Here’s the latest from baseball’s two Texan clubs.
- The Astros have asked third baseman Matt Dominguez to prepare to play first base, writes Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle. Last week’s trade for Luis Valbuena and Dan Straily has pushed Dominguez into a competition for the third base job, and the club is hoping to get more flexibility out of the former prospect. Dominguez, 25, will compete with Jon Singleton and Evan Gattis. To Dominguez’s favor, he could form a traditional platoon with the left-handed hitting Valbuena. Both Dominguez and Singleton have options, giving the Astros roster flexibility.
- Houston is still looking for a starting pitcher, tweets Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. The club will probably target a NRI. Per Drellich (also Twitter), it’s not the end of the world if the club doesn’t find somebody. The club does seem to have plenty of rotation depth, with Straily looking like the sixth starter.
- The Rangers are hunting for relief help, reports Anthony Andro of FOX Sports Southwest. In particular, the club would like to add a left-handed reliever to supplement Robbie Ross, Michael Kirkman, and Alex Claudio. As GM Jon Daniels points out, there aren’t many lefties remaining in free agency – MLBTR lists only seven. We learned earlier today that the Rangers were uninterested in re-signing Neal Cotts.
