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Rangers Notes: deGrom, Center Field, Carter

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New Rangers ace Jacob deGrom threw 35 pitches while facing several of his teammates in a simulated game setting yesterday, writes Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The two-time Cy Young winner sat 98-99 mph with his heater and reached triple digits on his final pitch of the day. It’s possible that’ll be the only tune-up he needs before stepping into a Cactus League game sometime next week. Whether that’s the next step or whether deGrom needs to face live hitters once more, it’s good news that the righty came away from the session without incident. Rangers fans were holding their breath when deGrom had some tightness in his side and had his throwing program slowed early in camp, but it seems he’s now progressing without restrictions.

Signed to a five-year, $185MM contract over the winter, deGrom has pitched just 156 1/3 innings over the past two seasons due to a forearm injury and a stress reaction in his right shoulder blade.

A bit more on the Rangers…

  • Texas still isn’t sure whether center fielder Leody Taveras will be ready to start the season, as he was been diagnosed with a low-grade oblique strain earlier in the week and won’t even attempt to resume baseball activities until next week, at the earliest. If Taveras is to open the season on the shelf, there are three fairly clear alternate plans in center field: give fleet-footed Bubba Thompson the bulk of the workload while Taveras mends, move Adolis Garcia over from right field, or select the contract of a non-roster player like Travis Jankowski to begin the season (which would require a corresponding 40-man move). Of the bunch, MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry writes that GM Chris Young implied Thompson is the likeliest short-term solution, noting that he’s “ready for the challenge” even if his offensive approach still needs further refinement. It’s a different tone than he struck with regard to the possibility of moving Garcia, on which he stated: “…we’ll have to work through how much it makes sense to move Adolis over at all.”
  • One player who’s not under consideration for an Opening Day roster spot at this time, unsurprisingly, is 20-year-old top prospect Evan Carter, manager Bruce Bochy confirmed to Levi Weaver of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 2020 second-rounder erupted with a combined .295/.397/.489 batting line between High-A and six games at Double-A last year, vaulting himself onto to top prospect rankings at Baseball America (No. 25), MLB.com (No. 41) and Baseball Prospectus (No. 22). However, advanced as Carter’s approach at the plate is — he walked in 13.5% of his plate appearances last year despite facing far older and more experienced competition — Bochy indicated that a leap right to the Majors “would be pushing a kid too much.” Carter has all of 28 plate appearances above A-ball and isn’t on the 40-man roster, so he never seemed a particularly likely option, but it’s still of some note that Bochy confirmed as much. It still stands to reason that if Carter opens the year in Double-A, he could play his way into consideration for a call to the big leagues later in the 2023 campaign.

Rangers’ Leody Taveras Shut Down Due To Oblique Strain

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Rangers center fielder Leody Taveras is dealing with a “low-grade” oblique strain, general manager Chris Young tells Rangers beat writers (Twitter link via Kennedi Landry of MLB.com). He’ll be out for at least seven to ten days. It’s still possible Taveras will be ready for Opening Day, but that’ll obviously depend on how he mends.

Taveras, 24, rated as one of baseball’s top 50 or so prospects prior to making his 2020 debut, due largely to his speed and potential for standout glovework in center field. He managed only a .188/.249/.321 slash in 319 plate appearances from 2020-21 but broke out with a career-best .261/.309/.366 showing in 341 plate appearances during the 2022 season. That still checked in about seven percent worse than an average MLB hitter, by measure of wRC+, but given his overall defensive aptitude, that was solid enough to land him the likely everyday center field job in 2023.

Dating back to that 2020 MLB debut, Taveras in just over a full season’s worth of games (180) and turned in a sparkling 10 Defensive Runs Saved and 11 Outs Above Average. He’s also gone 29-for-35  on the basepaths, swiping bags with a hefty 82.9% success rate. That impressive total comes despite Taveras sporting just a .280 career OBP at the moment. Between his speed, the slightly larger bases and new rules limiting pitchers throwing over to bases, Taveras has the potential to be a force in the stolen-base department if he can even replicate last year’s modest improvements in on-base percentage. To his credit, he slashed his strikeout rate from 32.2% down to 25.8%, so some of the improvement at the dish appears sustainable.

All that will depend on his health, of course. Even Grade 1 oblique strains can shelve players for around a month of action, but every injury instance is different. If Taveras’ current oblique issue is indeed minor enough that a 10-day down period will get him back into game shape, being ready on March 30 doesn’t seem out of the question.

