua was optioned to Triple-A in another. The Rangers still need to make a 40-man move to accommodate the activation of Andrus from the 60-day DL, and they’ll do so closer to game time, according to the team.

Andrus has been out since being struck by a pitch and suffering a fractured right elbow back on April 11. While the injury didn’t require surgical repair, Andrus required a lengthy period of rest and rehab leading up to today’s activation. The timing was poor for the 29-year-old impending free agent, but he’ll still have three-plus months to build his case for potentially interested teams.

Of course, Andrus is far from a lock to even reach the open market. He’s in the fourth season of an eight-year contract extension that allows him to opt out of the remaining four years. While that seemed like an impossibility after Andrus’ bat failed to develop in the first couple years of the deal, Andrus’ offense has come around in the past couple of seasons.

Dating back to 2016, he’s hitting .301/.352/.459 with 30 homers, 78 doubles, 11 triples and 49 steals (in 68 attempts). At season’s end, he’ll have to decide whether to test free agency or forgo the opt-out provision to play out the final four years and $58MM in guaranteed money on his contract.

Rougned Odor To Continue As Rangers' Starting Second Baseman

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  • The Rangers’ Jurickson Profar has easily outperformed teammate Rougned Odor this year. Despite that, the Rangers’ second base job will continue to belong to Odor, in part because of his contract, according to Jeff Wilson of the Star-Telegram. Odor still has four and a half years remaining on the six-year, $49.5MM guarantee he landed prior to 2017, and because of that, it seems Texas would rather have him try to figure things out as its starting second baseman than on its bench or in the minors. That’s not to suggest Odor will keep Profar off the diamond, though, as manager Jeff Banister said that the latter could see action five times a week at second, third and short. Profar may even emerge as the Rangers’ full-time shortstop in 2019 if Elvis Andrus opts out of his contract after this season and leaves as a free agent, Wilson points out.

Rangers Select Yovani Gallardo’s Contract

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TODAY: The move is official, as announced by Rangers executive VP of communications John Blake (Twitter link).  To create space on the 25-man and 40-man rosters, lefty Brandon Mann was optioned to Triple-A while Doug Fister was moved to the 60-day DL.  Fister hit the DL with a knee strain last weekend, and now won’t be eligible to return to the Rangers’ roster until August.

FRIDAY: The Rangers will select the contract of veteran righty Yovani Gallardo, per a club announcement. He’ll join the team in time to make a start on Sunday, at which time corresponding moves will be made.

Gallardo, 32, enjoyed his last run of success in the majors when he turned in 184 1/3 frames of 3.42 ERA pitching for the Rangers back in 2015. Through 251 MLB innings since that time, he has limped to a 5.81 ERA with 6.5 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9.

Since coming back to the Texas organization earlier this year on a minors deal, following a very brief and unsuccessful stint with the Reds, Gallardo has taken the ball for ten starts at Triple-A. He has been in solid form there, working to a 3.81 ERA with forty strikeouts and 14 free passes.

The Rangers will turn to Gallardo with Doug Fister hitting the DL and Matt Moore being pushed to the pen. If Gallardo throws well enough to stick, he might help the team cover for potential trade deadline moves (or, less likely, turn into an asset himself). The Texas pen is also increasingly hurting, with Chris Martin and Matt Bush going on the DL today.

Rangers Claim Deck McGuire, Place Matt Bush On 10-Day DL

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The Rangers have claimed righty Deck McGuire off waivers from the Blue Jays, per a club announcement. He’ll be optioned to Triple-A.

The Texas organization has also shifted righty Matt Bush to the 10-day DL with what is being called a right elbow strain. Southpaws Yohander Mendez and Brandon Mann have been called up to the MLB roster from Round Rock.

McGuire was designated for assignment recently after throwing 9 1/3 middling innings for the Jays. But he produced solid results last year in his first, brief MLB action and has been effective at Triple-A over the past two seasons.

Bush just hasn’t pitched to his prior standard thus far in 2018. His upper-nineties heater is down about a tick on average, his swinging-strike rate has dropped to 9.4%, and he’s averaging just 7.4 K/9 with 5.5 BB/9 along with a 4.70 ERA that may understate his struggles somewhat.

Rangers Move Matt Moore To Bullpen

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The Rangers are moving veteran left-hander Matt Moore from the starting rotation to the bullpen, tweets Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Fellow left-hander Yohander Mendez will start for Texas in Moore’s place on Friday.

It’s a disappointing outcome for both team and player, though Moore received perhaps a longer leash than his early results would’ve otherwise dictated. Through 56 innings with the Rangers, Moore has been hammered for a 7.88 ERA, averaging 6.6 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 and 1.29 HR/9. To be sure, there’s been some degree of poor fortune at play, as Moore’s .394 BABIP and 59.9 percent strand rate look fluky. But his K/BB numbers are still the worst of his career, and fielding-independent metrics like FIP, xFIP and SIERA all still peg him north of 5.00.

