- Corey Seager has now missed three straight games since leaving Wednesday’s contest with tightness in his left hamstring, though Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry (X link) and other reporters that Seager is “making progress” and that an IL trip isn’t yet being considered. Seager himself said he was feeling “fine” today but wasn’t sure if he would be back in the lineup Tuesday for Texas’ next game. Between the scheduled off-days both tomorrow and last Thursday, Seager might’ve caught a break in having some rest built into the schedule, giving some hope he’ll be ready for Tuesday.
Rangers Rumors
Rangers, GM Chris Young Discussing Contract Extension
Chris Young is nearing the end of his deal with the Rangers, as the executive VP and general manager will be out of contract once the season is over. The team is taking steps to keep Young in the fold, however, as owner Ray Davis outlined in a statement to Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News.
“Chris Young and I have been meeting over the last couple of months to discuss a contract extension beyond the 2024 season. I absolutely want him to continue overseeing baseball operations for the Texas Rangers for many years to come,” Davis said. “I admire and respect CY’s leadership and vision very much and will always be grateful for the important role he played to help bring a World Series championship to Arlington for the first time. While there is no final resolution at this time, we will continue to work towards coming to an agreement. CY and I agree that our immediate focus is the 2024 season and defending our title.”
Davis’ final sentence implies that the two sides could be putting talks on the back burner until closer to the end of the season, or perhaps even until after the Rangers have completed their 162 games and whatever might await of another postseason run. In technical terms, most executive contracts that expire “after the season” usually have an official end date at the end of October or the start of November, rather than the literal end of a team’s final game.
Assuming this situation exists with Young’s contract, the Rangers would have some extra time in their exclusive negotiating window to finalize a new deal before Young officially hits the open market. It also isn’t uncommon for some front office heads (the Yankees’ Brian Cashman and the Dodgers’ Andrew Friedman are recent examples) to stay in their positions beyond the official end of their prior contracts, as it is understood that the executives will be staying even it might take weeks or even months into the offseason before a new deal is officially finalized or announced.
Davis’ statement plainly outlines the Rangers’ interest in retaining the 45-year-old Young, though the GM might have interest in testing the market to see what other opportunities await…or, to see what offers are on the table to provide more leverage in negotiations with Texas. Baseball operations leadership jobs don’t come available too often, but among known contract situations within front offices, Angels GM Perry Minasian is entering the last year of his deal, and the Twins’ duo of chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine. Speculatively speaking, it seems possible that Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins or Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller could be on the hot seat if their teams don’t reach the playoffs.
This season’s results could also obviously lead some unexpected positions opening up in the coming months. After all, Young’s elevation to the top job in Texas in August 2022 was itself something of a surprise after the club parted ways with longtime president of baseball operations Jon Daniels. Young had been working as Daniels’ chief lieutenant since December 2020, and he suddenly became tasked with getting the Rangers back into contention after a big spending spree in the 2021-22 offseason led to another losing record in 2022.
Needless to say, Young’s first full season running the front office was a roaring success. Texas went 90-72 and narrowly missed out on the AL West crown by losing a tiebreaker to the Astros, but then caught fire in the playoffs en route to the World Series title. The long list of contributors to the Rangers’ championship included trade deadline pickup Jordan Montgomery and offseason signing Nathan Eovaldi, to cite two of the many moves Young made to add the final touches to the title-winning roster.
The follow-up hasn’t been as strong, as the Rangers carry a modest 30-33 record into today’s action. The club has been hampered by injuries to almost every member of the starting rotation, though the pitching staff has somewhat remarkably still managed to post respectable numbers even in these short-handed circumstances. The lineup, however, has disappointed — staples like Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim have been average at best, highly-touted rookies Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford haven’t broken out, and Josh Jung has spent almost the entire season on the injured list.
The returns of injured players could help Texas dig out of this hole, and naturally there’s still well over half the season yet to be played. Still, it hasn’t been the follow-up the organization wanted to its championship run, even if Young’s hands were somewhat tied by budgetary restraints during the offseason. Since the Rangers don’t have a TV contract beyond the 2024 season to the ongoing Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy proceedings, ownership cut back on the spending last winter, so Texas didn’t see anything close to the mega-deals that landed Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, or Jacob deGrom.
