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Jesús Tinoco Elects Free Agency

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7:05pm: Tinoco’s transactions log at MLB.com indicates that he indeed chose to become a free agent.

3:45pm: The Rangers announced that right-hander Jesús Tinoco has been assigned outright to Triple-A Round Rock. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week. He has the right to elect free agency though it’s not clear if he has chosen to do so.

Tinoco, 29, signed a minor league deal with Texas in the offseason and posted some encouraging results for the Express. He tossed 21 1/3 innings for that club, allowing 3.80 earned runs per nine. His 11.2% walk rate was on the high side but he got ground balls at a 47.1% clip and struck out 30.3% of batters faced.

He was selected to the big league roster on May 23 but his results tailed off from there. He threw 10 major league innings for the Rangers but allowed nine earned runs in that time. He struck out nine opponents but gave out seven walks. Since he’s out of options, the club’s only way to remove him from the active roster was to remove him from the 40-man as well.

Tinoco has generally been able to rack up strikeouts on the farm but less so in the majors. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has a 4.60 ERA in the minors while striking out 26.3% of batters faced. In that same time frame, he has a 5.34 ERA in the big leagues with an 18.8% strikeout rate.

He will now have to decide whether to return to Round Rock or pursue opportunities elsewhere. The fact that he cleared waivers shows that no club is willing to give him a major league spot right now but he shouldn’t have trouble getting another minor league opportunity somewhere.

Rangers’ Jose Corniell To Undergo UCL Surgery

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Rangers pitching prospect Jose Corniell is out for the season. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes that the 20-year-old righty will undergo surgery to repair the UCL in his throwing elbow. It’s unclear if he’ll require a full Tommy John reconstruction or the modified internal brace procedure.

In either case, it’ll cost him all of 2024 and shelve him well into next season. Corniell has spent the entire season on the minor league injured list while attempting to rehab the issue without surgery. That unfortunately proved unsuccessful. It’s a tough follow-up to a season that put Corniell more firmly on prospect radars. The Dominican-born hurler — whom Texas initially acquired from the Mariners in 2020 for Rafael Montero — turned in a 2.92 earned run average in A-ball a season ago. He punched out nearly 30% of opponents against a 7.8% walk rate over 101 2/3 innings.

The Rangers added Corniell to their 40-man roster last winter. Texas was concerned that another team (likely a rebuilding club) could grab him in the Rule 5 draft and try to stash him in the bullpen even though he’d yet to pitch above High-A. Corniell will continue to count against the 40-man while he’s on the minor league injured list.

If they’re willing to pay him at the the prorated $740K MLB minimum rate, Texas could place Corniell on the 60-day IL to open a roster spot. He’d need to be reinstated over the offseason, though the Rangers could elect to non-tender him with an eye towards bringing him back on a minor league deal instead.

The Rangers’ Surprising Problem

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Each week at MLBTR, it seems we're covering a development that further tanks the Astros' chances of competing for a playoff spot. We've devoted less attention to their in-state rivals, but the Rangers are in no better a situation. Texas and Houston have identical 33-40 records after the Rangers' five-game losing streak. They're only four games clear of the Angels for fourth place in the AL West.

Texas starting the season slowly isn't a huge surprise in itself (even if the extent of their struggles is). The eye-opener is in the way the team has underperformed. The Rangers opened the season without Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Tyler Mahle. They were largely trying to stay afloat for the first couple months before welcoming that trio of starters back throughout the summer. The early-season rotation was the big question -- the main reason the Rangers might find themselves closer to the bottom of the AL West than the top more than halfway into June.

Starting pitching has not been the problem. Texas is middle-of-the-pack in that regard, solid work from a staff without three of its most talented arms. The collapse has been on the other side of the ball. The Ranger offense hasn't performed. An outfield that looked like one of the game's most talented groups has been a disaster. It's not the easiest problem for GM Chris Young to address at the deadline -- if the Rangers find themselves in position to add at all next month.

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Max Scherzer Nearing Return; deGrom Throwing Off Mound

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The Rangers dropped their fourth consecutive game in an ugly 14-2 drubbing at the hands of the Mets tonight. That continues a tough month-long stretch that has dropped the defending World Series champions six games below .500.

