Nick Solak found out the hard way if you don’t perform at the major league level (and you don’t have a long-term contract that included horses), you don’t keep your major league job. In a surprise move, he was optioned to Triple-A yesterday to make room for Curtis Terry.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward had threatened this would happen. Jobs were on the line. But he had threatened that at least a half dozen times with Rougned Odor and that never happened. So, he was much like the boy who cried wolf.
Besides, the challenge with making those threats is he can’t back them up. It’s like the eighty-pound weakling challenging the biker bar to a fight. The Rangers simply don’t have the minor league depth to follow through. Solak replaced Odor. Eli White is up only because Willie Calhoun is injured but Calhoun wasn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball either. Andy Ibañez is already up because Solak wasn’t hitting. There’s nobody in the system ready to replace Isiah Kiner-Falefa or Brock Holt. Jose Trevino is back, so John Hicks is now gone.
Mike Foltynewicz and Jordan Lyles are comfortable knowing there are no replacement parts for them with, either.
But back to Curtis Terry and his was a well-earned promotion. At Triple-A Round Rock, the twenty-four-year-old right-handed hitting Terry was batting .294 with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs in 65 games. He had an elite-level OPS of .958. Yes, he strikes out a lot, but the Rangers teach that in their system.
Terry will DH and play first base, taking away at-bats from Nathanial Lowe who replaced Ronald Guzman who also couldn’t hit.
In his big league debut, Terry, who the Rangers drafted in the thirteenth round in 2005, went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. The hits will come. The power is there. Curtis Terry just needs some playing time to settle in and show what he can do.
After all, we know what everyone else on this team can do. They just lost their tenth game in a row.
So, welcome to the major leagues, Curtis Terry. The Rangers sure can use some fresh air. A home run or two would be nice, too.
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TODAY’S GAME:
