Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers selected former Vanderbilt Commodores pitcher Kumar Rocker third overall in the 2022 MLB draft on Sunday.

The New York Mets originally drafted Rocker with the No. 10 pick in 2021, but they chose not to offer him a contract after reviewing his medical information.

The selection of Rocker came as a massive surprise, though he's regarded as the most promising pitcher in this year's draft class:

An audible gasp as the Rangers select Kumar Rocker. The most MLB ready pitcher in the draft. Guessing he will move quick, and unlike almost every other college-age SP, he has plenty of innings left this year. He's just started pitching.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) July 17, 2022

When the Mets chose not to sign Rocker, his adviser Scott Boras said in a statement that the hurler "is healthy according to independent medical review by multiple prominent baseball orthopedic surgeons." Boras added that Rocker "requires no medical attention, and will continue to pitch in the regular course as he prepares to begin his professional career."

Instead of returning to Vanderbilt, Rocker joined the Tri-City ValleyCats of the independent Frontier League. In five starts, he recorded a 1.35 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 20 innings.

The 6'5" right-hander established himself as one of the top pitching prospects in baseball during his three-year run at Vanderbilt. Rocker posted a 3.25 ERA with 114 strikeouts as a freshman in 2019. After the 2020 season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he returned for his junior year and notched a 2.73 ERA with 179 strikeouts.

Being selected by the Rangers will reunite Rocker with his Commodores teammate Jack Leiter, who was drafted second overall by Texas in 2021. After starting this season in Double-A, Leiter represented the Rangers at the MLB Futures Game on Saturday and pitched a perfect inning.

With Rocker and Leiter now in their pipeline, the Rangers are poised to have a potentially dominant one-two punch at the top of their starting rotation in the next few years.

Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager is an All-Star for the third time in his career.

MLB announced Thursday that Seager was added to the American League roster to replace Toronto Blue Jays center fielder George Springer, who will be inactive for Tuesday's All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium.

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reported that Springer will use the All-Star break to rest. He exited a game June 21 after experiencing right elbow discomfort.

Seager is in his first season with the Rangers after spending the first seven years of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He earned All-Star selections in 2016 and 2017 and helped lead the Dodgers to a World Series title in 2020, earning Fall Classic MVP honors. He was also the 2016 National League Rookie of the Year.

Texas signed Seager to a 10-year, $325 million deal after last season. In 84 games this season, the 28-year-old is slashing .245/.321/.467 with 21 home runs and 48 RBI. He has the most home runs by a Rangers shortstop before the All-Star break since Alex Rodriguez in 2003.

Seager was named AL Player of the Week on Monday after batting .500 (11-for-22) with a 1.601 OPS and four home runs last week. It was the second time in his career that he earned Player of the Week honors; the previous instance came in 2019.

Despite Seager's success at the plate, the Rangers were 41-45 entering Thursday's game against the Seattle Mariners, which marks the start of their last series before the All-Star break.

Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward called Yankee Stadium a "Little League ballpark" on Sunday after Gleyber Torres hit a walk-off homer against the Rangers over the right field fence. Yankee Stadium has one of the shortest right-field porches in baseball.

On Monday, Woodward clarified his remarks.

"Probably bad words on my part," he told reporters. "I gave it a layup for a lot of people. But listen, I meant no disrespect, obviously, to this place. And it's obviously a world-class organization, ballpark. I talk about it as always being like one of my favorite places to come play, but I understand why Yankee fans will get upset about it. That's why I love them."

Torres' homer traveled 369 feet, which according to MLB Statcast would have made it a home run in 26 of the MLB's 30 ballparks.

Gleyby Boom 💪 pic.twitter.com/6eAmbTyTvO

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 8, 2022

Woodward didn't have those stats in front of him after the game when he made his remarks, however.

"Small ballpark. That's an easy out in 99 percent of ballparks," he said at the time. "Just happened to hit it in a Little League ballpark to right field."

https://twitter.com/lindseyadler/status/1523461890843717632

Woodward's comments may have been borne slightly out of frustration with his team's play to start the year. The Rangers are 11-15, while the Yankees are an American League-best 19-8. 

Torres had his own take on the remarks. 

"Both teams play in the same ballpark. It's the same dimension," he said. "I feel good to hit a walk-off homer in the Little League ballpark."