It could be that this overarching broadcasting uncertainty also factored into Young’s own contractual situation, if ownership wanted a better sense of its future revenues before locking up Young. It isn’t known if Young received any kind of a raise after being promoted to the top job in 2022, so with both a promotion and a championship ring now on his resume, Young certainly has a strong case for a very lucrative new deal. Young might also conceivably be given the title of president of baseball operations and another exec could become the new GM, depending on how the Rangers want to officially set the hierarchy of their baseball ops group.
One of the few former players currently acting as a Major League front office boss, Young tossed 1297 2/3 innings over 271 career games with the Rangers, Padres, Mets, Mariners, and Royals from 2004-17. His 13 seasons in the bigs included such highlights as an All-Star nod with San Diego in 2007, and another ring as a member of Kansas City’s World Series team in 2015. After retiring, Young spent three years working in a variety of roles with Major League Baseball itself before becoming the Rangers’ general manager.
Rangers To Designate Derek Hill For Assignment
The Rangers are recalling infielder Davis Wendzel from Triple-A Round Rock to give them some infield cover. Corey Seager is day-to-day after leaving Wednesday’s game with hamstring soreness. In a corresponding move, outfielder Derek Hill will be designated for assignment. Jeff Wilson of Rangers Today relayed the moves on X. The team’s 40-man roster tally drops to 39.
Hill is out of options, so Texas couldn’t send him back to Triple-A without the DFA. It’s an unfortunate situation for the speedster, who gets squeezed out by the need for another infielder. Hill signed a minor league contract over the offseason and was selected onto the MLB roster at the end of May. He appeared in five games, including a pair of starts in right field. Hill went 2-9 with a walk and a stolen base in what marked his fifth year logging MLB time.
A first-round pick of the Tigers in 2014, Hill played sporadically with Detroit. He combined for a .240/.291/.339 line in 95 games over parts of three seasons. Hill made a brief appearance with the Nationals a year ago, appearing in 13 games between late June and the early part of July. He’s a plus runner who can play all three outfield positions. He has never provided much in the batter’s box against MLB pitching though.
To his credit, the 28-year-old has been a productive Triple-A hitter. Hill owns a .295/.354/.502 slash in nearly 900 trips at the top minor league level. That includes a robust .333/.387/.659 showing over 142 plate appearances with Round Rock this season. Hill’s 6.3% walk percentage and near-25% strikeout rate were pedestrian, but he connected on eight homers, four triples and 10 doubles (albeit in a hitter-friendly setting).
The Rangers will have a few days to gauge possible trade interest. It’s likelier he’ll land on outright waivers by next week. Hill has cleared waivers a couple times in his career and would have the ability to elect free agency if he does so again.
Texas evidently doesn’t anticipate placing Seager on the injured list, at least for the moment. He is out of the lineup tonight against the Giants. Josh Smith moves over to shortstop while Ezequiel Duran handles third base against Logan Webb and the Giants.
Rangers Notes: Carter, Mahle, Bradford, Foscue
The Rangers placed Evan Carter on the injured list last week, initially announcing the issue as back tightness. Manager Bruce Bochy provided more specifics yesterday, telling reporters (including Kennedi Landry of MLB.com) that the rookie left fielder is dealing with a stress reaction. Texas expects Carter to miss upwards of a month.
It has been a challenging first full MLB season for Carter. The 21-year-old top prospect debuted late in 2023 and immediately cemented himself as a key piece of the franchise’s first World Series run. Carter hit .300/.417/.500 in 17 postseason games, making him a popular Rookie of the Year pick in 2024. He has had a much tougher go through this season’s first couple months, running a .188/.272/.361 line with a 26.5% strikeout rate over 162 plate appearances.
Carter admitted he played through back discomfort for a couple weeks before the IL placement. That certainly could’ve played a role in his middling offense. He remains an integral piece of the Rangers’ plans for this season and beyond, but he’ll be down for a few weeks. Wyatt Langford has stepped into left field, opening some DH at-bats for Robbie Grossman and Ezequiel Duran.
Texas received better news on a few other injured players this week. Offseason signee Tyler Mahle threw to hitters on Wednesday for the first time in his recovery from Tommy John surgery (link via Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News). Mahle is ticketed for three more live sessions before he could head on a minor league rehab stint. If all goes smoothly, he should be on track for his Rangers debut a couple weeks after the All-Star Break.
