- Three of the Rangers’ injured veteran starters took steps in their recoveries over the weekend, as Max Scherzer threw a bullpen session today and Jacob deGrom and Jon Gray each threw three-inning simulated games on Saturday. Gray seems to be the closest to returning, as he told MLB.com that he could return as a reliever during the Rangers’ series with the Pirates that begins tomorrow, if he isn’t lined up for a proper start during a series with the Guardians that gets underway Friday. A right groin strain sent Gray to the 15-day IL on July 29, while deGrom could begin a Double-A rehab assignment this week in his first game action since undergoing Tommy John surgery in June 2023. Scherzer hasn’t pitched since July 30 due to shoulder fatigue, and Texas manager Bruce Bochy said it hasn’t yet been decided if Scherzer will also embark on a rehab assignment next, or if he’ll first take part in a live batting practice session.
Rangers Rumors
Max Scherzer Planning To Pitch In 2025
This has been a challenging season for Max Scherzer, who has been limited to eight starts. Back surgery and a thumb injury kept the three-time Cy Young winner from making his season debut until the middle of June. He has been back on the injured list for the last two weeks because of shoulder fatigue. The defending World Series winners have plummeted 11 games below .500 with a terrible month of August.
Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t seem Scherzer is comfortable with this season as a swan song. The eight-time All-Star told reporters that he expects to continue playing in 2025 (link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). “When I’m out there, I’ve been able to compete,” Scherzer noted. “I can still pitch at a high level. I look at things like my slider, which I went into the season wanting to fix, and it’s been really good. I still see myself as able to compete and win.”
Scherzer, who turned 40 in July, has been the fourth-oldest player in the majors this season. Two-time teammate Justin Verlander, Jesse Chavez, and Charlie Morton are older. Scherzer nevertheless remains capable of performing well when healthy. He has turned in a 3.89 ERA with a solid 24.1% strikeout percentage and an excellent 5.1% walk rate across 39 1/3 innings. Those aren’t vintage Scherzer numbers, yet it’s still quality mid-rotation production. That’s despite him pitching at what appears to be less than full strength. His velocity was down a tick relative to last season, which could be attributable to the various injuries through which he has battled.
An injury-plagued year is going to raise more concern for a player of Scherzer’s age. Still, this will be the first season (excluding the shortened schedule) in which he hasn’t reached 145 innings since his 2008 rookie year. While he battled injuries during last year’s postseason and was eventually pulled from the World Series roster, he still combined for 162 1/3 innings between the Mets and Rangers in the regular season and playoffs.
Texas is all but officially buried in the playoff race this year, but Scherzer came out of a bullpen session without issue today and looks to be on track for a return from the injured list relatively shortly. He could make another six or seven starts to finish the season.
Scherzer seems set on continuing his Hall of Fame career for an 18th year. There’s nevertheless uncertainty about where he’ll be playing. He’s in the final season of the three-year, $130MM free agent contract which he signed with New York in 2021. He’ll return to the open market during the upcoming offseason. Scherzer certainly isn’t going to match the three-year term or record-setting $43.333MM average annual value of his current contract, but he should still command a strong one-year deal.
Players like Jack Flaherty, Frankie Montas and Luis Severino all landed guarantees between $13MM and $16MM as rebound candidates last offseason. Scherzer is much older than that trio but he’s had a more accomplished career and has the ability to turn in an ace-caliber year. A deal in the $15-20MM range on a high-payroll club with legitimate World Series aspirations could be viable. That might be Texas, though they’ll need to make other moves in the rotation and strengthen the bottom part of the lineup if they’re to make a renewed push to contend.
What Would It Take For The Rangers To Duck Under The Luxury Tax Line?
The 2023 Angels entered the trade deadline as something of a long-shot contender but nevertheless embarked on an aggressive win-now push. In an effort both to break their postseason drought and perhaps to show impending free agent Shohei Ohtani a commitment to winning, the Halos went out and acquired Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk and Dominic Leone. It was a valiant, if not desperate effort, and it fell short almost immediately. By mid-August, the Angels were buried in the standings with virtually no hope of climbing back into contention. With the former August trade waiver system no longer in place, GM Perry Minasian and his staff waved the white flag in a new and more drastic way: they put more than one quarter of the roster on outright waivers.
