Rangers Rumors

AL Notes: Encarnacion, Gallo, Buxton

By Dylan A. Chase | August 24, 2019 at 8:49pm CDT

The Yankees dropped a 2-1 decision to the Dodgers in L.A. on Saturday, but the game wasn’t without one historic highlight for New York fans. Aaron Judge’s solo home run in the fourth inning was the club’s 58th dinger in August–tying the record for most team home runs in a single month. Judge’s homer put the club even with the 1987 Orioles, who hit 58 home runs in 28 games, and the 1999 Mariners, who accomplished this feat in 27 games. The Yankees, of course, have only played 23 games so far this month and will have six more August games to carve out a singular place in the power-hitting record books.

Their chances of doing so would be much aided by the return of slugger Edwin Encarnacion, who has been out of action since fracturing his wrist on Aug. 3. As it turns out, Encarnacion has at least resumed some baseball activity, as James Wagner of the New York Times relays that the 1B/DH has begun taking ground balls and hitting off a tee (link). It’s obviously doubtful that Encarnacion will get back before September, but his return could just as well power another historic Bronx power binge in the season’s final month.

Rangers Designate Shane Carle

By Jeff Todd | August 23, 2019 at 3:36pm CDT

The Rangers have designated righty Shane Carle for assignment, per a club announcement. His 40-man spot will go to fellow right-hander Luke Farrell, who was activated from the 60-day injured list.

Farrell is also heading onto the active roster for the Texas organization. He’ll take the place of southpaw Locke St. John, who was optioned down.

Carle was picked up from the Braves in late July after being designated by the Atlanta club. He has not appeared in the majors since. Though he turned in excellent results in 2018, the performance was driven by home run (0.29 per nine) and BABIP (.258) suppression that never seemed terribly likely to continue.

This year, Carle struggled mightily in six outings for the Braves before he was sent packing. He hasn’t been much better this year at Triple-A, where he carries a 5.62 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 over forty total innings.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/22/19

By Mark Polishuk | August 22, 2019 at 6:46am CDT

The latest minor moves from around baseball….

The Rangers announced yesterday that right-hander David Carpenter has been assigned outright to Triple-A. Carpenter was designated for assignment on Monday, and thus must have cleared waivers before being removed from the Rangers’ 40-man roster. This is the second time Carpenter has been DFA’ed and outrighted this season, following a similar path back to Triple-A in June. The righty appeared in three games during this latest stay on the Texas roster, and for the season has a 10.80 ERA in 3 1/3 innings over four total appearances. After tossing 211 1/3 relief innings for five different teams from 2011-15, Carpenter didn’t make it back to the Major Leagues until this season, after three years battling injuries while bouncing around the minors and independent leagues.

Rangers Place Nomar Mazara on IL, Purchase Nick Solak’s Contract

By Dylan A. Chase and TC Zencka | August 20, 2019 at 12:07pm CDT

Following an early exit from last night’s game, Rangers outfielder Nomar Mazara will head to the injured list with a strained left oblique muscle, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning-News (link). The team has purchased the contract of infielder Nick Solak in a corresponding move.

This sequence of moves has been suspected since last night when Mazara went down. It’s been a difficult season for Mazara, with these last few weeks particularly trying as the Rangers have cut into his playing time in an open audition to get more production from his spot in the lineup. The 24-year-old outfielder was a star-in-the-making not all that long ago, but he has yet to improve much in any aspect of his game since his rookie season in 2016.

Still, it’s not all doom-and-gloom for Mazara, who was headed for a fourth-straight 20-homer campaign had he stated healthy. Depending on the length of his layoff, he’ll still have a decent shot at notching the three home runs needed to hit the mark in 2019. On the whole, the power has been there for Mazara this season, with .467 slugging and .197 ISO both career-high marks. The rest of his game has maintained an almost bizarre consistency for a player so young. He’s sitting right now at a 95 wRC+ mark–right in line with his previous three marks of 96, 89, and 91 in seasons dating back to 2016. Unfortunately, that’s not quite enough pop from a corner outfielder who doesn’t rate well on defense or on the basepaths.