Mahle is around 13 months removed from the elbow procedure that ended his tenure with the Twins. The right-hander was barely able to pitch for Minnesota. He was a mid-rotation starter with the Reds before that, pitching 180 innings of 3.75 ERA ball while striking out more than 27% of opponents three years ago. The Rangers guaranteed him $22MM on a backloaded two-year deal in December.
Texas has a full rotation on the injured list. Jon Gray has had a fairly brief stint related to a groin strain, but the other four pitchers have faced long recovery timelines. Mahle, Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom are still rehabbing from 2023 surgeries. Cody Bradford has been out since mid-April with a stress fracture in his rib. The southpaw told reporters that he has progressed to throwing from 120 feet on flat ground (X link via Landry). Bradford opened the season as the fifth starter and turned in a 1.40 ERA over 19 1/3 innings in three appearances before the injury.
On the position player side, Texas has been without rookie infielder Justin Foscue for nearly the entire season. The Rangers called up the former first-round draftee on April 2. He took two plate appearances before sustaining a left oblique strain that pushed him to the 60-day injured list. Foscue will be eligible for reinstatement in the next few days and seems to be on track for a return. Texas assigned him to the Arizona complex league to begin a rehab assignment tonight. The Rangers might not have an immediate MLB roster spot for Foscue, as Josh Smith has played very well at third base while Josh Jung has been on the shelf.
Johnny Cueto Agrees To Push Back Opt-Out Date With Rangers
Veteran right-hander Johnny Cueto, who signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in late April, had an early-June opt-out opportunity but has agreed to push his out dates back, Ari Alexander of KPRC-2 reports. Cueto’s opt-out dates now fall on June 14 and on July 1. If he’s not on the roster by either date, Cueto will have the right to trigger the clause, giving Texas 48 hours to add him to the big league roster or else grant him his release.
The 38-year-old Cueto is looking for a rebound from last year’s rough showing in Miami, when he pitched in 13 games (10 starts) for the Marlins and posted an unsightly 6.02 ERA. The right-hander’s 17.9% strikeout rate was actually up from the prior season’s 15.7% mark but still well below average. His walk rate jumped from 5.1% with the 2022 White Sox to 6.9% last year, and despite working in a pitcher-friendly loanDepot Park setting, Cueto’s staggering 2.92 homers per nine innings were a career-worst mark (and the highest of any pitcher in MLB who tossed at least 50 innings).
Cueto has made four minor league starts with the Rangers: one at their Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League and three with Triple-A Round Rock. Combined, he’s totaled 18 innings with a 2.50 ERA, a 20.5% strikeout rate and a microscopic 2.7% walk rate (two walks, 73 batters faced). He’s also kept the ball on the ground at a hefty 55.3% clip.
It’s a tiny sample of work against lesser competition, but the results are nevertheless broadly encouraging. Texas clearly wasn’t ready to add Cueto to the big league roster just yet but presumably has interest in doing so — hence the mutual agreement to extend the opt-out window. It’s only natural for the Rangers to want to preserve the depth and perhaps take a look at Cueto sooner than later, given the mounting number of injuries among the team’s big league staff.
The Rangers entered the season knowing that Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Tyler Mahle all faced prolonged absences. Mahle (an offseason signee) and deGrom are recovering from 2023 Tommy John surgery. Scherzer underwent back surgery in December. Texas has since lost left-hander Cody Bradford to a stress fracture in his ribcage and more recently placed Jon Gray on the 15-day injured list due to a groin strain. Right-handers Nathan Eovaldi and Dane Dunning also had IL stints owing to a groin strain and shoulder strain, respectively, but both returned to the rotation in late May.
At present, the Rangers are going with a starting five that includes Eovaldi, Dunning, Michael Lorenzen, Andrew Heaney and minor league signee Jose Ureña. That quintet has delivered solid results on the whole, despite a spotty track record from Ureña and the late nature of Lorenzen’s signing with the team. However, the depth beyond those five names is suspect.
Former No. 2 overall pick Jack Leiter has pitched well in seven Triple-A appearances this season but has also been rocked for 17 earned runs through just 9 1/3 innings in his first three big league starts. He only just turned 24, so there’s plenty of time for him to figure things out, but he hasn’t looked ready for MLB opposition yet. Fellow righties Owen White and Cole Winn both ranked as top pitching prospects at one point, but neither has given ample reason to believe he can be a solution at the moment. Winn, a former No. 15 overall pick, has been moved to the bullpen and struggled in 11 MLB appearances this year. White has a 4.69 ERA in eight Triple-A starts with a lackluster 15.8% strikeout rate against a weighty 11.3% walk rate.