By placing Giolito, Lopez, Cron, Grichuk, Leone, Matt Moore, Hunter Renfroe and Tyler Anderson on waivers, the Angels positioned themselves to A) save an enormous amount of money, B) potentially dip back under the luxury tax threshold (they succeeded), and C) impact several postseason races ... just not in the way they originally envisioned. For those who don't recall, the Guardians claimed Giolito, Lopez and Moore. Renfroe was claimed by the Reds. Leone went to the Mariners. Grichuk and Anderson were not claimed.
Last week, MLBTR's Darragh McDonald previewed a handful of veterans who could hit waivers in just this fashion later this month. Since Darragh wrote that piece, one team has emerged as an even likelier candidate to go down this road; as the Astros have gone on an eight-game winning streak and the Mariners have kept in arm's reach, the Rangers have fallen to a daunting 10 games back in the AL West and 10.5 back in the Wild Card hunt. FanGraphs gives the Rangers a 0.6% chance of reaching the postseason. Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA is more bullish ... at 2.4%. Texas isn't mathematically eliminated, but they're not far off.
As Darragh noted last week and as both Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Jon Becker of FanGraphs have explored this week, there's an argument that the Rangers should jettison some of their impending free agents and cut back costs. In his column, Becker looked at how much money the Rangers would save by placing their impending free agents on waivers two days before the Aug. 31 postseason eligibility deadline. Rosenthal noted within his column that there's no clear path to dipping under the luxury tax for the Rangers, "so their only motivation would be to save on salary."
Technically that's true, but it's also not impossible for the Rangers to duck under the threshold without placing their entire roster on waivers for the taking. While sneaking under the tax threshold is a tall order, it could potentially be done without completely decimating next season's roster. Let's take a look at how they could get there and at what type of benefits they'd receive for doing so.
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Angels Claim Nick Robertson, Brock Burke
The Angels announced that they have claimed right-hander Nick Robertson off waivers from the Cardinals and left-hander Brock Burke off waivers from the Rangers. Both pitchers had been designated for assignment in recent days. The Halos had two vacancies on their 40-man roster and don’t need to make a corresponding move.
Each pitcher has shown some promise in past seasons but was struggling of late. They both got nudged off their respective roster spots but it makes sense for the Angels to take fliers on them. The Halos are out of contention and can use the remainder of the season to audition players for future roles, and had the open roster spots anyway.
Robertson, 26, pitched for the Dodgers and Red Sox in 2023. He tossed 22 1/3 innings in the majors with an unimpressive 6.04 earned run average but better underlying numbers. He struck out 24.5% of batters faced, gave out walks at an 8.5% clip and got grounders on 47.1% of balls in play. His .397 batting average on balls in play and 57.5% strand rate were both on the unlucky side, which is why he had a 3.88 FIP and 3.76 SIERA. He also had a strong 2.54 ERA in Triple-A last year with a huge 37.5% strikeout rate.
The Cards acquired him as one of the two pieces they got back from Boston in the Tyler O’Neill trade. He missed about a month of this season due to right elbow inflammation and has also been on optional assignment, only throwing 12 1/3 innings for the Cards. In that time, he had a 4.38 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate and 3.8% walk rate. Oddly, he performed far worse in his 21 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level. He had a 7.48 ERA there, along with a 20.6% strikeout rate and 15.7% walk rate.
It’s not been an outstanding season so St. Louis decided to move on, but the Angels can see if he can find his way in a new environment. Robertson can be optioned for the rest of this year and will still have one option after that. He also currently has less than a year of service time, meaning he still has a ways to go before qualifying for arbitration or free agency.
Burke, 28, had a tremendous 2022 season. He tossed 82 1/3 innings for the Rangers that year with a 1.97 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. But his numbers backed up a bit last year, as he logged 59 2/3 frames with a 4.37 ERA and diminished 20.8% strikeout rate, though he did lower the walks to a rate of 3.6%.
