The Texas Rangers protected a few prospects from the rule-5 draft which takes place on December 10, 2020. They selected the contracts of pitchers A.J. Alexy, Yerry Rodriguez and catcher David Garcia and added them to the 40-man roster.
They had quite a big list of prospects that needed to be added to their roster by Friday if they wanted them protected.
A.J. Alexy
Alexy, 22, is a right handed pitcher and one of the players the Rangers got in return from the Dodgers for Yu Darvish. A.J. dealt with a strained lat muscle while he was pitching on May 1st and missed the rest of the 2019 season. He pitched two innings against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and allowed 3 runs on 3 hits, 4 walks and 2 strikeouts.
Before his injury A.J. pitched 19.1 innings in Down East and had a 0-3 record with a 5.12 earned run average. The free passes were an issue for him as he walked 13 batters but he also struck out 23.
He pitched 8 innings in the Arizona Fall League and had a 0-2 record with a 6.75 earned run average. He allowed 6 runs on 11 hits, 6 walks and 6 strikeouts.
Yerry Rodriguez
Rodriguez, 23, is a right-handed pitcher who was dominating in Hickory with the Crawdads prior to his right elbow UCL sprain. In thirteen starts, he had a 7-3 record with a 2.08 earned run average and a 0.896 WHIP. The injury was a little worrisome to me because it seemed like it could go down the Tommy John path. Luckily, that didn’t happen and he was able to pitch in the development league.
David Garcia
Garcia, 21, is a switch hitting catcher that the Rangers don’t want to risk losing. Garcia spent 2019 season in Spokane and hit a line of .277/.351/.435/.786 with 5 home runs and 29 RBI.
Obviously, the Rangers didn’t want to gamble with losing any of the three players they protected. I’m curious to see if the Rangers lose any players. The problem every other team faces is; if they select a player, that selected player has to remain on the active roster for the subsequent season.
Some of the players that were not protected are:
2017 first round pick Cole Ragans who has had two Tommy John surgeries.
Jason Bahr,25, was stellar with Down East in 2019. He had a 6-1 record with a 1.71 earned run average and a 1.086 WHIP. He really showed up in Frisco once he promoted. He had a 4-3 record with a 3.23 earned run average.
Alex Speas
Kyle Enright
Matt Whatley
The Rangers 40-man roster is now at 38.
