Texas Rangers: What Neal Cotts departure means

The Texas Rangers recently placed left-handed pitcher Neal Cotts on revocable waivers, along with Yu Darvish, Shin-Soo Choo, Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus.  It didn’t really come as a surprise that the big 4 were not claimed by any teams on waivers.

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But, once Neal Cotts was placed on waivers many expected someone to pick him up.  Mainly because he’ll be a great addition to any team trying to make their final push towards the playoffs.

Cotts has had his ups and downs with the Texas Rangers this season.  There were several games early in the season where he blew the save in the 8th inning.  During the month of April he had a sky high 5.91 ERA.  But, he managed to overcome his struggles and managed to have a really good May with a 1.54 ERA.

It might have gone unnoticed, but right now there are not very many lefties on this team.  The starting rotation has had a void of lefties since the departure of Joe Saunders.  If it wasn’t for the lone appearance by Robbie Ross Jr. then the Rangers would be on a two month streak of a lefty not starting a game.

Same goes for the bullpen right now.  Neal Cotts was the lone lefty for awhile until they called up Alex Claudio.  During his time with the Rangers Cotts overall he has pitched very well.  Last season he had a 1.11 ERA over 58 games/57.0 IP with 18 walks and 65 strikeouts.

This season he hasn’t had the same success as last year, but it should be taken under consideration the team as a whole hasn’t.  This season he has a record of 2-7 with a 3.48 ERA, 20 walks and 58 strikeouts.

It hasn’t been announced which team has claimed Cotts, only that it is a top contending team.  Regardless of who it is, it would seem unlikely they’ll receive a lefty for the pen with his same talents.  More than likely they’ll pick up a couple of top prospects that the Rangers will be able to develop and control their contracts for several years.