Texas Rangers Release 37 Minor League Players
The Texas Rangers announced the release of 37 players from minor league contracts on Monday.
As InsideTheRangers.com reported last week, the Rangers agreed to pay their minor leaguers the $400 per week stipend through at least the end of June. However, it did come with the caveat that a wave of cuts were expected in the days ahead.
Typically, teams will make a wave of cuts near the end of spring training. This year, the Rangers did not cut any minor league players due to camps being suspended in mid-March and rosters frozen by Major League Baseball.
Here is the full list of players released:
RHP Austin Bibens-Dirkx
RHP Shane Carle
RHP Alex Carrillo
RHP Juan Castillo
RHP Alex Eubanks
RHP Nick Gardewine
RHP Cal Hehnke
RHP Sam Hellinger
RHP George Janca
RHP Taylor Jungmann
RHP Billy Layne
RHP Jeifry Nunez
RHP Arturo Reyes
RHP Luis Rosario
RHP Scott Williams
LHP Brandon Baker
LHP Justin Lewis
LHP Brandon Mann
LHP Zack Penrod
LHP Francisco Villegas
C Alex Kowalczyk
C Kevin Mendoza
C Isaias Quiroz
C Josue Rodriguez
INF Andretty Cordero
INF Yaniery Guzman
INF Tyler Depreta-Johnson
INF Stanley Martinez
OF Luis Asuncion
OF William Jeffry
OF Eric Jenkins
OF Starling Joseph
OF Franklin Rollin
OF Chad Smith
OF Hasuan Viera
UTL Josh Altmann
UTL Rafy Barete
Arturo Reyes is the only player from this list that started spring training in the Rangers' major league camp.
In search for a silver lining, the 37 players released on Monday is relatively in the same ballpark of minor league players that have been released in March-May of the previous two seasons. According to Baseball America, the Rangers released 31 players in 2018 and 33 players in 2019.
MLB and the players union have exchanged economic proposals over the past week as they try to come to an agreement to get the season underway. While it's all but expected for the minor league season to be canceled, the return of a major league season would provide much needed revenue for the Rangers to bankroll their minor leaguers past the end of June.
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