Rangers Could Face David Robertson After Phillies Activate Him for Series Finale

The Texas Rangers could be seeing a familiar face in their series finale on Sunday against the Philadelphia Phillies.

According to an announcement from the Phillies, veteran reliever David Robertson has been activated from his stint with Triple-A Lehigh Valley and could make his season debut today against his most recent team.

Robertson went unsigned all offseason as a free agent and wound up inking a prorated $16 million deal with Philadelphia right before the trade deadline. Given that he had not played for the whole season, he made six appearances in the minor leagues before his new team -- who he's having his third stint with -- was ready to activate him.

Last year with Texas, Robertson was as good as ever with a 3.00 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 1.7 BWAR, striking out 99 hitters in 72 innings over 68 appearances. The only reason he did not land back with the Rangers or anyone else in free agency was his age and contract demands.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy learned about Robertson's activation just before pregame and talked about it in a scrum with media including Rangers on SI's Matthew Postins. He thought it was a great move by the Phils.

"That's a great signing by them," Bochy said. "He's really good. I haven't seen him [today]. I think he was waiting for this [the right situation]."

Turning 40 years old right at the start of the year, Robertson was in search of a multi-year commitment that teams were just not willing to offer a reliever who had been in the league for 16 years. Whether or not that mindset from teams was the right avenue remains to be seen, but surely will be answered down the stretch of the season.

Robertson joins a Phillies bullpen which was in need of a boost throughout the first half and went and both him and Jhoan Duran at the deadline, not to mention getting Jose Alvarado back into the fold for the remainder of the regular season.

On Sunday afternoon, Texas is going to try to avoid a sweep at the hands of Philadelphia with Robertson potentially playing a major factor in making that happen for his new team against his old team.

All eyes will be on the Philadelphia bullpen in Arlington this afternoon as Robertson gets welcomed back not only to the Major Leagues, but to the ballpark where he was so efficient just one year ago.

The Rangers enter Sunday having lost their last three games and fallen behind 5.5 games in the American League West following a nice little hot streak to keep their noses in the playoff picture. Once a member of the Texas bullpen, Robertson gets the chance to see things from the other side and sweep his old club.