To the extent there’s a silver lining of Monday for Ranger fans, it’s that the team provided some good news on the injury front. Manager Bruce Bochy told reporters that Max Scherzer’s next start will come at the major league level (X link via Jeff Wilson of Rangers Today). While Bochy didn’t specify a date for the future Hall of Famer’s season debut, it seems likely to fall during this weekend’s series against the Royals.

A herniated disc sent Scherzer to the operating table last December. The initial recovery timeline called for a June or July return. Scherzer seemed to be ahead of schedule early in the year before discomfort in his right thumb slowed his progress. The three-time Cy Young winner restarted a rehab stint on June 9. He pitched twice with Triple-A Round Rock, logging 79 pitches across 4 2/3 innings on Saturday.

Texas has a starting five of Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Michael Lorenzen, Dane Dunning and Andrew Heaney. Unless Texas opts for a six-man rotation, Scherzer’s return will bump someone from that group to the bullpen. It certainly won’t be Eovaldi or Gray. The Rangers signed Lorenzen to fill a sixth starter/swing role, but he has turned in a 2.86 ERA while working six innings per appearance through 11 starts. Even with middling strikeout and walk numbers, Lorenzen has probably pitched his way into a long-term rotation spot.

Heaney, who’ll take the ball against the Mets on Wednesday, has started 13 of 14 appearances. The southpaw owns a 4.19 ERA with a decent 21.4% strikeout percentage and a strong 6.2% walk rate — similar numbers to those he turned in during his first season in Arlington. Dunning has had a tougher go this season, allowing 4.73 earned runs per nine. While his 26.7% strikeout rate narrowly leads Texas starters, the University of Florida product has issued walks at an uncharacteristic 11.6% clip while struggling with the home run ball.

Scherzer has been joined on the injured list all season by Tyler Mahle and Jacob deGrom. Mahle began facing hitters earlier this month as he works back from last May’s Tommy John procedure. deGrom, who underwent the same surgery in early June 2023, isn’t too far behind. He hit a milestone in his rehab on Monday, throwing off a mound for the first time in 12 months (X link via Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News). deGrom has been targeting a return to MLB action at some point in August.

Rangers Designate Jesus Tinoco For Assignment

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The Rangers announced this afternoon that they’ve designated right-hander Jesus Tinoco for assignment. Right-hander Cole Winn was recalled to take Tinoco’s spot on the active roster.

This has been Tinoco’s second stint with Texas, as he had previously pitched to a strong 2.18 ERA with a 4.22 FIP in 20 2/3 innings of work with the club back in 2022. That said, he walked a worrisome 11.9% of batters faced that year and ultimately found himself outrighted off the club’s roster that November. Tinoco spent the 2023 campaign pitching overseas for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Seibu Lions, and the righty performed well with a 2.83 ERA in 35 innings of work in Pacific League play.

A 12.5% walk rate during that time suggested that Tinoco had not yet resolved his struggles with control, but the Rangers nonetheless offered him a minor league deal back in December. He eventually made his way back onto the active roster in Texas last month, but his second stint with the club has not gone well. In 10 innings of work across nine appearances with the Rangers this year, Tinoco has walked a hefty 14% of batters faced while surrendering an 8.10 ERA with a 6.64 FIP. That performance proved to be untenable for the Rangers, and after the righty allowed two runs in an inning of relief during last night’s game against the Mariners, the club decided to part ways with Tinoco once again. They’ll now have one week to either trade Tinoco or attempt to pass him through waivers. Since Tinoco has been outrighted previously in his career, the righty will have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment if he so chooses.

Replacing Tinoco on the club’s 40-man roster is Winn, 24. The youngster was selected in the first round of the 2018 draft by the Rangers and was once a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport but struggled badly during the 2022 and 2023 seasons at the Triple-A level, substantially lowering his prospect stock. That led the Rangers to convert Winn to a full-time relief role in 2024, and he’s generally taken to the job well with a 3.45 ERA and a 30.3% strikeout rate at the Triple-A level this year.

Unfortunately, Winn’s first taste of big league action did not go over well. While he fired off a streak of seven scoreless innings across his first five outings, he surrendered a whopping 11 runs in the month of May across just 7 1/3 innings of work while striking out only 13.1% of batters faced. Those brutal numbers left the Rangers to send Winn back to the minor leagues in late May, although he’s now back in the majors just under a month after his demotion. If Winn can harness the high-octane stuff that allowed him to dominate back in April, it’s not hard to imagine him providing valuable middle relief innings to a beleaguered Rangers bullpen that ranks 25th in baseball by ERA.