If, however, it’s determined in seven to ten days’ time that Taveras still needs some down time, a season-opening IL stint becomes likelier. In that scenario, the Rangers could either move Adolis Garcia from right field back to center field, or they could keep Garcia in right and go with light-hitting speedster Bubba Thompson in center. Robbie Grossman has the inside track on left field work for Texas in 2023, but he’s not going to factor into any contingency plans in center, where he’s played all of 11 innings over the past seven seasons.

The Rangers have a deep but generally unproven collection of outfielders vying for a spot on the bench. Former top infield prospect Josh Smith has seen increasing time in the outfield and could conceivably work in some sort of platoon arrangement with Grossman in left field. Veterans Travis Jankowski and Clint Frazier are in camp as non-roster invitees, as is 28-year-old Elier Hernandez, who made his MLB debut with Texas last season. Utilityman Brad Miller has plenty of experience in the outfield corners, too, and slugger Dustin Harris is already on the 40-man roster as well.

The Rangers’ Unexpected All-Star

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The Rangers will have three representatives at tonight’s All-Star Game. Joey Gallo has been there before, and the slugger’s rare combination of light-tower power and athleticism could earn him a few more nominations before the end of his career. Kyle Gibson’s dominance this season has been surprising, but he’s an eight-year veteran with a generally solid track record. Few would’ve projected him to be an All-Star entering the season, particularly coming off a down 2020, but he was the team’s Opening Day starter. It wasn’t crazy to think he’d have a bounceback year.

Adolis García making the All-Star Game would’ve been inconceivable three months ago. He wasn’t even on the Rangers roster to start the year, having been designated for assignment so they could sign Mike Foltynewicz. In February, all twenty-nine other clubs were offered the opportunity to add García for nothing more than a 40-man roster spot and the standard $50K waiver fee. Each one passed. So García reported to Spring Training as a non-roster invitee and began the year at the alternate training site.

In retrospect, each team made an error in judgment in not putting in a claim for García (as did the Rangers for designating him in the first place). It’s hard to assign too much blame around the league, though. At the time of his designation, García was soon to turn 28 years old with all of 24 major league plate appearances under his belt. An obvious combination of power and speed had made him a fairly well-regarded prospect in Cuba and in his days in the Cardinals system, but scouting reports also came with question marks about his plate approach. His 2019 season in the minors did him no favors in that regard; García popped 32 homers and swiped 14 bags, but he also reached base at just a .301 clip and posted extremely concerning strikeout and walk rates (30.1% and 4.2%, respectively).

Given his first extended big league run after being re-selected in mid-April, García has continued to actualize his physical tools at the highest level. The right-handed hitting outfielder is surprisingly tied for eighth in the majors with 22 home runs this season. He’s sporting an impressive .270/.312/.527 line across 333 plate appearances. He leads all rookie position players in FanGraphs WAR and looks to be the midseason favorite to win the AL Rookie of the Year award.

It’s an open question whether García can continue to succeed at this level. His MLB strikeout and walk rates this season (30.6% and 4.8%) are eerily similar to those he posted during his last Triple-A campaign. He’s frequently chasing pitches outside the strike zone, and his 17.5% swinging strike rate is ninth-highest among the 231 hitters with 200+ plate appearances.

There’s still some chance García’s aggressiveness undercuts his production moving forward. Some players have enough power and athleticism to succeed in spite of a poor approach. It’s possible García’s that kind of talent, but he’ll need more than half a season of great play to cement himself within that rare group.

Whether or not García’s performance takes a step back in the second half, there’s no taking away what he’s accomplished to this point. To earn an All-Star selection just five months after clearing waivers is an incredible achievement. Among the players whose talents will be on display tonight, García’s had arguably the most meteoric rise.

Rangers Place Ronald Guzman On 10-Day IL, Select Adolis Garcia

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The Rangers have placed first baseman/outfielder Ronald Guzman on the 10-day injured list with a meniscus cartilage tear in his right knee, per a team announcement. In other moves, the team selected outfielder Adolis Garcia’s contract and transferred injured right-hander Matt Bush from the 10-day IL to the 60-day version.

It isn’t known yet whether Guzman will require surgery, but either way, it seems likely he’ll miss a fair amount of time. Guzman suffered the injury Monday during his first career start in left field and had to leave on a cart. It’s the latest tough development for the 26-year-old, who has generally struggled to produce dating back to his 2018 debut. Guzman took 17 trips to the plate this year before suffering the injury and batted just .063/.118/.250.

