Corey Seager Exits Game Following Hit By Pitch
Rangers star Corey Seager exited tonight’s game against the Orioles after being struck in the wrist area in the fifth inning by Baltimore lefty Cade Povich, as noted by several reporters (including MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry) on X. The Rangers subsequently announced that initial x-rays on Seager’s wrist were negative, though he’ll be evaluated further tomorrow to determine the severity of the issue.
An absence of any length for the 30-year-old superstar would be a brutal turn of events for the Rangers as they try to fight their way back into the AL playoff picture. The club currently sits at 37-45 entering play this evening, nine games back of the Mariners in the AL West and 7.5 games back of the Royals for the final AL Wild Card spot. With Texas currently buried behind the Red Sox, Astros, Rays, and Blue Jays in the race to catch the Royals for that final playoff spot, the Rangers were already facing an uphill climb as they seek an opportunity to defend their 2023 World Series championship this fall.
Now, it seems possible they’ll have to do so without Seager, at least for the time being. On the heels of a campaign where he slashed an incredible .327/.390/.623 en route to a second-place finish behind Shohei Ohtani in AL MVP voting as well as the second World Series MVP honors of his career, the 10-year MLB veteran got off to an uncharacteristically slow start in April but quickly began to heat up when the calendar flipped to May.
Over the past two months, Seager has slashed an excellent .273/.356/.521 (139 wRC+) to raise his season-long figure to 116, although digging a little deeper into his numbers would suggest that even that number has some misfortune baked into it. Seager’s .277 BABIP in 71 games this year would be the second-lowest figure of his career and just the second time he’s posted a figure below .300. Meanwhile, his .335 wOBA is a far cry from his expected .379 figure, the latter of which ranks 14th among qualified hitters this year, sandwiched between Bryce Harper and Mookie Betts.
Even setting aside Seager’s underlying performance and focusing purely on his production to this point, the shortstop’s 116 wRC+ is one of only two above-average offensive performances the Rangers have gotten from qualified hitters this season, trailing only the fantastic breakout performance of infielder Josh Smith. With key bats such as Marcus Semien and Adolis Garcia not yet meeting expectations this season, top prospects Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford struggling through injuries and ineffectiveness in their rookie campaigns, and star third baseman Josh Jung sidelined by a wrist injury of his own since early April, the Rangers lineup has in some ways leaned even more heavily on Seager this season than it did during his MVP-caliber 2023 season.
In the event that Seager misses time, Smith appears to be the most likely candidate to handle shortstop in his absence, sliding over to the position from third base. Jung appeared to be nearing a return to action not long ago, although as noted by Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News the youngster has been delayed in returning to taking batting practice by inflammation in his ailing wrist. According to Grant, Manager Bruce Bochy told reporters prior to tonight’s game that Jung will not swing this weekend and is headed to visit with a specialist on Monday to be re-evaluated. Even if that visit with a specialist ends up going well and Jung is cleared to resume swinging, Grant suggests that a conservative approach to his rehab could see him remain out until play resumes after the All Star break.
Should third base be left open by Smith taking over for Seager at shortstop, it appears likely that the Rangers would call up another infielder such as Ezequiel Duran or Justin Foscue to pair with utility infielder Davis Wendzel at the hot corner. Duran is the most established big leaguer of the three, having played his way into something of an everyday role with the Rangers last year in a bat-first utility role. The 25-year-old’s offense evaporated this year, however, as he hit a paltry .256/.294/.324 in 58 games before being demoted to the minors. Foscue, meanwhile, is a former top-100 prospect with a career .261/.396/.456 slash line at the Triple-A level who has just two big league plate appearances under his belt. Either player appears more likely to take the lion’s share of available at-bats rather than Wendzel, a 27-year-old rookie who has struggled badly at the plate with a wRC+ of just 15 in 25 games with the Rangers this year.
Jed Hoyer Discusses Trade Deadline, Cubs’ Struggles
The Cubs’ 4-2 loss to the Brewers Friday dropped Chicago to a 38-45 record, and a .458 winning percentage that tops only the Marlins and Rockies among all National League teams. With a 17-31 mark in their last 48 games, the Cubs simply haven’t been playing good baseball for the better part of two months, leading to a lot of speculation about the team’s plans heading into the July 30 trade deadline.
President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer addressed this topic and many others when speaking with reporters (including The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and ESPN’s Jesse Rogers) prior to yesterday’s game, saying “I don’t think it’s time yet for that full conversation” given that the deadline is still a month out. However, Hoyer admitted that “we’ve backed ourselves into a bit of a corner” and things needs to turn around quickly.