This year, things have been even worse, which was partially self-induced on Burke’s part. He punched a wall in frustration after a poor outing and suffered a fracture in his right hand. Though it wasn’t his throwing hand, it still kept him on the IL for two months. Around that IL placement, he posted a 9.22 ERA in 13 2/3 innings and also spent about a month on optional assignment.
The results have obviously been trending in a bad direction and the wall-punching reflects poorly on him, but he can still be optioned for the rest of this year if the Angels so choose. He’ll be out of options next year but can be retained via arbitration through 2026.
West Notes: Eovaldi, Scherzer, Gurriel, Musgrove, Graveman
The Rangers are heading to Boston for a series with the Red Sox beginning tomorrow, but Nathan Eovaldi and Max Scherzer are both going to Texas for injury-related checkups, GM Chris Young told the Associated Press and other reporters. Eovaldi left his start Saturday after three innings due to tightness in his left side, though the meeting with team doctor Keith Meister is seen as precautionary since Eovaldi “thinks he can pitch through” the issue, Young said. “He’s so important to us that we’re not sure we want to push him. We may end up pushing him back or skipping a start. We don’t think it’s an IL at this point, but we will clearly decide that once he sees Dr. Meister.”
Scherzer was placed on the 15-day injured list on July 31 due to right shoulder fatigue, and Young said the veteran “just hasn’t turned the corner with his shoulder. Our hope is that maybe we get back and explore some other diagnostic measures and get him back on the mound. But I don’t know what the timetable is going to be.” Between this IL stint and an extended absence at the start of the season while recovering from back surgery and a nerve issue in his thumb, Scherzer has pitched only 39 1/3 innings over eight starts.
More will be known about both pitchers’ situations after the tests are complete, but there is clear cause for concern given how both Eovaldi and Scherzer have checkered injury histories. For Scherzer in particular, his situation is worrisome given how much time he has already missed, and whether or not his abnormal ramp-up this year simply kept him from being fully ready to pitch. If either Scherzer or Eovaldi are revealed to have more serious issues, it could put the rest of their seasons in jeopardy, as the Rangers might consider shutdowns if the team continues to fall back in the playoff race.
Some other notes from both the AL and NL West divisions…
- Lourdes Gurriel Jr. left the Diamondbacks’ 12-5 win over the Phillies today due to left hamstring tightness, but manager Torey Lovullo downplayed the injury in postgame comments to MLB.com and other media. Lovullo said the removal was precautionary and that Gurriel is day-to-day, plus the outfielder isn’t even being sent for any tests at this time. Gurriel is hitting .269/.302/.414 with 14 homers over 453 plate appearances as the team’s regular left fielder, translating to a 98 wRC+ in the first season of the three-year, $42MM contract he signed to rejoin the D’Backs last offseason.
- The Padres will be activating Joe Musgrove from the 60-day injured list to start tomorrow’s game against the Pirates, after bone spurs in his right elbow cost him about two and a half months on the shelf. Talking with Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Musgrove made changes to his mechanics and delivery in order to help manage the injury. “The spur is going to be there, the structure of the elbow is not going to change unless I get an operation,” Musgrove said. “So [I’m] trying to find a way to be able to throw and still execute and still have good stuff. Hopefully it will alleviate some of the stress on the elbow is kind of the goal….I felt great in this build back.” Between this injury and a previous elbow-related stint on the IL, Musgrove has thrown only 49 1/3 innings this season, with a shaky 5.66 ERA.
- Kendall Graveman wasn’t expected to pitch in 2024 after a shoulder surgery last January, but his hopes at an in-season comeback gained some momentum Saturday when he threw a 10-pitch bullpen session. Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters (including Matt Kawahara of the San Diego Union-Tribune) that Graveman hit 86-87mph in his first time throwing off a mound since the surgery. As Kawahara notes, there might simply be not enough time left in the season for Graveman to get fully ramped up and then complete a minor league rehab assignment, but that won’t stop the veteran from trying.
Rangers Select Matt Festa, DFA Brock Burke
The Rangers have selected right-hander Matt Festa’s contract from Triple-A Round Rock, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. To make room on the 40-man roster, the team has designated left-hander Brock Burke for assignment. In a pair of additional transactions, Texas placed right-hander Josh Sborz on the 15-day IL and recalled left-hander Walter Pennington from Triple-A.