Garcia, whom the Rangers acquired from the Cardinals in 2019, saw brief major league action over the prior two seasons. He has hit .087/.125/.130 in 24 PA.

Rangers Announce Several Roster Moves

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The Rangers have signed veteran catcher John Hicks to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invitation, per a club announcement. Outfielder Adolis Garcia, who was designated for assignment earlier this week, will also be invited to Major League camp after going unclaimed on outright waivers, according to the Rangers. Texas also confirmed its previously reported minor league deals with Korean lefty Hyeon-jong Yang and with infielder Brock Holt.

Hicks, 31, didn’t play in the big leagues last year, instead spending the 2020 season at the Diamondbacks’ alternate training site. He’s appeared in parts of five big league seasons between the Mariners and Tigers, logging a combined .235/.280/.391 batting line with 28 homers and 15 doubles in 871 plate appearances.

He’s never graded out as a particularly strong framer, but Hicks has an above-average 31 percent caught-stealing rate at the MLB level and will add some depth to a Rangers club that is presently lacking in that department. Jose Trevino currently projects as the starter, with Jonah Heim and non-roster veteran Drew Butera serving as backup candidates. Top prospect Sam Huff got his feet wet in the big leagues last year, but he skipped both Double-A and Triple-A, so he’s likely in line for additional minor league seasoning.

Yang, as noted in the linked post above, is a former KBO MVP who has long had his sights set on pitching in the Majors. His decision to do so this winter wasn’t particularly well-timed, given not only the economic climate in MLB but also the fact that he’s coming off one of the rougher seasons of a generally strong career in South Korea. Still, he’s made 29 starts or more in each of the past eight seasons and prior to 2020 carried a 3.35 ERA over a seven-year stretch. If nothing else, the fact that he threw 172 1/3 innings last year — nearly 100 more than any MLB pitcher — ought to be of benefit while the Rangers look to monitor the workloads of the rest of their staff.

Rangers Designate Adolis Garcia For Assignment

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The Rangers announced Wednesday that they’ve designated outfielder Adolis Garcia for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to right-hander Mike Foltynewicz, whose previously reported one-year contract is now official.

Garcia, 27, went 0-for-6 with a walk in seven plate appearances with Texas in 2020. That marked his first and now perhaps his only season with the organization. The Rangers originally acquired him from the Cardinals in exchange for cash in Dec. 2019.

Garcia has only 24 big league plate appearances to his name, and he hasn’t done much with them. He was an accomplished hitter in the Cuban National Series before defecting and eventually landing with the Cardinals, for whom he’s spent considerable time in Triple-A. Garcia’s free-swinging ways have resulted in a paltry OBP, but his power is readily apparent. In 1104 plate appearances with Triple-A Memphis, he’s a .260/.299/.505 hitter with 57 homers, 58 doubles and a dozen triples.

Garcia has some speed, as evidenced by those triples and by 26 stolen bases. However, he’s not particularly efficient on the basepaths either; he’s been caught 14 times. Texas will have a week to trade him, release him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. Garcia does have a minor league option remaining, so it’s possible an outfield-needy club will take a shot on his right-handed power despite the lack of plate discipline.

NL Notes: Cervelli, Carlson, Garcia, Musgrove

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The latest from the National League…

  • The Marlins are trying to work out a contract with catcher Francisco Cervelli, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).  Injuries have plagued Cervelli over the last several seasons, most notably (and seriously) a series of concussions.  Cervelli was limited to only 48 games for the Pirates and Braves in 2019 due to concussion symptoms, yet it was as recently as 2018 that Cervelli hit .259/.378/.431 with 12 homers over 404 plate appearances for Pittsburgh.  The 33-year-old backstop (notably, a former Yankees teammate of Marlins CEO Derek Jeter) would act as a veteran backup to Jorge Alfaro in Miami.
  • Saturday’s trade between the Cardinals and Rangers that sent Adolis Garcia to Texas had roots at the Winter Meetings, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes, as the Cards were known to be shopping their surplus of right-handed hitting outfielders.  With this “head start on talks” about Garcia, the Cardinals expected Texas or another club to step up with a suitable trade offer when Garcia was designated for assignment earlier this week.  Moving Garcia eliminated one name from a still-crowded Cardinals outfield, so more moves could still be in the offing for St. Louis.  One player who doesn’t seem likely to be moved is top prospect Dylan Carlson, as the Cardinals unsurprisingly “have had near zero interest in including” Carlson in any trade talks this winter.
  • Though the demand for pitching continues to increase and the Pirates could be entering into something of a rebuild period under new GM Ben Cherington, right-hander Joe Musgrove might not be a trade candidate, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney writes (subscription required).  “I seriously doubt [the Pirates] would talk about him.  They may say they’d talk about him, but they’re not going to trade him,” a official on a rival team told Olney.  Musgrove just turned 27 and is arbitration-eligible for only the first time, projected by MLBTR to earn $3.4MM.  That’s a more than affordable price for the low-payroll Bucs, considering that Musgrove posted a 4.44 ERA, 4.03 K/BB rate, and 8.3 K/9 over 170 1/3 innings last season, and generated 5.5 fWAR in 2018-19.  The Blue Jays are one team known to have discussed Musgrove in trade talks this winter, though those discussions reportedly amounted to little.