The Rangers’ hope is that Gray will only require a minimal stay on the injured list, thus allowing him to return in short order, but a setback for him or an injury elsewhere in the big league rotation would prove highly problematic. Keeping Cueto around gives Texas an additional option and affords the veteran righty the opportunity to continue ramping up. Cueto tossed six scoreless innings in his most recent appearance and for a second straight outing topped 80 pitches. He should be working without any pitch restrictions at this point, and it’s plenty feasible that a big league opportunity in Arlington will present itself before long.
Marcus Semien Trying To Play Through Neck Injury
Marcus Semien went 1-for-4 in the Rangers’ 8-2 loss to the Marlins yesterday, marking his return to the lineup after sitting out Texas’ previous game. While off-days aren’t normally worth mention, Semien’s absence from Wednesday’s lineup ended a streak of 349 starts for the star second baseman, and it represented only his ninth missed game since the start of the 2019 season. The decision was made since Semien is dealing with a compressed nerve in his neck, as he told Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News and other reporters yesterday, and the hope is that resting both Wednesday and Thursday (when the Rangers didn’t have a game) will help get Semien back on track.
Marlins Acquire Shaun Anderson, Designate Woo-Suk Go
The Marlins on Thursday acquired recently DFA’ed right-hander Shaun Anderson from the Rangers in exchange for cash, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid (X link)*. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, Miami designated right-hander Woo-Suk Go for assignment.
Anderson, 29, appeared in only two games with Texas, logging 3 1/3 innings and yielding a pair of runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts. This marks the fifth MLB season in which he’s seen action at the game’s top level. Anderson has previously suited up for the Giants, Twins, Orioles, Padres and Blue Jays — in addition to a prior run in the Rangers’ minor league ranks. He’s pitched 139 big league innings but struggled to a 5.83 earned run average in that time. He’s intrigued several teams over the years thanks in large part to a high-spin slider that has the potential to be a true bat-missing offering, but the rest of his arsenal hasn’t helped him reach passable results.
Anderson split the 2023 season between the Phillies’ Triple-A club and the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kia Tigers, making 14 starts for the latter. During that brief KBO run, he notched a respectable 3.76 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 61.7% ground-ball rate (though ground-ball rates in the KBO always tend to be higher than in MLB, it should be noted). Anderson is in his final minor league option year, so he can be sent back and forth between Miami and Triple-A Jacksonville freely without needing to pass through waivers.
Go, 25, was one of the top relievers in the KBO in recent years and made his way to North American ball via the posting system this winter. The Padres signed him to a two-year, $4.5MM contract but almost immediately cut bait on him, sending him to the Marlins as a financial counterweight in the Luis Arraez trade earlier in the month. He’s pitched well in Triple-A since the trade, logging nine innings with a 3.00 ERA. However, he’s fanned only 8.3% of his opponents against a 5.6% walk rate.
During his outstanding run with the KBO’s LG Twins from 2019-23, Go posted a collective 2.39 ERA with 139 saves, a 30.2% strikeout rate, a 10% walk rate and a ground-ball rate north of 60%. He missed time in 2023 with a lower back injury but still pitched 44 innings of 3.68 ERA ball with a 31.1% strikeout rate, 11.6% walk rate and massive 65.8% grounder rate.
Scouting reports on Go had his fastball topping out at 98 mph in the KBO, but when he reported to spring training reports out of Padres camp suggested he was in the 92-94 mph range, topping out just shy of 95 mph. Though the Friars had envisioned him as a potential entrant into their late-inning mix, the decision to instead option him (to Double-A) and then include him in the Arraez trade suggests they quickly became less enamored of him once he joined the organization. That the Marlins are now jettisoning him from the 40-man roster suggests they’re similarly unenthused about the right-hander’s chances of contributing at the MLB level.
Because of that $4.5MM contract, Go seems like a lock to clear waivers if he makes it there. Miami will have five days to explore trade possibilities before placing him on waivers becomes a necessity. Waivers themselves would then be a 48-hour process. If Go clears, he’d likely accept an outright assignment to Jacksonville, allowing him to continue collecting his salary while endeavoring to pitch his way into the Marlins’ big league bullpen plans.