Burke, 28, has struggled mightily this season. After getting off to a rough start in April, he missed two months with a fractured hand. He didn’t look sharp upon his return either, and the Rangers optioned him to Triple-A at the end of June. He was recalled earlier this month and continued to struggle. Overall, he has a 9.22 ERA and 4.30 SIERA in 13 appearances in the majors this season. He also has a 5.31 ERA in 16 appearances at Triple-A. The Rangers have little margin for error as they attempt to gain ground in the AL West, and evidently, they decided they could no longer afford to keep Burke on the roster. He showed tremendous promise in 2022 (1.97 ERA, 3.05 SIERA in 82 1/3 innings), but he has not been able to recapture that success over the past two years.
Festa, 31, does not have much of a track record in the major leagues; he has a 4.66 ERA and 3.96 SIERA over 90 games with the Mariners and Mets from 2018-24. However, he has looked sharp at Triple-A this year, with a 2.70 ERA and 3.10 FIP over 33 games in the Padres, Mets, and Rangers’ systems. He signed a minor league contract with Texas back in July and re-upped with the team after he was released in August.
Sborz, 30, was a postseason hero last fall, but he has, unfortunately, struggled with shoulder injuries in his follow-up campaign. He has a 3.38 ERA and 3.28 SIERA in 16 innings of work, but this is now his third trip to the IL. Pennington, 26, has made two brief appearances this season. He made his MLB debut for the Royals in July, facing two batters and recording two outs. Not long after, he was included in the trade that sent Michael Lorenzen to Kansas City. Pennington made his Rangers debut in August, and the results weren’t quite as strong. He gave up a solo home run and walked three batters over a single inning of work. He has a 2.13 ERA and 3.27 across 63 1/3 innings at Triple-A this year.
The Rangers have taxed their bullpen heavily over the second half of the season as they continue to deal with injuries to the starting rotation. Jon Gray and Max Scherzer both hit the IL just before the trade deadline and, most recently, Nathan Eovaldi has dealt with tightness in his right side. Grant notes that his next start, which would have been scheduled for Thursday against the Twins, will be pushed back or skipped entirely. José Ureña will remain in the rotation for the time being, and Grant suggests Dane Dunning will likely re-join the rotation on Wednesday to fill an open space caused by Saturday’s doubleheader. It is unclear who will start for Texas in Eovaldi’s place on Thursday.
Jacob deGrom Throws Live BP Session
- Jacob deGrom threw a live batting practice on Thursday, with Rangers skipper Bruce Bochy telling reporters (including Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News) that deGrom will have another live BP session during the Rangers’ upcoming August 12-14 series in Boston. This is the first time deGrom had faced live hitters during his rehab from a June 2023 Tommy John surgery, and the four-time All-Star remains on pace with the standard 13-14 month recovery timeline. Since he’ll have a third bullpen session and then a minor league rehab assignment, deGrom might not return to the Texas roster before the end of August, but the veteran should be able to log some big league innings before 2024 is out, and gain some peace of mind about his health heading into the offseason.
Dodgers, Rangers Had Interest In Blake Snell Prior To Trade Deadline
Blake Snell was still wearing a San Francisco uniform once the July 30 trade deadline passed, as the Giants’ big asking price and the team’s own desire to retain its ace for the playoff hunt ended whatever chance existed of a blockbuster move. Reports linked such teams as the Orioles, Padres, Yankees, Mets, and Cubs to Snell’s market in some capacity, and the New York Post’s Jon Heyman writes that the Dodgers and Rangers also among the clubs “to check in” on Snell’s availability.
The degree of interest shown for either club isn’t known, and Heyman’s “check in” phrasing implies something of a due-diligence exploration to see how open the Giants might’ve been about moving Snell, and what it might’ve taken to land the southpaw. Snell would naturally be an upgrade to any rotation, particularly for teams like the Dodgers and Rangers who have been dealing with pitching injuries all season.