Rangers Notes: Smith, Scherzer, Sborz

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Rangers utility man Josh Smith has been one of the club’s most potent offensive players this year, slashing an excellent .294/.384/.436 in 243 trips to the plate while primarily splitting time between third base and shortstop. That performance has been good for an excellent wRC+ of 137, although Smith’s elevated .358 BABIP and relatively pedestrian .311 xwOBA both indicate there may be some good fortune baked into those results.

However lucky Smith’s results may be, it appears that he’s earned himself more playing time going forward. While Smith has found himself sidelined in recent days, manager Bruce Bochy told reporters (including Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News) that Smith has been dealing with “general tightness” but that he’s played himself into a regular role with the club when healthy. It’s fairly easy to see why the club would commit more playing time to Smith going forward, as well. After all, that aforementioned 137 wRC+ is ten points ahead of shortstop Corey Seager for the team lead.

What perhaps makes things a little bit more complicated for Smith is that third baseman Josh Jung is on the verge of a rehab assignment and figures to get regular at-bats of his own upon returning to the lineup. With Jung and Seager set to play virtually every day on the left side of the infield, Smith’s most common positions figure to no longer be available to him. Even so, there’s plenty of room for improvement in a Rangers lineup that ranks just 23rd in the majors with a 93 wRC+ this year. Smith has some experience in the outfield, and all four of Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford, Adolis Garcia, and Leody Taveras have underperformed to varying degrees this year at the plate. That should make it fairly simple to work Smith into the outfield and DH mix on a regular basis, though Grant also suggests that Smith could take some reps at first base over Nathaniel Lowe.

In other Rangers news, veteran ace Max Scherzer threw 79 pitched for Triple-A Round Rock last night, striking out eight batters while allowing three runs across 4 2/3 innings of work. Bochy indicated to reporters (including Josh Kirshenbaum of MLB.com) prior to Scherzer’s start that it could be his final rehab appearance before returning to the majors if all went well. Barring some sort of setback for Scherzer in the aftermath of last night’s start, it appears he could be back in the Rangers rotation later this week.

The veteran right-hander’s return to the majors should offer a huge boost to a Texas club that has dealt with a number of injuries in their starting rotation this year. Jacob deGrom, Tyler Mahle, and Cody Bradford are all currently on the 60-day IL alongside Scherzer, and the club has also spent time without each of Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning, and Michael Lorenzen due to injury this season. Left-hander Andrew Heaney began the campaign in the bullpen but was almost immediately moved into the rotation due to injuries; upon Scherzer’s return, he and Lorenzen appear to be the most likely candidates to join fellow swing man Jose Urena in the club’s relief corps.

While Scherzer appears to be wrapping up his rehab assignment, another hurler is on the verge of beginning a rehab assignment of his own: right-hander Josh Sborz, who has been sidelined since April by a rotator cuff strain. As noted on MLB.com’s Injury Tracker, Sborz is set to begin a rehab assignment with Round Rock today. If the righty is nearing a return to the bullpen, he could provide a shot in the arm for a Rangers bullpen that ranks sixth from the bottom among all major league clubs.

Sborz had a 1.69 ERA and 2.96 FIP in seven appearances prior to his placement on the IL this year, and while the righty struggled to a 5.50 ERA in 2023, much of that was due to an unbelievably low 56.2% strand rate. Sborz’s 30.7% strikeout rate, 3.75 FIP, 3.35 xERA, and 3.05 SIERA all point to the righty’s ability to be an impactful relief arm for the Rangers. Texas is currently relying on a combination of Kirby Yates, David Robertson, and Jose Leclerc in the late innings.

Rangers Re-Sign Derek Hill To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers have re-signed outfielder Derek Hill to a minor league contract, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (X link). He’ll head back to Triple-A Round Rock after electing free agency earlier in the week.

Hill first 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. He went 2-9 with a walk and a stolen base in what marked his fifth year logging MLB time. Texas designated Hill for assignment a week ago; he cleared outright waivers on Tuesday.

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).

