Rangers Trade Taylor Teagarden to Baltimore

The Baltimore Orioles have been shopping for a backup catcher and now, according to Jon Heyman of SI, they’ve gotten their man. Heyman is reporting that a trade between the Orioles and the Texas Rangers is “done” that would send catcher Taylor Teagardento the Orioles. The deal is pending a physical.

Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun tells us that the Rangers will receive an as yet unidentified minor league pitcher and a player to be named later from the Orioles. Kevin Goldstein tweets that he is hearing the pitcher is right hander Randy Henry, whom Goldstein says has a plus fastball with good command and sink.

Teagarden, 27, has been buried on the Rangers depth chart for the past two season and was behind both Yorvit Torrealba and Mike Napoli last year. Once considered one of the top young catching prospects in the game, Teagarden has struggled in the major leagues when given an opportunity. In 392 plate appearances over four seasons in Texas, Teagarden has shown good power with 16 home runs, but has posted a .220 average and .286 OBP during that time. The only significant look he got was in 2009, when he posted a .644 OPS in just under 200 at bats.

In going to Baltimore, Teagarden will be reunited with former Rangers manager Buck Showalter and, it would appear, will get every opportunity to stay in the major leagues full-time. The Orioles have only one catcher currently on their 40-man roster in all-star Matt Wieters.

For the Rangers, this move makes some sense in that Teagarden is out of minor league options. In order to send him to the minor leagues again, they would have had to risk exposing him to waivers and losing him for nothing. The only way Teagarden would have made the Rangers roster out of camp is if either Napoli or Torreabla were to be injured and begin the season on the disabled list.

UPDATE: Nathaniel Stoltz of Seedlings to Stars has a profile on the newest Ranger farmhand, Randy Henry.

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