Rangers place Robert Garcia on IL with Left Shoulder Inflammation

The Texas Rangers made a move on their left-handed reliever and called up a reliever to make his Major League debut on Thursday.

Texas Rangers pitcher Robert Garcia. | Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers hadn’t used Robert Garcia for the first two games of their series with Pittsburgh and on Thursday made a roster move.

The Rangers placed the left-hander on the 15-day injured list on Thursday with left shoulder inflammation. He was examined by team doctors on Monday when the team returned from its road trip, but he had been held out of game action for a week.

The move is retroactive to Monday. To replace Garcia on the 26-man roster, the Rangers called up Peyton Gray from Triple-A Round Rock. He had an exceptional spring training and carried that over into the regular season. To make room on the 40-man roster for Gray the Rangers designated catcher Willie MacIver for assignment.

Switching Robert Garcia for Peyton Gray

Texas Rangers pitcher Peyton Gray. | Arianna Grainey-Imagn Images

Texas envisioned Garcia as a co-closer with Chris Martin to start the season. But neither proved successful in the job and now both are on the injured list. Martin was moved there during the road trip with a right shoulder impingement.

Garcia is 0-1 with a 3.38 ERA in nine appearances. Before the injury he was relegated to low-leverage situations after blowing a save and losing a tied game during the Rangers’ first homestand.

Texas now turns to Gray, whose move to the Majors has been a long time coming. The right-hander has been dominant at Triple-A, where he was 1-0 with two saves in two chances. He struck out 15 and walked two in 12.2 innings. He had a 0.79 WHIP and batters were hitting .186 against him.

In spring training, he pitched in nine games and went 1-0 with a 2.35 ERA. He struck out 18 and walked one in 10.2 innings and had two saves in two chances. He was one of the final options back to the minor leagues from Major League spring training.

The 30-year-old has been in professional baseball since 2018 when he signed an undrafted free agent contract with Colorado out of Florida Gulf Coast University. He pitched in the minor leagues through 2021 but never got a promotion to the bigs. He then bounced around in two other MLB organizations and in the Mexican League before he landed with the Rangers in January of 2025.

MacIver was a catcher the Rangers signed last offseason as part of a retooling of the position. He did not make the opening day roster and was at Triple-A Round Rock to start the season. In 33 games with the Athletics last season, he slashed .186/.252/.324. He could land back with Texas if he clears waivers without any other team claiming him.