Solak is penciled into the 6th spot in the batting order to make his major league debut today. He is listed right now as the designated hitter, though much of his perceived long-term value stems from his defensive versatility. Throughout his minor league career, he has shuttled between second base, left field, and centerfield, while seeing an occasional inning at third or in right. It’s a good time to be debuting in Texas: yesterday alone, Jose Trevino, 26, smashed his first career home run, Scott Heineman, 26, registered his first career RBI, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, 24, ended the night with his first career walkoff knock.

Joe Palumbo has also been added to the roster today to serve as the 26th man for the twin bill against the Angels – one of two rookie starters taking the hill in today’s doubleheader. Palumbo lines up against Andrew Heaney in the afternoon tilt. It will be Palumbo’s 4th appearance of the year for the Rangers, having been hit hard for 11 earned runs across 9 innings of work. Despite the slow start at the ML level, the 24-year-old native of New York state is highly-regarded. MLB.com lists Palumbo as the 6th-best prospect in the Texas system, while Baseball America ranks him 4th.

Danny Santana, Nomar Mazara Exit With Injuries

By Connor Byrne | August 20, 2019 at 12:15am CDT

TUESDAY: Santana’s confident he won’t miss time, according to manager Chris Woodward, but it doesn’t appear Mazara will be as fortunate. His oblique injury is similar to (but not as severe as) the strain that sent teammate Joey Gallo to the IL in June. Gallo wound up sitting out just over three weeks (via Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram).

MONDAY: Rangers utilityman Danny Santana and outfielder Nomar Mazara left the team’s game Monday with injuries that seem as if they could lead to IL stints. Santana departed with left hamstring tightness, while Mazara succumbed to tightness in his left oblique. Should at least one of those players end up on the shelf, the Rangers are prepared to promote infield/outfield prospect Nick Solak from Triple-A Nashville, TR Sullivan of MLB.com suggests. Nashville pulled Solak from its game Monday.

At 60-64, the Rangers’ once-legitimate postseason hopes are now dead. But Santana has done everything in his power this season to help propel the Rangers back to prominence. The 28-year-old switch-hitter has slashed .305/.333/.576 with 21 home runs and 13 steals (on 19 attempts) over 376 plate appearances. Between Santana’s offensive production and his defensive versatility (he has appeared in double-digit games in the outfield, at first and at second), he undoubtedly looks like one of the best bargain signings of last offseason. Texas inked the former Twin and Brave to a minor league deal after a couple rough seasons, and the Rangers will be able to control him two more times via arbitration.

This season hasn’t been as prosperous for Mazara, who still hasn’t lived up to the considerable hype he garnered coming up through the Rangers’ system. While the fourth-year man has been on a tear of late, his overall .268/.318/.466 line with 17 HRs in 443 is merely mediocre. There have been rumblings about the Rangers possibly trading the 24-year-old Mazara, who has another two seasons of arb control left. That could be a situation to watch over the winter, but for now, the sizzling Mazara will hope to stay off the IL.

In the event that doesn’t happen, Solak, 24, could crack a big league roster for the first time. He’s just over a month into his tenure with the Rangers, who acquired him from the Rays on July 13 in a swap for young righty Peter Fairbanks. It was already the second trade involving Solak – a 2016 second-round pick whom the Yankees sent to the Rays in a three-teamer back in 2018.

Solak may yet emerge as a regular in Texas, with FanGraphs placing him just outside the game’s top 100 prospects and contending he’ll at least turn into “an average everyday second baseman.” Solak has made a strong case for a promotion by raking since he got to Nashville, where he has slashed an eyebrow-raising .357/.390/.670 with 10 home runs in 124 trips to the plate. Even in the offense-driven Pacific Coast League, Solak’s production has been 48 percent above average, according to wRC+.

Rangers Designate David Carpenter

By Jeff Todd | August 19, 2019 at 3:13pm CDT

The Rangers announced that they have designated righty David Carpenter for assignment. It’s the second time he has been bumped from the MLB roster this season.

The move coincides with the team’s decision to send fellow right-hander Adrian Sampson to the 10-day injured list due to a lower back issue. To take the open roster spots, the club has recalled first baseman/outfielder Scott Heineman and righty Phillips Valdez.

Carpenter, 34, made it back to the majors this season for the first time since 2015. And he earned his way back up after his brief initial stint. Over 34 2/3 Triple-A innings on the season, he carries a 1.82 ERA with 9.9 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9. Unfortunately, Carpenter hasn’t shown up in his limited big league frames, allowing four earned runs with a 2:4 K/BB ratio in four appearances.