Rangers Acquire Adolis Garcia

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The Rangers have acquired outfielder Adolis García from the Cardinals, per an official team release. Texas will send cash considerations back the other way in the deal. Right-hander Jimmy Herget was designated for assignment to clear a spot on the Rangers’ 40-man roster.

The Cardinals designated García for assignment on Wednesday to make room for Kwang-Hyun Kim. His Cardinals stint ends after making just 17 plate appearance with the Major League club. The 26-year-old outfielder signed a free agent prior to 2017, having played professionally in Cuba and Japan since 2011.

García spent the entire 2019 season at Triple-A, posting a .253/.301/.517 batting line with 32 home runs. Skeptics would advise to take those numbers with a grain of salt, given the hitter-friendly environment in the Pacific Coast League (not to mention the “juiced” ball that was introduced to the Triple-A ranks in 2019). He’s been strikeout-prone throughout his professional career, but his impactful power, above-average speed and strong throwing arm mean that he could have a chance to get big-league playing time as a reserve outfielder. And with Delino Deshields Jr. out of the mix, García has a path to the Majors with Texas, though future additions may impede that path.

Herget, meanwhile, lasted just about three weeks on the Rangers’ 40-man, having been claimed on December 2 this winter. The 26-year-old righty made his Major League debut last year with the Reds after posting solid numbers in Triple-A, where he struck out 68 batters and posted a 2.91 ERA in 58 2/3 innings. The Rangers will have a week to make a decision on Herget, who can be traded, released, or outrighted to the minors.

Cardinals Designate Adolis Garcia For Assignment

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The Cardinals announced Wednesday that they’ve designated outfielder Adolis Garcia for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to lefty Kwang-Hyun Kim, whose two-year contract with the club is now official.

Garcia, 27 in March, appeared in 21 games with the Cards in 2018 but went just 2-for-17 in a tiny sample of work at the plate. Garcia signed for a $2.5MM bonus with the Cards in 2017 after leaving his native Cuba and was ranked ninth among St. Louis farmhands by Baseball America that winter. However, his blend of raw power, speed and arm strength has yet to generate the offensive results the Cardinals had hoped in the upper minors.

This past season, Garcia spent the entire year with Triple-A Memphis, where he batted .253/.301/.517 with 32 home runs, 22 doubles, six triples and 14 steals. While the counting numbers may look solid, the juiced ball in Triple-A led to a leaguewide home run spike that makes Garcia’s power output worth raising an eyebrow toward. He hit 10 fewer home runs in 100 fewer plate appearances a year prior. Beyond that, Garcia was highly inefficient in terms of stealing bases (14-for-24), and he struck out in 30.1 percent of his plate appearances while walking at a lowly 4.2 percent clip.

It seems clear that there’s some raw and perhaps yet-untapped ability in Garcia, who does have minor league options remaining. As such, he could hold appeal to another club in a minor trade or via a waiver claim if he reaches that point. The Cardinals have a week to deal Garcia or run him through waivers in hopes that he’ll clear and be able to continue on as a depth piece in the minors.

Even with Garcia subtracted from the outfield mix, the Cardinals still have a deep reservoir of options from which to draw — although much of the group is largely untested in the Majors. Dexter Fowler, Harrison Bader, Tyler O’Neill and Randy Arozarena are all options in 2020, as are more versatile infielder/outfielder types Yairo Munoz and Tommy Edman. The Cards also have a pair of well-regarded prospects on the cusp of readiness for a prolonged look: Lane Thomas and Dylan Carlson.

That said, adding a veteran to supplement that unproven mix still seems plausible. The Cardinals stand to potentially lose Marcell Ozuna to free agency, and their aggression in replacing him will speak volumes about the level of confidence they have in that internal slate of options.

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