Joe Saunders released by the Kansas City Royals

Former Texas Rangers left-handed pitcher Joe Saunders was released by the Kansas City Royals.  Saunders was recently designated for assignment by the Texas Rangers back on July 4th and was quickly picked up by the Royals on July 8th.

While with the Texas Rangers Saunders had a horrible first outing.  Many fans were glad he was on the disabled list and were scratching their heads when he was called back up after his rehab assignment.  During his time with the Rangers he had a record of 0-5 with an ERA of 6.13.  His season was marred by several pour outings including his debut where he was hit by a line drive which sent him to the disable list.  That injury was followed by several people on Twitter cheering his early departure.

Over his 4 starts with the Kansas City minor league team he was still the same Joe.  He had a record of 1-4 with a 5.18 ERA over 40.0 innings.  He only lasted 6.0 innings once and was hit hard and often.  He gave up 4 home runs and had an opponents batting average of .355.

More from Texas Rangers News

• Early 2023 MLB mock draft has Texas Rangers selecting an Ohtani-lite
• 3 Texas Rangers outfield trade targets not named Bryan Reynolds
• Did Jacob deGrom really mean what he said at his Texas Rangers press conference?
• Martin Perez accepting the qualifying offer looking like solid deal for the Rangers
• 4 outfielders the Texas Rangers can still pursue this winter

Joe Saunders saw a bulk of his success early in his career with the Los Angeles Angels from 2005-2010.  During that 6 year stretch he had a record of 54-32 with a 4.35 ERA over 115 starts.  Since then it appears that he’s bounced around the league and has yet to recapture what he had with the Angels.

Now that he’s back on the open market there are several teams that could pick him up, but it would only be teams looking for a veteran pitcher to eat up some innings.