Injury Notes: Kluber, Gallo, Dietrich, Casali, Robinson

By Mark Polishuk | August 18, 2019 at 11:51pm CDT

After just one inning of work in a rehab start on Sunday, Corey Kluber was removed from the game due to left abdominal tightness. (Cleveland.com’s Joe Noga was among those to report the news.) Kluber is expected to receive further tests on Monday, though the early word is that Kluber was simply removed as a precaution. While the Indians and their fans won’t fully exhale until those tests come back clean, it’s at least some measure of good news that Kluber didn’t have a setback involving his forearm, which was fractured back on May 1. Sunday’s start could potentially have served as Kluber’s final rehab outing before being activated from the injured list, and now it seems as if he’ll likely have to get one more minor league start under his belt before the Tribe can be fully prepared to bring him back to the 25-man roster.

Some more on injury situations from around baseball…

Rangers slugger Joey Gallo is targeting a mid-September return from hamate bone surgery, MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan writes. The procedure back on July 25 was expected to keep Gallo out for four-to-six weeks, though since he only just started taking light swings off a tee, his recovery will be at the long end of that projected timeline. “I don’t want any setbacks, but I think I’m going to be able to play before the season is over. That’s the hope,” Gallo said.
Two injured Reds are working their way back to the club, as manager David Bell told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that Derek Dietrich will begin a Triple-A rehab assignment on Monday, while catcher Curt Casali starts a rehab assignment of his own on Tuesday. Both players could be back in time for the Reds’ series against the Pirates that begins on Friday. Dietrich hit the IL due to left shoulder inflammation on August 5, while this will actually be Casali’s second rehab stint since first being placed on the IL on July 18 with a right knee sprain. Casali’s previous assignment was halted after two games due to soreness in his left hamstring.
Cardinals utilityman Drew Robinson recently underwent a season-ending, “progressive” version of Tommy John surgery on his left elbow, manager Mike Shildt told MLB.com’s Anne Rogers and other reporters. The surgery was only a partial version of the normal Tommy John procedure and it was on Robinson’s non-throwing arm, so Shildt believes Robinson will be ready for Spring Training. Acquired in the trade that sent Patrick Wisdom to the Rangers last December, Robinson appeared in five MLB games for the Cardinals and hit .265/.385/.423 over 234 PA for Triple-A Memphis this season before hitting the injured list on June 24. Robinson has some very solid minor league numbers over his ten pro seasons, though he hasn’t hit much over 253 Major League plate appearances with Texas and St. Louis from 2016-18.

Rangers To Call Up Brock Burke

By Connor Byrne | August 17, 2019 at 12:08am CDT

8:38 pm: Jeff Wilson of the Dallas Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the team has confirmed Burke’s imminent call-up; he will indeed split action on Tuesday with fellow rookie Joe Palumbo (link).

August 16th: The Rangers, seeking a starter for half of their Tuesday doubleheader against the Angels, are considering calling up left-hander Brock Burke, Jeff Wilson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram reports. It would be the major league debut for the 23-year-old Burke, who’s already on the Rangers’ 40-man roster.

“We’re kind of hoping that Burke would be that day,” manager Chris Woodward said. “We’re still debating it, but I would love to see Burke.”

Burke, who broke into the pros as a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in 2014, is in his first season with the Texas organization. The Rangers acquired him last offseason from the Rays in a three-team trade with the A’s that centered on infielder Jurickson Profar.

While Burke was the Rays’ minor league pitcher of the year in his final season with them, he has endured an injury-shortened 2019. Burke missed a large chunk of time with blister and shoulder problems earlier in the season, though he has pitched to an exceptional 3.18 ERA/2.76 FIP with 9.73 K/9, 2.38 BB/9 and a 50.9 percent groundball rate in 45 1/3 innings at the Double-A level. The Rangers promoted Burke to Triple-A Nashville earlier this month, but he has only made two starts and combined for eight innings of seven-run, 12-hit ball at that level so far.