*MLBTR originally mistakenly indicated the Marlins had formally announced the trade for Anderson and DFA of Go. The team had not done so yet at the time. We regret the error.
Rangers Place Evan Carter On Injured List; Reinstate Wyatt Langford, Nathan Eovaldi
The Rangers have reinstated outfielder Wyatt Langford and right-hander Nathan Eovaldi from the injured list, with Eovaldi starting tonight’s contest. In corresponding moves, outfielder Evan Carter lands on the 10-day IL due to back tightness while righty Yerry Rodríguez has been optioned out. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News was among those to relay the news prior to the official announcement on X (link one and two).
Carter’s back has been bugging him for a few weeks. Between May 8 and May 18, he only took two plate appearances for the Rangers. He’s been in the lineup more regularly of late but still hasn’t had a hit in about three weeks. It seems like the back problems have contributed to his lackluster results on the year. He was hitting .236/.328/.472 through May 4 but has a batting line of just .053/.100/.053 since then.
Coming into the season, it was possible to envision Texas having two regular players battling each other for the Rookie of the Year crown, but it hasn’t played out that way thus far. Carter’s recent slide has dropped his season-long batting line to .188/.272/361. Langford, meanwhile, hit just .224/.295/.293 through 129 plate appearances before landing on the IL due to a right hamstring strain. Langford will now get a chance to improve his numbers while Carter takes some time to rest up and get healthy for later in the season.
Injuries have also been a key storyline for the Texas rotation all year long. They knew long ago that Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle would be on the IL for the first half, as each of them underwent Tommy John surgery in the middle of last season. Then Max Scherzer required back surgery in the offseason. There was a time when it seemed like he could come back in mid-May but he has been delayed by thumb soreness and his timeline is still up in the air.
Since the season started, the Rangers have also seen Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning, Michael Lorenzen and Cody Bradford miss time on the injured list. All that has left Andrew Heaney as the only consistent member of the rotation this year.
Some of those IL stints have now ended, including Eovaldi’s today, so the rotation currently consists of him, Heaney, Dunning, Lorenzen and José Ureña. The club used Gerson Garabito for a spot start on Sunday and it seemed he could stick around for now as a long reliever.
The various injuries up and down the roster have seemingly prevented the defending champions from charging out of the gate this year, as they are currently 25-29 on the season. But the American League West is surprisingly weak so far this year, as the Astros are also struggling. The Rangers are second to the Mariners, just 3.5 games back and still very much in it.
Getting Eovaldi back on the mound is obviously helpful, as he had a 2.61 ERA prior to hitting the IL with a groin strain and had a 3.63 ERA for the Rangers last year. Langford could slot into the designated hitter role that Adolis García has been in recently, pushing García back to the outfield next to Leody Taveras and a rotation of Ezequiel Durán, Robbie Grossman and Derek Hill, with Carter hopefully jumping back into that mix once he’s healthy.
Rangers Designate Shaun Anderson For Assignment
The Rangers announced this morning that they’ve designated right-hander Shaun Anderson for assignment. In a corresponding move, right-hander Gerson Garabito had his contract selected from the minors. Garabito is scheduled to start today’s game against the Twins, which would be his major league debut.
Anderson was selected to the club’s roster earlier this month after signing on a minor league deal back in April. A third-round pick by the Red Sox in the 2016 draft, Anderson made his big league debut with San Francisco in 2019 and pitched to mediocre results in a swing role, with a 5.44 ERA and 4.77 FIP in 96 innings of work across 28 appearances (16 starts). Major league innings have been hard to come by for the righty since then, as he made just 35 big league appearances across five organizations between 2020 and 2022. The results left something to be desired, as well; he pitched to a 6.85 ERA with a 5.57 FIP in that time.
The righty’s struggles at the big league level led him to try his luck overseas during the 2023 campaign, and he signed with the Korea Baseball Organization’s KIA Tigers. Anderson pitched as a starter with the club and found some success overseas, with a 3.76 ERA in his 14 appearances. He returned to stateside ball late in the campaign on a minor league deal with the Phillies, but his improved results in Korea did not carry over as he surrendered 28 runs (including 11 homers) in 11 starts for the club’s Triple-A affiliate down the stretch.