Considering how the Giants and Dodgers have made only two trades with each other since the 1968 season, it is hard to imagine San Francisco seriously considered dealing an ace pitcher to their arch-rivals down the California coast. Even though Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi worked as the Dodgers’ GM before being hired in his current job, it’s probably safe to guess that whatever talks Zaidi had with his old boss Andrew Friedman about Snell were fairly brief in nature. Los Angeles instead landed Jack Flaherty as its biggest pitching prize of deadline season, and will be counting on Flaherty and some injured pitchers returning from the IL to bolster the staff heading down the stretch and into October.
Landing Snell would’ve completely overturned an otherwise quiet deadline for Texas, as the Rangers brought Andrew Chafin and Carson Kelly into the fold in separate trades with the Tigers, while Michael Lorenzen was dealt to the Royals. The modest set of moves underscored the Rangers’ uncertainty about making a push with a roster that has underachieved for most of the season. Texas had gotten up to a 51-52 record on July 25, but have since lost nine of their last 12 games, probably closing the door on a defense of their World Series title.
Similar to the Dodgers, Texas has also been playing without most of its first-choice rotation for the better part of the year. Several arms were slated to make returns at midseason, but Max Scherzer’s return was short-lived, and other pitchers (such as Jon Gray) have since gotten hurt in the interim. A win-now move like acquiring Snell might’ve backfired if the rest of the roster wasn’t up to par, so it could be that the Rangers also had something of a cursory interest in Snell’s services.
Beyond just this trade deadline, however, these teams’ interest in Snell could extend to the offseason. Snell can opt out of the second year of his Giants contract to re-enter free agency, which now seems to be likely given Snell’s incredible results since returning from the IL last month. (As Heyman hears from two rival general managers, “it would take a ’catastrophic’ or ’debilitating’ injury for Snell to exercise” his 2025 player option and remain in San Francisco.) Texas has a lot of money coming off the books this winter and Los Angeles is always open to signing top free agents, so these could be two teams to monitor if and when Snell hits the open market.
Diamondbacks Claim Andrew Knizner
The Diamondbacks have claimed catcher Andrew Knizner off waivers from the Rangers and optioned him to Triple-A Reno, per announcements from both clubs. The backstop was designated for assignment by Texas earlier this week. Arizona designated right-hander Luis Frías for assignment to open a 40-man spot.
Knizner, 29, was non-tendered by the Cardinals at the end of last year then signed with the Rangers, agreeing to a $1.825MM salary. He’s not considered a strong defender but put up a respectable .241/.288/.424 batting line with St. Louis last year while hitting ten home runs in 241 plate appearances. The resulting 92 wRC+ indicates he was 8% worse than the league average hitter but that’s not bad by backup catcher standards.
The Rangers were likely hoping for something in that ballpark but didn’t get it. They sent him to the plate 93 times this year as backup to Jonah Heim but Knizner slashed .167/.183/.211. He only hit one home run and drew walks at a tiny rate of 1.1%, a far drop from last year’s 5% clip, which was already subpar. Texas acquired Carson Kelly from the Tigers prior to the deadline and nudged Knizner off their roster.
For the Diamondbacks, there’s sense in putting in the claim and hoping for a bounceback. Most of their playing time behind the plate this year has gone to Gabriel Moreno and Tucker Barnhart but neither is on the active roster now. When Moreno was on the injured list earlier in the year due to a sprained left thumb, José Herrera was recalled to pair with Barnhart. When Moreno was ready to return, the club decided to keep Herrera, so Barnhart was designated for assignment and released last month. But Moreno went back on the IL again earlier this week, this time due to a left adductor strain.
Adrian Del Castillo was added to the roster to take Moreno’s place and pair with Herrera. The Snakes evidently feel okay riding with that duo for now, but sending Knizner to Reno gives them some extra depth and gives Knizner a chance for some regular plate appearances in a hitter-friendly setting.
The length of his optional assignment could have impacts for him personally. He came into this season with four years and 21 days of service time. A new year rolls over at 172 days, meaning he needs 151 days in the majors this year to hit the five-year mark. He added 123 days to that before the Rangers optioned him prior to his DFA, so he’s still shy of the line but could get over it if he’s recalled at some point for a few weeks.