“We have to play well this month,” Hoyer said. “I think you have to be a realist when you get to that point….You have to make the best decisions for the organization based on the hand you’re dealt that year. We’ll see what that is.”
It was just last season that the Cubs were 45-51 on July 20 before rattling off an eight-game winning streak that convinced Hoyer to make moves to bolster the roster at the deadline, rather than sell. Jeimer Candelario was acquired in a trade with the Nationals and helped Chicago post a scoring 18-9 record in August 2023, though a late-season fade left the team just short of a playoff berth.
If the Cubs get on track with another big win streak, or if they keep losing at this pace, Hoyer’s deadline decision will be relatively easy. Given the team’s win-now mode and the investments made in the roster, it might also be fair to say that the Cubs will be more prone to adding at the deadline if they’re even near the .500 mark but still within striking distance in the wild card race. (Even now, Chicago is just five games out of the last NL wild card berth.)
Turning to how the Wrigleyville squad might approach selling, their same roster-building endeavors also lead to a lack of obvious trade candidates. As Rogers notes, most of the Cubs’ roster is under longer-term control, either via contracts or players under arbitration control. While Chicago hasn’t played well, the idea of the Cubs blowing things up and having a fire sale of their core simply isn’t realistic, so any deadline selling would surely be made with an eye towards contending in 2025.
Hector Neris and Kyle Hendricks are free agents this winter and Neris’ track record would lead to some interest from bullpen-needy teams, even though he and Hendricks have both struggled for much of the season. Cody Bellinger can become a free agent if he opts out of the last two years and $52.5MM of his current contract, though his decent but unspectacular play creates some doubt as to whether or not an opt-out would lead to Bellinger finally landing a big-ticket multi-year contract. This same gray area in regards to Bellinger’s status as a rental or a possible longer-term piece would impact his possible status as a trade candidate come the deadline.
The Cubs opted to keep Bellinger at last year’s trade deadline, though it could be a different story this year barring another July surge. “Teams like the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers have recently had a noticeable scouting presence around the” Cubs, according to The Athletic’s Will Sammon, Katie Woo, Patrick Mooney, and Ken Rosenthal, and Bellinger has long been linked to the Yankees on the rumor mill. The 37-45 Rangers are in even worse shape than the Cubs, but the defending World Series champs are another team who could pivot to selling if they can start winning in July.
Until the deadline nears, all Hoyer and his front office can do is hope their struggling lineup and bullpen in particular perform better. Hoyer’s disappointment was clear, as he said “when you look at where we’ve performed this year with a team that’s stronger [on paper], it’s lesser. Is that frustrating to me? Absolutely. If it’s frustrating to me, I have to imagine it’s frustrating to the fans.”
Rangers Option Ezequiel Duran Amid Series of Roster Moves
The Rangers announced a series of roster moves today, most notably optioning utility player Ezequiel Duran to Triple-A Round Rock. The team selected outfielder Derek Hill to take Duran’s place on the active roster, while designating right-hander Yerry Rodríguez for assignment to open a space on the 40-man. The team also activated Justin Foscue from the 60-day IL and optioned the 25-year-old infielder to Triple-A. To free up another spot on the 40-man roster, right-handed pitcher Cole Winn was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL.
Duran, 25, was a productive hitter for last year’s World Series-winning squad, hitting .276/.324/.443 (107 wRC+) with 14 homers and eight steals while logging defensive time at all four infield positions and both outfield corners. He’s continued to bounce all over the diamond in 2024, but his offensive contributions have withered considerably. In 187 plate appearances, Duran is hitting .256/.294/.324 (74 wRC+) with just two homers.
Things have gone particularly poorly for Duran as of late. Since the calendar flipped to June, he’s turned in a miserable .211/.219/.296 batting line with just one walk in 73 plate appearances. While he’s actually cut his strikeout rate a bit from last season, the overall quality of Duran’s contact this season has plummeted. His ground-ball and infield-fly rates have both spiked, while his average exit velocity has dropped by nearly three miles per hour and his hard-hit rate has cratered (43.9% in 2023, 36.6% in 2024). The Rangers surely still view him as a potential long-term contributor — he’ll be controllable for four seasons beyond the current year (or five if he doesn’t return to the majors for at least 10 days) — but are taking the opportunity to give him a reset and get him back on track in the minors.
Hill will start this afternoon in center field against the Brewers. The former first-round pick (Tigers, 2014) signed a minor league deal over the winter and had a brief stint with Texas earlier this season, going 2-for-9 in limited action before being designated for assignment and outrighted to Round Rock. He’s putting up monster numbers in Triple-A, slashing .350/.415/.631 with eight homers, a dozen doubles, four triples and seven steals (in eight attempts).
