The Rangers announced Wednesday that they’ve acquired outfielder Robbie Grossman from the White Sox in exchange for minor league right-hander Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa. To make room on the 40-man roster, Texas designated lefty Kolton Ingram for assignment.
Grossman, 34, returns to the team with which he won a World Series ring just last season. He signed a minor league deal with the White Sox, but his stint with the South Siders will ultimately last only 25 games and 85 plate appearances. The veteran switch-hitter turned in a .211/.329/.268 slash in that small sample but was a solid part-time player for manager Bruce Bochy last year when he batted .238/.340/.394 in 420 trips to the plate. He’ll be a cost-effective addition for the Rangers, as his deal with the ChiSox carried a $1.5MM base salary.
As has been the case throughout his career, Grossman was particularly effective from the right side of the dish last season. He hit .309/.416/.536 against southpaws, giving Texas a highly productive right-handed bat to mix in at left field and designated hitter. Things have played out similarly in his brief time with the ChiSox; Grossman is 6-for-16 with a pair of doubles, four walks and four strikeouts against lefties this year. In his career, he’s a .283/.383/.427 hitter against lefties — far superior to his .228/.331/.357 slash from the left side of the plate.
While Texas has a pair of big right-handed bats in Marcus Semien and Adolis Garcia — plus switch-hitting catcher Jonah Heim, who’s better right-handed — the lineup generally skews left-handed. That’s all the more true with third baseman Josh Jung on the injured list following wrist surgery. Promising young hitters Wyatt Langford (strained hamstring) and Justin Foscue (strained oblique) are both on the injured list as well, subtracting another pair of potentially impactful right-handed bats from the equation.
The Rangers, as a whole, have been flummoxed by left-handed pitching this season. The team is currently batting a collective .231/.288/.343 against southpaws. The resulting 80 wRC+ suggests that Rangers hitters have been 20% worse than average against lefties this year, ranking 25th among MLB teams.
Grossman can give the Rangers a platoon partner for young outfielder Evan Carter in left field. Carter has pummeled right-handed pitching but is just 2-for-33 against lefties in his young big league career and has fanned in 44.4% of his left-on-left matchups to date. And while Grossman doesn’t have the strongest career numbers from the left side of the dish, his keen plate discipline still allows him to post quality OBP marks from that side of the dish, making him a corner outfield or DH option against right-handed starters.
In exchange for Grossman, the Rangers will part with a bullpen prospect who’s approaching MLB readiness. While Hoopii-Tuionetoa hasn’t cracked the Rangers’ top-30 prospect lists at Baseball America or MLB.com, he’s breezed through Double-A opposition thus far, rattling off 12 1/3 shutout innings with a hefty 34% strikeout rate against a solid 8.5% walk rate. That strong start to his 2024 campaign comes on the heels of a 2023 season that saw the Hawaiian-born righty pitch 24 1/3 innings of 2.96 ERA ball with a 25% strikeout rate and 7% walk rate between Low-A and High-A.
Shoulder troubles limited Hoopii-Tuionetoa’s workload last year, but he finished the season healthy and also tacked on 9 2/3 innings of shutout ball in the Arizona Fall League. Hoopii-Tuionetoa went unselected in December’s Rule 5 Draft despite being eligible — Texas selected him in the 30th round of the 2019 draft — but he’s only further enhanced his stock with a terrific start to the 2024 campaign.
Grossman’s acquisition pushes the 27-year-old Ingram off the Rangers’ roster. He’d been claimed off waivers out of the Mets organization just under three weeks ago. The Rangers will have five days to trade him or else place him on outright waivers or release waivers, which could last another 48 hours. Whichever route the Rangers take, Ingram will know his next destination within a week’s time.
Ingram made his big league debut with the Angels in 2023 but totaled just 5 1/3 innings. He allowed five runs on eight hits and five walks in that tiny sample but did fan seven of his 30 opponents. He’s had far more success in the upper minors, logging 102 1/3 innings of 2.46 ERA ball in Double-A and 40 2/3 innings of 3.54 ERA ball in Triple-A — including a pair of scoreless frames with the Rangers’ affiliate in Round Rock.
Broadly speaking, Ingram has shown a knack for missing bats throughout his career — evidenced by a sharp 29.3% strikeout rate in the minors. However, he’s also battled command issues, walking 11.1% of his opponents in addition to another 14 plunked batters (1.5%). Primarily a fastball/slider pitcher, Ingram sits 92-93 mph with his heater and has proven to be a consistent headache for left-handed opponents. They mustered an awful .151/.245/.186 slash against him in 2023 and hit just .141/.243/.219 against him the year prior. Righties have had more success but primarily due to his sub-par command. Right-handed opponents still hit in the low .200s against Ingram, but they’ve walked at a 12.5% clip against him over the past several seasons.
But … why?
Daniel: From the Sox perspective, what difference does it make? For some “rebuilding” teams it’s Garbage in, Garbage Out. With the Sox, it’s Garbage In.
I think he meant why for the Rangers
Rangers fan here. Robbie is a good clubhouse guy and a competent (albeit limited) platoon bat. But I just don’t see much point in bringing him back, especially for anything more than cash considerations.
Daniel, serious question for you, as you are a Ranger fan: What are the expectations for Nate Lowe, now that he’s back? Thanks.
I think at best he is a guy who can hit .280 25-30 HR. reminds me a lot of Moreland
“At best”, what’s not to like about those numbers.
Did you read the article? He explains why it makes sense for the Rangers.
Keith Moreland from the cubs
Agree. Solid fielder and baserunner. Won’t mess you up with mistakes. And will contribute as a RHH. No, a rebuilding team really can’t sacrifice a roster spot for a guy like this. But a contender can sure find someone like this extremely helpful…
Evan Carter struggling mightily vs LHP this year. Grossman solves that problem.