The brutal start to the season for Moore is the continuation of a rather precipitous decline for the once-vaunted prospect. Prior to the 2012 season, each of Baseball America, MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus considered Moore among the top two overall prospects in all of baseball, and he lived up to the hype early on, making the All-Star team and earning some Cy Young votes in an excellent age-24 season back in 2013.

Moore, though, required Tommy John surgery in 2014 and has never recaptured his front-of-the-rotation form since returning. He did toss 198 1/3 frames of 4.08 ERA ball between Tampa Bay and San Francisco in 2016 — a solid season that looked to set him back on track at the very least as a serviceable mid-rotation piece — but he’s followed that up with 230 1/3 innings of a 6.10 ERA and 4.83 FIP.

[Related: Texas Rangers depth chart]

Shortly after making his MLB debut, Moore agreed to a five-year, $14MM deal with the Rays that included club options for both the 2018 and 2019 seasons. While that deal long looked to be one of the best bargains in baseball, it now suddenly looks unlikely that Texas will even exercise its $10MM club option over Moore for the ’19 season. The Rangers didn’t give up much to acquire Moore and some international bonus allotments from the Giants, sending minor leaguers Israel Cruz and Sam Wolff back to the Giants in exchange. The addition was one of several low-cost pickups for the rotation this winter, but the majority of those moves have failed to pay dividends.

As for Mendez, he’s a former top 100 prospect whose star has dimmed a bit in recent years. Though he posted respectable numbers in Double-A last season, he’s off to a miserable start in Triple-A Round Rock, where he’s struggled to a 5.26 ERA with 7.0 K/9, 4.0 BB/9, 1.75 HR/9 and a 41.4 percent ground-ball rate. That said, Mendez only turned 23 back in January and has pitched better over his past five appearances (4.00 ERA, 25-to-9 K/BB ratio in 27 innings), and frankly, Moore’s persistent struggles simply make it difficult to keep trotting him out there as a starter.

Rangers Agree To Terms With First-Rounder Cole Winn

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June 12: Sullivan tweets that Winn has agreed to a $3.15MM value that comes in below the recommended slot value.

June 10: The Rangers are in the final stages of an agreement with first-round pick Cole Winn, according to MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan and Wesley Dodson.  Winn was on hand to watch the Astros/Rangers game today at Globe Life Park, and is scheduled to undergo a physical on Monday.  Assuming no complications, he’ll be officially introduced at a Tuesday press conference, with Sullivan/Dodson noting that Winn is expected to sign for close to the $3,738,500 slot value attached to the 15th overall pick.

The 18-year-old Winn was one of the draft’s most highly-touted high schoolers and pitchers, coming off a very strong season for Orange Lutheran High School in Southern California.  He was a consensus top-11 pick in pre-draft rankings from ESPN’s Keith Law, MLB.com, Fangraphs, and Baseball America, with Law placing Winn highest as the seventh-best overall prospect in this year’s draft class.  Winn has three-plus pitches to his name — a fastball that has touched 96mph and a strong curveball and changeup — as well as a gradually-improving slider.

Law described Winn as “the best command guy in the high school class this year,” and wrote that “his delivery is one of the simplest in the draft as well, giving hope that his command will hold up in pro ball and that he’ll stay healthy.”  His easy delivery adds to the common consensus among evaluators that Winn is a very safe pick for a high school pitcher.  As Fangraphs’ scouting report puts it, “Winn is the only prep pitcher in a deep class with no yellow or red flags on his resume. He’s a near finished product with mid-rotation stuff, feel and consistency.”

That Fangraphs report also cited some rumors during the lead-up to the draft about Winn potentially being one of the first picks off the board, as his stock was high enough that the Giants reportedly gave some consideration to Winn as the second overall selection.  Given this projection, the Rangers should feel quite pleased at Winn falling to the 15th spot.

Winn could be the first of several forthcoming draft signings for the Rangers, as Sullivan/Dodson write that most of all of the club’s top 10 draft picks are expected to finalize deals this week, pending physicals.  The Rangers have an overall draft bonus pool of $7.356MM to spend on this year’s picks.

Rangers Agree To Terms With Second-Rounder Owen White 

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  • Rangers second-rounder Owen White will take a $1.5MM bonus to bypass his commitment to the University of South Carolina, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). White ranked just inside the top fifty on Law’s board and just a shade lower on the others. Analysts believe he has some room to grow into his frame and better maintain the mid-nineties velocity he has shown at times. Plus, there are hints of four potentially useful pitches for the Texas developmental staff to work with. Taken 55th overall, White will secure a bonus that’s $242,500 over the slot value of the selection.

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