Saturday was a big day for the Rangers. It was announced shortly before game time that right fielder Shin-Soo Choo was being scratched from his start due to a strained calf muscle and that he would be sent for an MRI.
Almost immediately, we reported that Round Rock Express right fielder and Rangers #2 prospect Nomar Mazara was pulled from the game in the ninth inning. That would leave one to assume that Maz will be getting the call to The Show.
If the Rangers do decide to bring up Maz, it won’t be before a lot of discussion is had among the Rangers brass. By calling up Maz now, you start his service clock earlier than you would like. If you could wait until Wednesday, (10 days after the start of the regular season) then you could call up Maz without his clock technically starting. You would essentially get another year of control. By being forced to call him now, you take the chance of losing that extra year of control and risk him becoming a Super Two player and his arbitration years starting one year earlier. That would mean the Rangers would have to start paying Maz a year earlier than expected and each arbitration year after that could end up costing the Rangers millions of additional dollars.
All of that would depend on how long he stays in the big leagues, though. I can’t imagine that he would stay up all year but if he comes up and just blows away the competition than he would force the hand of the Rangers. However, I just don’t see that happening and once Choo is ready, the Rangers would send Maz back to Round Rock thus saving his service time.
Perhaps the biggest blow came during the game when catcher Robinson Chirinos was hit in the forearm with a pitch suffering a broken forearm. This causes a problem not only because your number one catcher will miss probably 4-6 weeks (according to SDI medical expert Lexi Saldivar) but because the only other catcher you have on the 40-man roster is Chris Gimenez, who is also on the disabled list.
TCU graduate and Irving native Bryan Holaday will be the team’s primary catcher moving forward and I would guess that the team will purchase the contract of Round Rock Express catcher Brett Nicholas. This would obviously require moving someone to the 60-day DL or DFA’ing someone. I won’t care to guess which one they do.
Last year in Round Rock, Nicholas slashed .268/.314/.412/.725 with 12 home runs and 63 RBI. Defensively, Nicholas has a career 27% caught stealing rate which would put him right on par with the Major League average. Nicholas is 27 and can even play some first base.
Saturday Night was a winning night, but it came at a cost. The team will be fine because In Banny We Trust.
Oh and hey, the bad ass bullpen is back and so is Shawn Tolleson.