Texas Rangers Trade for Carlos Corporan

The Texas Rangers have traded right-handed pitcher Akeem Bostick to the Houston Astros for catcher Carlos Corporan.

The Astros signed outfielder Colby Rasmus on Tuesday and designated catcher Carlos Corporan for assignment.

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Robinson Chirinos earned the primary spot behind the dish last season. The Rangers are in need of a veteran catcher. More importantly a backup catcher.

Carlos Corporan served as the Astros backup catcher the last two seasons and played in a career-high 64 games in 2013, 51 games at catcher. In 2014 the 31-year old played in 55 games, starting behind the plate in 48 and threw out 6-of-31 runners attempting to steal.

The Puerto Rico native has a career 53 runs, 17 home runs, 63 RBI and a slash line of .226/.286/.350 with a 77 OPS+.

Heading into camp with the Texas Rangers, the switch-hitter will likely have a slight advantage to earn the backup catcher spot over Chris Gimenez and Tomas Telis for his pitch framing ability.

It will be interesting to see if Yu Darvish feels more comfortable with Corporan than he does with Chirinos. Last season it seemed that Chirinos was walking to the mound a lot, and being there in person it appeared Darvish didn’t always appreciate those trips. Corporan caught both of the Astros complete game shutouts last season, both against the Texas Rangers.

Carlos Corporan also broke up Darvish’s no-hitter in the 8th inning with a home run on August 12, 2013. So, when Darvish goes after another no-no run maybe Corporan will be behind the plate and will help him get the elusive no-hitter. After all, I’m sure it will be against the Astros, again.

The Texas Rangers designated newly acquired right-handed relief pitcher Gonzalez Germen for assignment to make room on the roster.

ONLY 30 DAYS UNTIL PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT TO SPRING TRAINING!

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