Burke currently ranks as the Rangers’ seventh-best prospect at MLB.com, which contends he has the “ceiling of a mid-rotation starter.” He’s unlikely to provide that type of production in MLB right now, though, with Wilson noting that Burke hasn’t amassed more than 88 pitches in an outing this year. Ergo, if Burke does enter the majors in the coming days, his initial stay in the league may not last long. But Burke might be able to push for a rotation spot in 2020, as it’s likely that Mike Minor and Lance Lynn are the lone Texas starters who have clinched jobs for next year (if the club doesn’t trade either of them, of course).

Rangers, Mike Minor Have Mutual Interest In Extension

By Mark Polishuk | August 15, 2019 at 7:32pm CDT

Both the Rangers and left-hander Mike Minor are interested in continuing their relationship beyond the end of the 2020 season, when Minor’s current contract expires. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that that “preliminary extension talks” have already taken place between the team and Minor’s representatives, though more substantive negotiations are likely to wait until the offseason.

Minor’s future in Arlington was of great speculation in the weeks and months leading up to the trade deadline, as the veteran southpaw drew plenty of interest from teams in need of rotation help. The Yankees, Twins, and Phillies were just a few of the teams known to be linked to Minor’s trade market, and all of the buzz not only seemed to irritate Minor, but also seemed to impact his performance. Minor posted a 6.59 ERA over five starts in July, as opposed to a 2.40 ERA over 112 2/3 IP from March through June, and a perfect 0.00 ERA in 15 August frames.

It still isn’t out of the question that Texas eventually trades Minor this winter, perhaps depending on the tenor of the extension talks. But since GM Jon Daniels already made the call to keep Minor since the Rangers were still on the outskirts of the wild card race, there’s also a solid argument to be made for keeping him in the fold both in 2020 and beyond.

Minor has been tremendous since signing his three-year, $28MM deal in the 2017-18 offseason, following up a strong performance in 2018 with an All-Star showing in 2019. He has a 2.90 ERA, 9.2 K/9, and 3.12 K/BB rate over 155 total frames, with a 175 ERA+ that leads all of baseball. While ERA predictors (3.97 FIP, 4.38 xFIP, 4.30 SIERA) aren’t a fan and he is getting a lot of strand rate help (85.7%), Minor’s .291 wOBA is a near-perfect match of his .290 xwOBA. Looking at the Statcast numbers, Minor is in the top one percent of all pitchers in terms of fastball spin, which thus also explains why batters have been unable to square up much against him — Minor is in the 90th percentile in both exit velocity and hard-hit ball rate.

The big question going forward, of course, is whether Minor can continue to sustain this performance. Minor turns 32 in December, so an extension would begin with his age-33 season, and teams have been increasingly wary about signing any player (pitcher or hitter) into their 30’s. Nonetheless, the Rangers would surely appreciate gaining some extra stability beyond just Lance Lynn amidst an overall unstable rotation mix, while Minor would likely prefer an extension rather than risk a potential downturn in 2020 and an uncertain trip back into the free agent market.

Rangers Select David Carpenter, Place Jesse Chavez On IL

By Connor Byrne | August 13, 2019 at 4:11pm CDT

The Rangers have selected right-hander David Carpenter from Triple-A Nashville and placed fellow righty Jesse Chavez on the 10-day injured list with a posterior impingement in his right elbow, the team announced. Carpenter’s addition puts the Rangers’ 40-man roster at capacity.

This is the second time this season the Rangers have selected Carpenter, whom they signed to a minor league contract over the winter. The Rangers brought Carpenter up at the end of May, only to designate him for assignment and then outright him within the next 10 days. The well-traveled 34-year-old has thrown just 2/3 of an inning in Texas this season. He has, however, registered a 1.82 ERA/3.95 FIP with 9.87 K/9, 3.12 BB/9 and a 46.0 percent groundball rate in 34 2/3 frames at the Triple-A level in 2019.

There’s no word on the severity of Chavez’s injury, but it can’t be reassuring to the Rangers to see a 35-year-old go down with an elbow problem. Chavez, whom the Rangers signed last offseason to a two-year, $8MM deal, has divided the year between their bullpen and rotation. Through 48 appearances (nine starts) and 78 innings, Chavez has pitched to a 4.85 ERA/4.41 FIP with 8.31 K/9, 2.54 BB/9 and a 41.5 percent grounder rate.

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