Leody Taveras can still haunt Rangers after AL West rival's waiver claim

When someone goes to make a list of the most drama-filled Major League Baseball teams, the Texas Rangers are generally not anywhere near the top, if they’re on the list at all. The team just tends to do things under the radar. That is certainly not the case the last 10 days or so.

The Rangers have spent the last few days being very proactive trying to fix an offense that is among the worst in baseball. That proactivity has included calling up reinforcements, shifting around the lineup, and on Sunday, firing offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker. On Monday the team announced it had almost immediately hired his replacement in Bret Boone and had decided to release longtime outfielder Leody Taveras.

Leody Taveras joins Mariners after Rangers’ dramatic roster shuffle

The drama continued on Tuesday as the Rangers finally officially called up outfielder Evan Carter to take Taveras’ place on the roster. But wait, that’s not all. Taveras also found his new home and it turns out he’ll be able to torment his former team several times this season alone as the Seattle Mariners claimed him.

That would be the same Seattle Mariners that threw the final few shovels of dirt on both Taveras and Ecker’s graves in Arlington. Their series win over the weekend certainly seemed to be the final straw for POBO Chris Young. Ecker, in particular, was fired just hours after Sunday’s series finale.

For Taveras, it marks a fresh start for someone who certainly wasn’t solely to blame for the Rangers’ struggles. He’s never been a real offensive weapon. However, he hasn’t seemed as dialed in on defense (which is his strength) this year. While he’s still above average according to Baseball Savant, the team is used to seeing him be anywhere from +4 to +6 in fielding run value and he’s just at +2 so far this season. He’s also made some very bad miscues in the field that left some wondering if his focus is waning.

With the Mariners, Taveras will get to face his old team six times over the course of the rest of the season and while it’s unlikely the Texas Rangers are worried about his bat, if he can return to form defensively, it’s likely Bruce Bochy and company will be having nightmares about robbed base hits later this summer.