That didn’t stop the Rangers from signing Anderson to a minor league deal back in April, however, and he was selected to the roster earlier this month. Anderson ultimately made just two appearances in a Rangers uniform before being DFA’d. In 3 1/3 innings of work, he allowed two runs on six hits and a walk while striking out three in a performance that was good for a 5.40 ERA and 2.23 FIP. The Rangers will now have seven days to trade Anderson or attempt to pass him through waivers. As a player who has already been outrighted previously in his career, Anderson would have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency should he clear waivers.
Replacing Anderson on the club’s roster is Garabito, a 28-year-old righty who made his pro debut with the Royals back in 2013. Garabito worked his way through the minor leagues across seven seasons in the Royals system before electing minor league free agency and joining the Giants, for whom he pitched to a 4.71 ERA in 11 appearances at the Triple-A level during 2021 season. Garabito subsequently left affiliated ball to pitch in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic over the next three seasons, racking up a 2.86 ERA in 69 1/3 innings of work during that time.
Garabito returned to stateside ball when he landed with the Rangers on a minor league deal prior to the 2024 season and has impressed in seven appearances split between the Double- and Triple-A levels with a 2.05 ERA in 30 2/3 innings of work with an enticing 30.8% strikeout rate. The Rangers evidently have seen enough for Garabito to offer him his first shot at big league action, which figures to come against Minnesota later today amid a slew of injuries to the Rangers rotation that have left key pieces such as Nathan Eovaldi and Jon Gray sidelined.
Rangers Place Jon Gray On 15-Day Injured List
The Rangers are placing right-hander Jon Gray on the injured list due to a groin strain, manager Bruce Bochy announced this morning (X link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). The team is terming it a “mild” strain, but it’ll nevertheless be enough to sit Gray down for at least the next 15 days. In a corresponding move, Texas will select the contract of right-hander Jesus Tinoco from Triple-A Round Rock. Left-hander Cody Bradford is being transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to accommodate Tinoco’s addition. Bradford has already missed six weeks with a back strain and stress fracture in his ribs.
Gray joins an an entire rotation’s worth of starters on the injured list in Texas. The Rangers are also without Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Tyler Mahle, Nathan Eovaldi and the aforementioned Bradford at the moment. That’ll leave Texas with a rotation including Andrew Heaney, Dane Dunning, Michael Lorenzen, Jose Ureña and a yet-to-be-determined fifth option. (Tinoco is a reliever and won’t step onto the starting staff.) The top depth options on the 40-man roster include Jack Leiter and Owen White. While Leiter has thrived pitching in Triple-A, both of those once-vaunted prospects has struggled in the big leagues this season.
Subtracting Gray from the roster would be a notable blow even without that litany of other injuries. The former No. 3 overall draft pick is out to perhaps the best start of his career, pitching to a tiny 2.21 ERA through his first 57 frames of the season. Gray’s 23.7% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 44.4% ground-ball rate are all at or slightly better than the league average. His ERA is being helped out by a microscopic 3.3% homer-to-flyball rate that’s helped him average just 0.32 homers per nine frames this season. But even metrics that normalize home run rate (e.g. his 3.68 SIERA) suggest Gray has still been a decidedly above-average hurler thanks to that strong blend of whiffs, grounders and walks (or lack thereof).
Tinoco, 29, will return for a second stint with the Rangers. He pitched in the Texas organization in 2022, famously giving up Aaron Judge’s record-breaking 62nd home run late in the season. That’s a down note in what was otherwise a strong year. In 20 2/3 frames with the Rangers he logged a 2.18 ERA — albeit with lackluster strikeout and walk rates of 21.4% and 11.9%, respectively.
Tinoco spent the 2023 season with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and handled himself well for the most part, but he returned stateside on a minor league pact with the Rangers over the winter. He’s gotten out to a decent start in Round Rock, pitching to a 3.80 earned run average and fanning just over 30% of his opponents in 21 1/3 innings. Overall, Tinoco has pitched in parts of four MLB seasons and compiled 66 2/3 innings with a 4.05 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate, 13.9% walk rate and 44% grounder rate. Command has clearly been an issue for him throughout his professional career, and that’s been the case again in 2024, evidenced by an 11.2% walk rate in Round Rock.