So did the Yankees after Giancarlo Stanton blasted a 461-foot bomb in the second game of Sunday's doubleheader:

We are going to guess this is a home run in 30/30 Major League ballparks. pic.twitter.com/065f7tEAI3

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 8, 2022

Even Yankees announcer Michael Kay got in on the action:

"Guess Woodward would like that one"

Shots fired @RealMichaelKay pic.twitter.com/rZxzEs5uV9

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) May 8, 2022

Woodward, who played in New York for the Mets in the 2005 and 2006 seasons, walked back his comments on Monday.

"I adore the city. The ballpark is probably one of my favorite places to come," he said. "They've got a short right field. They always have. Honestly, it was back to the old park. And that's kind of what makes this place unique in a lot of ways. And hats off to Gleyber. Man, he hit that ball hard."

Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon said there were a few reasons for his decision to issue an intentional walk to Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager with the bases loaded Friday night, including a desire to light a fire under his own team.

"I thought by walking Seager, it would avoid the big blow," Maddon told reporters. "And just to stir up the group, quite frankly. It's not something you normally do. I thought by going up there and doing something like that, the team might respond to something like that."

The B̶a̶r̶r̶y̶ ̶B̶o̶n̶d̶s̶ Corey Seager treatment. pic.twitter.com/Nfs1RHAiR2

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) April 16, 2022

The Angels trailed 3-2 when Seager stepped to the plate. His walk brought in the fourth run, and the Rangers added two more in the inning to grab a 6-2 lead.

Whether that represents a success is hard to quantify, but it became a moot point as L.A. took the lead with a five-run fifth and went on to secure a 9-6 victory.

"Whatever it did, it sparked us," Angels pitcher Austin Warren, who was charged with the walk to Seager, said. "Because we put up five runs the next inning. So it all worked out."

It marked just the third time since 1950 a player was intentionally walked with the bases loaded, and one of the other instances also included Maddon:

Intentional walks with bases loaded, since 1950:

Corey Seager, tonight
Josh Hamilton, 2008
Barry Bonds, 1998

Tonight & '08 were vs Joe Maddon-managed teams

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 16, 2022

Bob Nightengale of USA Today noted it was the first time a manager made the decision while losing the game since Jim O'Rourke of the Buffalo Bisons in 1881.

Los Angeles improved to 4-4 with the win, while Texas dropped to 2-5 in the early stages of the 2022 season.

The AL West rivals face off again Saturday with a 7:05 p.m. ET first pitch at Globe Life Field.

The New York Yankees have added catching depth ahead of the 2022 regular season. 

Per an announcement from the Yankees, they are sending pitchers Albert Abreu and Robert Ahlstrom to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Jose Trevino.

Abreu is out of options, so he would have had to be included on the Yankees' Opening Day roster or agree to be sent down to the minors. 

After posting a 5.15 ERA in 36.2 innings last season, Abreu was facing an uphill climb to make the bullpen in the Bronx. He is a solid buy-low option for a Rangers team in need of more bullpen depth. 

Abreu has put together a strong spring with one hit allowed and no runs given up with six strikeouts over 4.2 innings. 

Ahlstrom has yet to appear in a professional game. He was a seventh-round draft pick by the Yankees in July's draft. The left-hander posted a 2.50 ERA with 92 strikeouts in 90 innings at Oregon in 2021. 

Trevino will likely be New York's primary backup catcher to Kyle Higashioka to start the season, replacing Rob Brantly.

Though Brantly signed a minor-league deal in December with an invite to big-league camp, the addition of Trevino allows the Yankees to send him to the minors or even potentially release him.

Trevino has appeared in 159 games over the past four seasons with the Rangers. The 29-year-old hit .239/.267/.340 with a career-high five homers in 89 appearances last year.

The Yankees will open the 2022 regular season on Thursday against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.     

The Minnesota Twins traded catcher Mitch Garver to the Texas Rangers for shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and pitching prospect Ronny Henriquez, the Twins announced Saturday.

ESPN's Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel first reported details of the trade.

Texas will hope Garver can put together a bounce-back season as he takes over as the club's starting catcher.

The 31-year-old New Mexico native was terrific for Minnesota in 2019. He posted a .995 OPS with 31 home runs across just 93 appearances—a 54-homer pace across a full 162-game campaign—to earn a Silver Slugger Award.

He struggled during the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season, posting a .511 OPS in 23 games, and couldn't shake off a series of injuries last year when his numbers were starting to rebound (.875 OPS).

Garver underwent groin surgery in early June and then dealt with lingering rib and back ailments upon his return in mid-July.

"Wrecked by injuries, absolutely," the veteran slugger told reporters in September when asked to describe his 2021. "Wrecked is an understatement."

It's a high-upside addition for the Rangers, who will slot him into the middle of their lineup alongside Marcus Semien, Adolis Garcia, Nathaniel Lowe and Corey Seager. The success of the deal depends on Garver staying healthy, though.

