More depth for the pile.
The Rangers picked up three more pitchers in this front office’s thirteen-year quest to develop just one good one.
They claimed Luke Farrell off waivers from Los Anaheim. Farrell is best known for being the son of former Boston and Toronto manager John Farrell. He’s a twenty-seven-year old righty who most recently pitched for the Cubs until he was released and picked up by the Angels. He pitched in the minor leagues for them before being released. Farrell has Texas written all over him. In two starts and eighteen appearances out of the pen with the Cubs, Farrell rolled out a 5.17 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP. He did have a bit more success as a starter in Triple-A. But then so have so many others.
No stranger to frequent flier milage, in two seasons Farrell has now been with seven organizations: Kansas City, Minnesota, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels, and Texas.
The Rangers also added Rafael Montero, who became a free agent at the end of 2018 when he refused his minor league assignment with the Mets. He is coming off Tommy John surgery and isn’t expected to be ready to pitch again until June, meaning September. Montero, also right handed, is twenty-eight, and has spent parts of the last four seasons pitching for the Mets, with a 5.78 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP.
The third name is familiar. The Rangers brought back lefty Adrian Sampson. Sampson, you may recall, tore his right flexor tendon while with Seattle, got into just one game in 2017, then was injured again and finally released. The Rangers picked him up. He pitched well at Triple-A in 2018, and even had four decent starts with Texas in September. Despite going 0-3 in those starts, his ERA was 357 and his WHIP was just 1.06. He will compete for a slot in the Rangers rotation.
Neither of these three will take the Rangers over the top. They will at best fill in some of the 4,374 outs the Rangers must get in 2019.
Right now, though, the Rangers are like a rogue terrorist group in every bad movie—just trying to stockpile as many arms as possible.