Rangers place Taveras on outright Waivers

News came during the evening on Sunday that the Texas Rangers had waived Leody Taveras signaling the time given to him by Chris Young to “develop” is officially over. 

It had been reported that the Rangers were working on a trade that wanted the receiving team to take on all of his remaining salary but simply had no takers for the price that CY and company had in mind. 

To go over the waiver first, all other 29 teams will have a chance to place a claim on the 26 year old CF and it goes by standings as they will have first go at Leody. By that stat, the Colorado Rockies will have the first Chance to Claim him and the Dodgers will have the last if all of the 28 teams with worse records let him pass by. 

If a team claims him, they’ll take on the rest of the owed 3.25 Million of his 2025 Salary. However if he goes unclaimed the Rangers can choose to send him to AAA however, with his service time Leody can choose to not take the minor league assignment and forgo the remaining salary for 2025. 

Since being called up in 2020, Leody played in 504 games for the Rangers and was their starting CF when the Rangers won their first World Series in Franchise history. When he was called up he was known more for his defensive prowess rather than his bat, but the club hoped to continue to develop his bat in hopes of him being their continuous starting CF for years to come but those wishes never came into fruition. 

Unfortunately for Leody and the Rangers at his peak he was a top 65th percentile hitter and with the Rangers as a whole already having offensive struggles just isn’t a great combination. His Career Slash Lines are .240/.291/.370 with an 85 OPS+. With Taveras still being only 26 it’s hard to not see a lower tier team taking a chance on him in hopes to fix him and make him into an everyday Outfielder for their franchise for the time being. Taveras still has great fielding and baserunning prowess so it’s not like a club can’t benefit in some way by taking a chance on the 26 Year Old. 

Sadly, Leody’s time in Texas was short lived and as a whole was underwhelming for what the Club had hoped to see from the Switch Hitter. But one thing you can’t deny is that he didn’t truly give it his all and at the end of the day was in the Starting lineup for a team that was at the top of the Baseball world and will surely be remembered for the Home Run he hit off of Justin Verlander in game 1 of the 2023 ALCS when hardly any other Ranger had success off of the righty in the Rangers 2-0 victory. 

I wish Leody nothing but the best in all his future endeavors and thank him for being a part of the team that went and took it.