The Rangers’ lineup has been reeling of late, with center fielder Leody Taveras (who’s out of minor league options and can’t be sent down without being designated for assignment himself) struggling in particular. After a very productive month in May, he’s hitting just .121/.194/.167 in June. Hill will start in his place today and could see further opportunities as Texas looks to inject some life into a struggling offense.
Rodriguez, 26, pitched 17 innings out of the Rangers’ bullpen this season but has been rocked for a 6.88 ERA, due in no small part to a bloated 14.1% walk rate and massive 2.65 HR/9 mark. The 96.6 mph average on his heater this season is an impressive mark but nonetheless down from last year’s 97.2 mph mark in a season that also saw the righty struggle in a limited sample of innings.
In all, Rodriguez has totaled 31 2/3 innings for the Rangers over the past three seasons but been touched for a 7.11 earned run average. His lack of command has undercut the power of his arsenal, evidenced by the fact that he hasn’t missed nearly as many bats as one would think for a pitcher whose fastball lives in the upper 90s. Rodriguez has fanned only 18.9% of his big league opponents against a rough 11.5% walk rate. He’s regularly missed bats and racked up strikeouts in the upper minors, but skill hasn’t carried over to the big league level.
The Rangers will now either trade Rodriguez or place him on waivers within the next five days. Waivers would be an additional two-day process. Within a week’s time, he’ll know the outcome of his DFA. He’s in his final minor league option year, so a new club that acquires him could send Rodriguez to Triple-A without needing to first pass him through waivers themselves.
Foscue, the No. 14 overall pick in 2020, went 1-for-2 earlier this season in his MLB debut but has been out more than two months with an oblique strain. He’s a bat-first infield prospect who could eventually be called upon to help the lineup himself, but he’s still played in only four Triple-A contests during his rehab stint. He went 1-for-8 in that time and drew a hearty eight walks as well. He’s batted .263/.398/.462 in 595 Triple-A plate appearances dating back to 2023.
Winn, another former first-round pick, landed on the IL with shoulder discomfort last week and will now be out through at least mid-August. His prospect stock has faded as he’s struggled in the upper minors. Texas used him in a bullpen role earlier this season but saw the 24-year-old struggle with an ERA north of 7.00 in 17 1/3 innings.
Rangers Activate Max Scherzer
TODAY: The Rangers officially activated Scherzer from the 60-day injured list this morning. Right-hander Yerry Rodriguez was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move.
June 22: Max Scherzer‘s 2024 debut date has now been set, as the future Hall-of-Famer told reporters (including MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry) that he will be activated from the 60-day injured list tomorrow to start the Rangers’ game against the Royals. It will mark Scherzer’s first action in a big league contest since he pitched three scoreless innings in Game 3 of last year’s World Series.
Last December, the 39-year-old underwent surgery to fix a herniated disc in his back, and the initial timeline indicated Scherzer would be out of action until June or July. As it happened, Scherzer looked to be on pace to handily beat that projection and was seemingly close to returning by mid-May before a nerve problem in his thumb extended his time on the IL. Texas had optimistically put Scherzer on only the 15-day IL to begin the season, but eventually shifted him to the 60-day once it became clear he wouldn’t be back by the end of May.
However, all systems are now go for the veteran righty to make his return. Scherzer has made two Triple-A starts during his most recent rehab assignment, including a 79-pitch, 4 2/3 inning effort last Saturday. Texas manager Bruce Bochy told Landry and other reporters that Scherzer wouldn’t be on a specific pitch count in Sunday’s game, though it stands to reason that the club might somewhat try to ease Scherzer back into action.
With Scherzer nearing reinstatement from the 60-day IL, the Rangers are a step closer to finally having their first-choice rotation. Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle could both make their own returns from Tommy John surgery rehab around the start of August, while Cody Bradford continues to recover from a stress fracture in his rib. On paper the Rangers might have too many rotation options if absolutely everyone is healthy, yet that scenario is probably unlikely given how many health issues Texas has had to navigate over the last year.
Bochy said that Scherzer will take Dane Dunning‘s spot in the rotation, moving Dunning back to relief work. Dunning began 2023 in the bullpen but soon resumed his usual starting role while filling in for various injured starters, primarily deGrom. Working solely as a starter in 2024, Dunning has a 4.73 ERA over 59 innings.
Jesús Tinoco Elects Free Agency
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
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
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
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
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
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.