Meanwhile, the offseason addition of Seager, who signed a 10-year, $325 million contract as a free agent in December before the lockout, made Kiner-Falefa expendable for Texas.

Kiner-Falefa, a former catcher, took over as the Rangers' primary shortstop last season. He was a standout defender, racking up 10 defensive runs saved (via FanGraphs), but his .670 OPS and eight homers in 158 games wasn't enough to prevent the pursuit of Seager.

He'll take over as the Twins shortstop after the departure of Andrelton Simmons, who signed a one-year, $4 million deal with the Chicago Cubs on Friday, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.

Henriquez, rated by MLB.com as the Rangers' 15th-best prospect, is a 21-year-old right-hander with 53 games of minor league experience.

He split the 2021 season between the High-A Hickory Crawdads and the Double-A Frisco RoughRiders. He compiled a 4.71 ERA and 1.10 WHIP with 105 strikeouts in 93.2 innings across 21 appearances (16 starts).

Henriquez will probably spend another year in the minors before competing for a rotation spot in 2023.

After making several big splashes in free agency, the Texas Rangers may look to the trade market to continue upgrading their roster.

Per MLB Network's Jon Morosi, the Rangers have contacted the Cincinnati Reds about acquiring a starting pitcher from the trio of Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray and Tyler Mahle.

The Rangers have been the surprise team of the offseason. They have spent $561.2 million on reported agreements with Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Kole Calhoun and Jon Gray.

Top 10 $ committed to free agents so far:

Texas: $561.2 million
New York Mets: $254 million
Toronto: $121 million
Seattle: $115 million
Detroit: $77 million
Houston: $67 million
Miami: $53 million
Los Angeles Angels: $45 million
St. Louis: $44 million
San Francisco: $36 million

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 29, 2021

After reporting Semien's seven-year, $175 million deal, ESPN's Jeff Passan noted the Rangers "aren't done" and "went into this winter with money to spend."

The agreements with Seager and Gray followed suit, but it still doesn't appear as if Texas' front office is standing down.

The Reds apparently came into this offseason with the goal of cutting payroll. General manager Nick Krall told reporters Nov. 3 after trading catcher Tucker Barnhart to the Detroit Tigers that they "must align our payroll to our resources and continue focusing on scouting and developing young talent from within our system."

Per Spotrac, Gray is the Reds' fourth-highest-paid player in 2022 with a base salary of $10.4 million. Castillo and Mahle are both entering their second year of arbitration with projected salaries of $7.5 million and $5.5 million, respectively, for next season. 

Mahle is the youngest of that group at 27 years old. He led Reds starters with 210 strikeouts and ranked second with a 3.75 ERA. Castillo tied for the MLB lead with 33 starts and posted a 3.98 ERA in 187.2 innings.

Gray posted his highest ERA (4.19) since 2018, but he averaged more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings for the third consecutive season.

The Rangers' moves suggest a strong desire to improve after finishing last in the American League West with a 60-102 record. Adding more help to their starting rotation would go a long way toward making them competitive in a loaded division with the Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics.   

The Texas Rangers have thrown their hat into the ring of teams that mean to contend in the near future, and all it cost them was $560 million.

That's for the four players they've signed over the last few days, with right fielder Kole Calhoun on the low end at one year and $5.2 million and shortstop Corey Seager on the high end at 10 years and $325 million. In the middle are right-hander Jon Gray at four years, $56 million and second baseman Marcus Semien at seven years, $175 million.

When you do a thing like this, you've earned the right to make tweets like these:

pic.twitter.com/0I5VBg52EX

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) November 29, 2021

Simply working with the average salaries of these deals, the Rangers have added about $77 million to their payroll for 2022. And they might not be done yet. As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported, Texas could have a $100 million budget for new salaries this winter. 

And yet, there is that nagging sense of doubt. Because while the Rangers are undeniably improved, what they've improved is a 102-loss team that's stuck in an American League West division headlined by the reigning league champions and at least two other contenders.

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The Rangers Definitely Aren't Worse

Even relative to their 22-38 slide through the shortened 2020 season, there's really no way to sugarcoat just how awful the Rangers were in 2021.

By way of an AL-low .294 OBP, the only thing their offense was good at was making outs. Their pitchers, meanwhile, ranked second from the bottom in strikeouts and third from the bottom in home runs. Hence how they allowed 190 more runs than they scored.