Rangers Reinstate Brock Burke, Outright Derek Hill

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The Rangers announced they’ve reinstated lefty reliever Brock Burke from the 60-day injured list. Texas optioned Grant Anderson to Triple-A Round Rock in a corresponding move. The Rangers already had an opening on the 40-man roster after designating outfielder Derek Hill for assignment last week. Texas announced tonight that Hill went unclaimed on waivers and was outrighted to Round Rock, though he has the right to elect free agency in lieu of the Triple-A assignment.

Burke suffered a fractured metacarpal in his non-throwing hand back in April. The southpaw punched a dugout wall in frustration after a poor outing. He underwent surgery and missed a couple months. Burke had an excellent 2022 campaign in which he threw 82 1/3 innings of 1.97 ERA ball. Last year’s 4.37 mark was more pedestrian, and he gave up five runs in his first three frames this season. Burke rejoins Jacob Latz as lefty options for Bruce Bochy, though he’ll likely need to pitch his way back into the later innings.

Hill, 28, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers and got added to their big league roster about three weeks ago. He got a small sample of work while on the roster, getting just ten plate appearances in five games, hitting .222/.300/.222 in those. Last week, the Rangers needed an extra infielder with Corey Seager day-to-day due to hamstring soreness. They recalled Davis Wendzel and nudged Hill out. Since Hill is out of options, they had to remove him from the 40-man entirely.

Any team acquiring him would have also had to plug him directly onto the active roster and it seems none of them were willing to do so. Since he has a previous career outright, he has the right to reject any outright assignment in favor of free agency. Should he explore that avenue, he should be able to find a minor league deal somewhere.

Hill hasn’t hit much in his big league career but he can provide value in others ways. Statcast considers his sprint speed to be in the 98th percentile this year and Hill has five Outs Above Average in his 746 1/3 outfield innings. It’s also possible there’s some upside at the plate since he’s had some good performances in the minors and was slashing .333/.387/.659 for Round Rock before getting called up this year.

West Notes: Miller, Kershaw, Graterol, Scherzer

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The Dodgers have suffered more than their fair share of injuries this season, but they have received several positive updates in recent days. For one, young right-hander Bobby Miller could soon rejoin the rotation. After a strong rookie season in 2023, Miller has missed most of his sophomore campaign with a shoulder injury. However, his latest rehab appearance last Friday went well, and afterward, manager Dave Roberts suggested Miller could be ready to return without another rehab start – although, as more time passes without an update, it seems that Miller will likely make one final rehab start after all (per MLB.com)

Miller allowed seven runs on 11 hits and six walks over 11 2/3 innings across his first three starts in 2024 before landing on the IL. However, he is coming off a breakout 2023 season in which he pitched to a 3.76 ERA and 3.93 SIERA over 22 starts (124 1/3 innings). Still just 25 years old, he looks to be a fixture in the Dodgers rotation for years to come.

The Dodgers currently have a starting five of Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Gavin Stone, James Paxton, and Walker Buehler, so they don’t need to rush Miller back from the IL. That said, with no off days in their schedule until June 23, the Dodgers could certainly use a sixth starter to help shoulder the workload.

More injury updates from around the NL and AL West…

  • Sticking with Dodgers starting pitchers, Clayton Kershaw could soon begin a minor league rehab assignment of his own. The long-time Dodgers ace has yet to pitch this season after undergoing shoulder surgery last November. However, Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday that Kershaw was scheduled to throw a third simulated game, and after that, he could be ready to start a rehab assignment. This seems to put him on track to come back sometime next month. “Sometime in July” was always considered the earliest possible timeline for Kershaw’s return.
  • Meanwhile, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register reports that reliever Brusdar Graterol will throw a bullpen session this week. The right-hander has been out since spring training with a shoulder injury, and he suffered a setback in late April, forcing him to shut down his throwing program. Graterol played a key role in the Dodgers bullpen last season, pitching to a 1.20 ERA and 3.31 SIERA over 68 appearances, racking up seven saves, 19 holds, and leading the pitching staff in Win Probability Added (WPA).
  • Finally, moving over to the American League, Max Scherzer could rejoin the Rangers rotation as soon as next week (per Jeff Wilson of Rangers Today). The three-time Cy Young winner is scheduled to make a third rehab start on Friday, after which he could be ready to return to the majors. His second rehab appearance went well, and barring a setback, his outing with Triple-A Round Rock on Friday could be the last rehab start he needs. Wilson reports that Scherzer could make his 2024 debut as early as June 19, although he suggests the Rangers could opt to give Scherzer some extra rest, pushing his start back to June 21.