Frías, now 26, has spent his entire professional career in the Diamondbacks’ organization. An international signing out of the Dominican Republic in 2015, he climbed his way through the minor league system and was added to the club’s 40-man roster in November of 2020, keeping him out of that year’s Rule 5 draft.
He has spent the past four years providing the Diamondbacks with an optionable relief arm. Players normally only have three option years but are sometimes granted a fourth. As MLBTR covered previously, a club is granted a fourth option on a player who has exhausted the first three but without playing five full seasons, with a “full” season defined as 90 active days either in the majors or minors. The shortened 2020 season reportedly does not count. It appears Frias didn’t play a “full” season until 2019, then 2020 didn’t count, so he only had four “full” seasons after 2023.
Over his four seasons being shuttled between the big leagues and the farm, he has thrown 57 2/3 major league innings with a 6.55 earned run average. His 18.1% strikeout rate, 15.6% walk rate and 41.7% ground ball rate are each a few ticks worse than league average.
In the minors, he’s racked up more strikeouts but with the control still being an issue. From the start of 2021 to the present, he has thrown 215 1/3 innings on the farm with a 4.43 ERA. He has struck out 28.5% of batters faced but given out walks at a 10% clip.
Frías will be out of options next year, so perhaps he was running out of time with the Diamondbacks. Since the trade deadline has passed, they will have to put him on waivers in the coming days. If another club puts in a claim, they could option him for the rest of the year but he would have less roster flexibility starting next year. He has between one and two years of service time and therefore has five extra years of club control still won’t be arbitration eligible this winter.
Several Veterans Who Could Be Available On Waivers This Month
Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, it's harder for contending clubs to upgrade their respective rosters. There are still a few ways to do so, as MLBTR's Steve Adams recently laid out, but most of those methods involve adding guys not currently rostered who are naturally depth pieces at best.
To add a solid, usable big leaguer, the best remaining path is waivers. The old August waiver trade system ended in 2019, but many veteran players found themselves on waivers last August anyway, which started with the Angels.
The Halos fell out of contention in August and their priority shifted from winning to ducking under the competitive balance tax. Since trades were no longer possible, they put a whole bunch of guys on waivers and just hoped that other clubs would take them, the baseball equivalent of putting a "for free" box by the curb. Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Randal Grichuk, Matt Moore, Hunter Renfroe, Dominic Leone and Tyler Anderson were put on waivers and then other clubs followed suit, though to a less significant degree. The Yankees had no hope of avoiding the CBT but were slipping in the standings and had no use for an impending free agent like Harrison Bader. It was a similar situation with the Mets and Carlos Carrasco. The Tigers and White Sox weren't going to be CBT payors but made José Cisnero and Mike Clevinger available, simply hoping to cut costs.
Because the waiver priority order goes in reverse order of standings, the clubs best positioned to benefit were those just on the fringes of contention. The teams buried in the standings would have no motivation to grab such players and take on salary while the teams at the top of the standings would get last dibs in the waiver process. The Guardians claimed Giolito, López and Moore while the Reds grabbed Bader and Renfroe.
It doesn't seem like this trend will stop here in 2024. This year, Kevin Kiermaier, Ty France and Josh Bell have already been on waivers at some point. All three players cleared and were ultimately traded prior to the deadline, with some money changing hands in each of those deals. Others will surely follow them in the weeks to come, but clubs won't be able to work out trades involving cash considerations. The claiming club will have to take on all that's left of the contract from the waiving club.
Logically, these players will be available on waivers before the end of August. Players acquired after that time are not postseason eligible, which limits the attraction, though it could still happen. After the Guards fell from contention, they put Moore back on waivers just a few weeks after claiming him, and the Marlins nabbed him at that time. He made four scoreless appearances for Miami, helping them squeak into the playoffs, but wasn't eligible to join the club in the postseason.
So who could be available this time around? The most likely players are those making a notable salary on a club that could fall back in the playoff race, particularly one with CBT concerns. But an underwater contract won't be terribly appealing, so the player should still have some utility that makes it at least vaguely justifiable for the claiming club to take on some money. Many of these will require the team to really perform poorly in the next few weeks, making them long-shot possibilities, but let's take a look at some of the most interesting guys who could plausibly fit the bill.
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