The Rangers have signed infielder Derek Dietrich to a minor league contract and assigned him to their alternate training site, per a club announcement. Texas will be the third organization for Dietrich already in 2020. He signed a minor league deal with the Reds (with whom he spent the 2019 season) over the winter and latched on with the Cubs late last month after Cincinnati cut him loose. The Cubs released Dietrich just 24 hours ago.
Early last summer, Dietrich looked to be one of the best minor league pickups in all of MLB. Through his first 157 trips to the plate, he raked at a .263/.369/.684 clip and had already set a new career-high in home runs. He was thriving both at the hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park and on the road, but his offensive output cratered in the season’s final few months. Over his final 149 plate appearances, he hit just .102/.284/.212.
In all, Dietrich is a career .246/.334/.427 hitter with 79 home runs, 106 doubles and 21 triples in 2438 plate appearances between the Marlins and Reds. He has experience playing second base, first base, third base and the outfield corners. He’ll give the club some lefty-hitting bench depth and perhaps an alternative to the struggling Rougned Odor, who has opened the season with a disastrous .114/.205/.229 slash and 16 strikeouts in 39 plate appearances.
Rangers need to dump Odor.
Odor is a lost cause…dump him and just eat the salary…
Yeah it is time.
Thus continues the Derek Dietrich 2020 COVID-19 tour. Next stop: Seattle.
Dude, Ranger29 called this yesterday. Good intuition.
I was just gonna say the same thing.
I was on a road trip this morning, but this was definatley a pleasant surprise. Texas finally took a flyer on a guy not named Todd Frazier or Greg Bird.
kinda surprised SF didn’t sign him. Maybe he just doesn’t want to be there…
He went to a place where he’s going to get playing time.
Between Dubon, Solano, Flores he wouldn’t see much playing time.
Thought he’d be going back to the Marlins, regardless I’m glad to see him get a shot somewhere, always thought this guy had some great upside as a hitter
Would’ve loved to see him back on the Marlins as a DH even if it was just for a short stint.
Odor’s performance stinks!
If he gets the call up to play he should get the number 69.
And no it’s not the reason y’all might think it is.
Why not 86? He will be 86d in short order
Surprised the Cleveland Indians haven’t signed him yet. He is from Cleveland and the Tribe can’t hit