Rangers spring training updates: Roster moves, Nathan Eovaldi, Joc Pederson, more

Rangers’ latest round of moves surprises fans

The Rangers made another round of roster moves on Sunday as the team is entering the final full week of spring training games in Arizona.

This was the most controversial of all, opting to send scorching prospects Cam Cauley and Gavin Collyer to minor league camp, indicating they will not be on the Opening Day roster.

Despite the shock, it makes sense. Both are still young players and have a lot to work on before they are MLB ready, possibly this season. Not to say they won’t find that groove this season, but at least give them meaningful opportunities to play every day in Triple-A Round Rock, where they’ve only played a combined 14 games.

Among the two top 30 prospects, Texas optioned C Willie MacIver, pitcher Jose Corniell and infielder Jonah Bride to the minors. Alexis Diaz, who was DFA’d earlier in the week, went unclaimed and was assigned outright to Round Rock.

Eovaldi continues his stretch of Opening Day nods

For the third straight season as a Ranger, Nathan Eovaldi will get the ball on Opening Day March 26 against the Phillies in Philadelphia.

Eovaldi, 36, is about to enter his fourth big league season with Texas. This spring, as of March 16, he’s appeared in 15.1 innings to the tune of a 4.11 ERA, 16 strikeouts, two walks and a 1.17 WHIP across four starts.

For his career, Eovaldi has pitched in 12 games against Philadelphia with a 5-4 record, 3.51 ERA, 49 strikeouts and 20 walks.

How worried are Rangers about Joc Pederson?

It’s now a few week into spring training and while we still take numbers with a grain of salt (either good or bad), it’s a bit concerning to see Pederson not getting results.

Coming off the worst season of his career, the 33-year-old DH is 5-for-29 (.172) with 10 strikeouts, five walks, .172 slugging percentage and no extra base hits.

He came into camp lost a good amount of weight but players have done that plenty of times before. Under an absurd amount of pressure this year, Pederson’s spring is concerning. 

Especially magnified with the signing and emergence of Andrew McCutchen and at this rate, Mark Canha or Tyler Wade seem like a better choice of over Joc.

Multiple high run games this week spark optimism

Rangers’ fans are on the side of caution but couldn’t help smile at seeing the final scores of a few of the team’s exhibitions this week.

Coming when majority of the expected lineup was playing, Texas recorded victories of 8-3, 7-6, 9-4 and 22-2 this week. The 22 run game came against the Padres where Texas scored 13 runs in the third and as a team hit six home runs.