Why? Bruce Bochy likes the guy. Good enough.
Bochy sees the needed down-roster pieces to the complete championship puzzle that others don’t. The pieces don’t look alike. If you can reliably deliver a particular skill piece that he finds useful to win, even a subtle one, he will like you until you can’t. You don’t have to be a star.
They just can’t quit Robbie Grossman lol
The biggest upside here is the money the Rangers will save by not having to put “Hoopii-Tuionetoa” on the back of jerseys anymore. They do charge by the letter .
hiflew: I’m sure the Sox announcers are practicing the pronunciation of his name right now.
hoo-OH-pee two-EE-oh-NEE-toe-ah
“I think we can just change it to Tony Hoops.” – Steve Stone (probably).
Rumor on the street is Rangers’ equipment manager had a breakdown when he saw Hoopii-Tuionetoa working his way through the system. For now the crisis is averted, but the recovery time for this kinda trauma is said to be in the 6-8 week range.
Going to have to jump through Hoops to get that pronunciation correct.
Wtf… Hoopii has a good chance to be a fixture in someone’s bullpen in the very near future. For a couple months of Grossman?? I like Grossman, usually always has good AB’s, but was this necessary? When I saw the headline I was assuming it was for cash considerations or a PTBNL, not Hoopii
Hoopii a fixture? He went unselected in the rule 5, he’s a lotto pick. Admittedly he is pitching well in AA and someone has to win the lottery, but this is a low level prospect. Tex didn’t give up much and they have multiple bullpen prospects ahead of him.
He hadn’t pitched above high A and didn’t throw many innings last year so it would’ve been difficult for a team to expect to stash him on a major league roster all season this year. The arm is there and he’s been pitching well since the AFL. I’d consider him a little more than a lotto pick at this point but I get your point, he’s still got a ways to go. Just thought it was a little steep for Grossman
texas wants to win the world series in 2024, they can easily pick up another hoopii down the line.
Seems like a good deal for the Pale Hose. Grossman serves little purpose on the team and Hoopii-Tuionetoa should offer upside down the line.
“Offer upside down the line”…I’m not familiar with this particular minor leaguer, but Texas won the World Series last year and is playing for “now”, not later on “down the line”. Texas clearly feels the player is expendable to help their hitting prospects right now. Teams have to make tough, “future vs present” decisions like this all the time.
Getz needed another hit of self congratulations since it’s been nearly 2 months since the Cease deal. Not sure this will sustain him until the deadline, but we’ll see.
Anthony David Maui La’akea Hoopii-Tuionetoa…what a name
His last name contains all five vowels except the “sometimes Y.”
Travis Jankowski and Robbie Grossman are such completely opposite players they just have to bring this platoon back. Wonder if this means Wyatt Langford is hurt worse than they’ve let on. Grossman should hit lefties well and generally be a pest on a team that is showing a soft depth underbelly due to some injury attrition. Texas has struggled quite a bit to hit that side on the young year with Jankowski and Evan Carter being basically unplayable against that side. Fairly sharp way to firm up depth/bottom of order and easy to cut the line when others start playing more to expectations, though I know nothing about the cost to acquire.
Very ironic. Yesterday, the Chicago Sun Times did a piece about how happy Grossman is to be in Chicago.
Ironic that it was yesterday or ironic that he was happy in Chicago?
Ironic, like a spoon on your wedding day?
Yesterday, all your troubles seemed so far away? Or was that just a day old sun time?
What a dumb move in both what the Rangers gave up and what the Rangers got back. What is wrong with CY?
Why? Grossman hits lefties and platoons with Carter. He probably DHs against lefties or pinch hits when Langford gets back. Seems like a useful guy to me. You always need these veteran bench bats down the stretch.
Tony should fit right in. Era 5
Good deal for the White Sox. Only garbage on this site today is avenger.65.
I agree. If White Sox get the right pieces at the deadline then I could see them improving in 2025/2026. I kinda wished that Getz went quality over quantity but that’s just my opinion.
“I could see them improving in 2025/2026”
Schriffen, how hard is it to improve from 110 loss season?
I don’t get to say this very often, but nice move by the WS.
Why am I chunking my chips
He Will specifically play against left-handers. Rangers haven’t hit lefties at all this season, especially starting.
Big help vs. lefty pitching.
I hate that we lost Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa 🙁
He good?
I just love the name. That’s all.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa… They could’ve been on the same team.
Would have really like to see Atkins go after him.
We gave up an actual prospect for Grossman in 2024? CY is asleep at the wheel we could have had Pham for peanuts a few weeks ago and this is what we get. And yes Langford got hurt but neither him nor Carter nor Taveras has produced this year so additions were inevitable
Not even in their top 30, but a prospect?
Yes for sure, potential good bullpen arm
If you did your homework you’d know a thing or two
For the record, Kiloton Ingram is 1000000000.
Good clubhouse guy or not, if he can’t hit I don’t want him. I’d rather let Carter work through it
Jimmy or Billy,
So, you’re going to trade a minor league reliever who has yet to give up a run this year and has an almost 12k per 9 for a guy who signed a minor league deal like a month ago and has struggled mightily to start the year? Good pickup for the wsox
Another
Good move for the roster.
Robbie Grossman is a nice complimentary player who can start, cone off the bench, hit a few homers, steal a few bases and get on base with walks.
And he does windows on his off days and can carry a tune
Remember when all of the arrogant dbags were laughing at the Sox for signing Grossman? Now they have a young bullpen arm a few weeks later.
Nice dumpster and resell give them that
Southside STAND UP!!
The Rangers are flummoxed , they are. Fancy words!