Rangers Notes: Scherzer, Gray, Jung

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TODAY: Scherzer began his rehab assignment today, tossing 53 pitches over four scoreless innings for Triple-A Round Rock.  As noted by Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News, Scherzer’s sinker was averaging 93mph, and he threw the pitch 22 times among his 53 overall offerings while allowing only one hit and one walk in the five-strikeout outing.  The Rangers plan to build Scherzer up to a 75-pitch count before evaluating whether or not he might be ready to return to the majors.

JUNE 8: The Rangers activated right-hander Jon Gray from the 10-day injured list this afternoon, just over two weeks after he was initially shelved due to a groin strain. That quick turnaround has left Gray not fully stretched out to start, and Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News wrote this afternoon that the right-hander would be eased back into his role with the club in a relief role before later rejoining the starting mix. According to Grant, the decision to first use Gray in relief before adding him back to the rotation mix his next time up allowed the Rangers to skip a minor league rehab stint for the 32-year-old hurler.

That plan came to pass this evening, as Gray pitched 2 1/3 scoreless frames in relief of Andrew Heaney during this evening’s loss to the Giants. Regardless of the role he’s pitching in, Gray’s return figures to provide a huge boost to the Rangers pitching staff. After all, the righty boasted a 2.21 ERA and 2.52 FIP in 57 frames at the time of his placement on the IL with a solid 23.7% strikeout rate and a 44.4% groundball rate that represents his best work since joining the Rangers prior to the 2021 season. With starters Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Cody Bradford, and Tyler Mahle all currently in the midst of lengthy absences, Gray’s speedy return from the shelf figures to be key for the Rangers as they look to get themselves back into the hunt for the postseason. The club has scuffled in recent weeks and currently sports a 30-34 record that puts them five games back of the Mariners for the AL West crown and three games out of the final AL Wild Card spot.

Fortunately, Gray isn’t the only key player who could return from injury in the near future. Grant also relays that third baseman Josh Jung, who has been shelved for the majority of the season due to a broken wrist, has begun taken live batting practice and could be slated for a rehab assignment as soon as this coming Tuesday. Grant adds that Rangers brass are expected to set a schedule for Jung tomorrow that could firm up those plans.

Jung made it into just four games with the Rangers before he was sidelined this year, but he was hitting a scorching .412/.474/.941 in that microscopic sample size before the injury put him out of action. Since the start of Jung’s 2023 campaign, he’s been a well above average offensive contributor for Texas at third base with a .271/.320/.483 slash line, 26 doubles, and 25 home runs in 534 trips to the plate across just 126 games. Josh Smith has performed well at the hot corner in Jung’s absence, although the 26-year-old’s return from the injured list would still improve the club’s offense by allowing the team to push Ezequiel Duran and his 92 wRC+ into a bench role.

Turning back to the pitching staff, veteran ace Max Scherzer also made progress in his rehab earlier this week, as MLB.com’s Injury Tracker notes that he threw 40-50 pitches across two innings of live batting practice earlier this week, with Scherzer himself telling reporters that he hopes to start a minor league rehab assignment soon. It’s been a rocky road to recovery for Scherzer this season as he entered the 2024 campaign projected to return from offseason back surgery around the All Star break before seemingly progressing ahead of schedule. That left him and the Rangers eyeing sometime in May for his return, although a nerve issue in Scherzer’s thumb ultimately required a cortisone shot and caused the club to shut the veteran righty down.

Now that Scherzer is throwing to hitters once again, he appears to be on a similar track to the one he was projected for at the time of his surgery, with a return later this month or in early July now a seemingly realistic target so long as he avoids additional setbacks. After being swapped from the Mets to the Rangers in exchange for Luisangel Acuna last summer, the future Hall of Famer pitched to a 3.20 ERA and 3.41 FIP in eight starts for the club down the stretch with an excellent 29.9% strikeout rate but dealt with injuries that limited both his availability and his effectiveness during the club’s postseason run that culminated in the first World Series championship in franchise history. Looking ahead, his return to action should further bolster the pitching staff in Texas while allowing the Rangers to shift the likes of Heaney and Jose Urena into relief after early season rotation injuries forced them into starting roles.

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