As if all this wasn't enough to make Rangers fans go "ugh" on a daily basis, the team also parted ways with stars like Joey Gallo, Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy at the trade deadline. Yet its farm system was still outside MLB.com's top 10 come August, and the lack of further stars to trade left virtually no hope for further growth in that department in the winter.

To their credit, though, the Rangers started to get creative even before owners Ray Davis and Bob Simpson opened the organization's checkbook.

In addition to mixing up their front office in September, the Rangers also made a low-key excellent hire earlier in November when they brought in Donnie Ecker to be their bench coach and offense coordinator under manager Chris Woodward. Ecker previously had a hand in turning the San Francisco Giants offense into a home run machine in 2021.

The Rangers nonetheless had to give Ecker something to work with, so good on them for forming perhaps the best offensive middle infield in baseball.

For his part, Semien has been an MVP finalist in two of the last three years and is coming off setting a record for a primary second baseman with a 45-homer season for the Toronto Blue Jays. For his, Seager is one of the most gifted hitters in the sport and, in a related story, one of just two shortstops to top a 125 OPS+ four times since 2016.

There's nowhere on the diamond that Seager and Semien wouldn't be upgrades over what the Rangers had in 2021, but they're especially welcome on the middle of the infield. To wit, Texas got sub-.700 OPSes and 24 total homers from second base and shortstop this year.

Calhoun will be a less exciting addition if he can't move on from the .670 OPS he had in 2021. The fact that the Rangers wanted him on a major league deal, though, could indicate that they (and specifically Ecker) see a way to get him back to the .864 OPS he posted in 2020.

On the other side of the ball, the task before Gray is to help lift a starting rotation that ranked 28th with minus-0.1 rWAR in 2021. He can do that simply by living up to his generally above-average track record, as he pitched to a 107 ERA+ in seven years with the Colorado Rockies.

So, there you have it. Four players, four much-needed signs of hope for 2022 and beyond.

---

But Where Is the Rangers' Path to Contention?

Trouble is, the Rangers are still looking up at some tough competition within the AL West.

Of the four teams that finished ahead of them this year, only one is vulnerable. That's the Oakland Athletics, who've reached one of those points when their payroll has gotten too big for comfort and therefore must be pared down. According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, none of Matt Olson, Matt Chapman or any other A is untouchable.

On the other hand, the Houston Astros are clearly uninterested in vacating their throne as the de facto kings of the division.

Mere weeks removed from playing in their third World Series in five years, the Astros have already re-signed Justin Verlander and also added relief ace Hector Neris. Next, they apparently mean to find an appropriate replacement for Carlos Correa at shortstop:

The Astros continue to send the message to other teams and agents that they fully intend to compete in the years ahead. The signing of Justin Verlander fits that, and they are in the market for elite shortstops.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) November 21, 2021

Far from content to sit on this year's 90-win roster, the Seattle Mariners also mean to move forward. They scored a huge hit in signing AL Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray, though their trade for All-Star infielder Adam Frazier is not one to be overlooked.

And as tempting as it may be, don't sleep on the Los Angeles Angels.

Though AL MVP Shohei Ohtani deserves the lion's share of the credit, it's no small feat that the Angels lost only 85 games in 2021 even though Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon were non-factors due to injuries. If they and newcomer ace Noah Syndergaard stay healthy, the Angels will have a good chance of snapping a string of six straight losing seasons in 2022.

Put simply, there is no power vacuum in the AL West right now. Which, of course, makes it odd that the Rangers are acting as if there is.

---

The Rangers Need More

Though it's way too early to have any real sense of how the five teams in the AL West stack up for 2022, FanGraphs' WAR projections allow for a general sense:

• Astros: 45.6
• Angels: 39.1
• Mariners: 33.5
• Athletics: 32.9
• Rangers: 32.5

Never mind from the outhouse to the penthouse. If this is any indication, the Rangers have gone from the outhouse to...a slightly bigger outhouse?

There are avenues from which to quibble with this prognostication. For example, it's hard to account for the possible impact that Ecker will have on Adolis Garcia, Nathaniel Lowe and other incumbent bats. There's also the possibility of ample contributions from MLB-ready prospects like infielders Josh Jung and Ezequiel Duran and right-hander Cole Winn.

However, none of those prospects are what you'd call blue-chip talents. And of the players the Rangers had on their major league roster before their four new additions, only Garcia came out of 2021 looking anything like a star. And since he only had a .286 OBP to go with his 31 homers this year, giving him that much credit is a kindness.

So this is not, say, the Chicago Cubs signing Jon Lester and Jason Heyward or the Blue Jays signing Semien and George Springer. Those were cases of teams spending big bucks to plug veterans into what gaps still remained in talented, homegrown rosters. The Rangers don't have one of those.

Not yet, anyway. Perhaps they will in a few years' time when Seager, Semien and Gray will still be around. But if their true purpose is to make a play for 2023 or 2024, they could have A) not committed $231 million to two guys who are already over 30 or B) just waited.

What the Rangers have done is still worth clapping for, if for no other reason than they're not tanking even though they had that option. But if they want to silence doubts about their readiness to contend, they'll have to spend even more than $560 million.

---

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs.

In the aftermath of their agreements with Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, the Texas Rangers could turn to the trade market to free up space in their infield.

Per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, the New York Yankees are pursuing a trade with the Rangers for 2020 Gold Glove winner Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

ESPN's Jeff Passan reported Sunday the Rangers agreed to a seven-year, $175 million deal with Semien.

On Monday, Passan reported Seager agreed to join the Rangers on a 10-year, $325 million contract.

Kiner-Falefa has played shortstop, third base and catcher in his career. He won the AL Gold Glove at third base last year after leading the league with seven defensive runs saved, per FanGraphs.

After Elvis Andrus was traded to the Oakland Athletics before the start of the 2021 campaign, the Rangers moved Kiner-Falefa over to shortstop. His defense didn't suffer, as he ranked third among all qualified players at the position with 10 defensive runs saved.

Kiner-Falefa doesn't boast a lot of power in his swing, but he makes enough contact to hit for a solid average. The 26-year-old has a .265/.316/.354 slash line in 392 games with the Rangers.

Since the start of 2020, Kiner-Falefa has a .273 batting average with 11 homers and 63 RBI in 216 games.

The Yankees ranked 22nd in FanGraphs' defensive value in 2021. Their shortstops, primarily Gleyber Torres, finished tied for 26th in MLB with minus-15 defensive runs saved.

Kiner-Falefa wouldn't be the big splash acquisition that Yankees fans would get excited about, but his defensive skill set would be an upgrade for the team in 2022 and beyond.   

The Texas Rangers are all in for the 2022 season.

Perhaps no team has made as much noise this offseason as the American League West club, which is looking to bounce back from a 60-102 effort in 2021.

ESPN's Jeff Passan reported Monday that the Rangers agreed to a massive 10-year, $325 million contract with shortstop Corey Seager. He also previously reported that the Rangers agreed to deals with infielder Marcus Semien for seven years, $175 million and pitcher Jon Gray for four years, $56 million.

The ESPN report also noted that Texas agreed to a one-year, $5.2 million deal, including a 2023 team option, with outfielder Kole Calhoun.

It is quite a drastic approach for a team listed at 26th in the league for 2022 total payroll with approximately $48.3 million as of Monday, per Spotrac.

All of these moves could leave the Rangers with a starting lineup that looks something like this across the diamond:

• C: Jonah Heim

• 1B: Nate Lowe

• 2B: Marcus Semien

• 3B: Yonny Hernandez

• SS: Corey Seager

• RF: Adolis Garcia

• CF: Leody Taveras

• LF: Billy McKinney

• DH: Willie Calhoun

That is a lineup that doesn't look like it will lose 102 games on the way to a third consecutive last-place finish in the AL West.

Texas has been very aggressive after a sustained period of losing. It has finished below .500 in each of the last five years and has not advanced past the AL Division Series since back-to-back World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011.

The payroll will be much higher than in the past, but that figures to bring far more success on the field with a lineup that will rely on contributions from the new middle infield pairing of Seager and Semien.

Seager had previously been with the Los Angeles Dodgers for his entire career and amassed a resume that includes the National League Rookie of the Year, a World Series MVP, two Silver Sluggers and two All-Star selections.

He brings power from a shortstop spot that doesn't always feature sluggers and can also hit for average with a career slash line of .297/.367/.504. It would be a surprise if he wasn't a featured part in the middle of Texas' lineup.

Yet Seager doesn't feature as much power as Semien, which is a daunting thought for pitchers in the AL West.

The 31-year-old slashed .265/.334/.538 with 45 home runs, 102 RBI and 15 stolen bases in 2021 for the Toronto Blue Jays. He also flashed the leather as a Gold Glover to go with his Silver Slugger during what turned into a career season.

Semien has played for the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics and Blue Jays throughout his career and brings a durable presence to the middle of the Rangers' infield after appearing in all 162 games in 2019 and 2021. He has played 155 or more games five different times in his career.

The AL West is still a challenging division with the Houston Astros leading the way, but the Rangers look primed to compete after contributing far more to their payroll this offseason.