The Rangers have positioned outfielder Leody Taveras on outright waivers, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal experiences. Taveras can proceed enjoying for Texas till he’s claimed, which differentiates the “outright waiver” course of from a extra commonplace designation for project. If a declare occurs, Taveras’ new group will assume the remainder of his 2025 wage, which is roughly $3.8MM remaining of a $4.75MM whole.
Taveras entered the season with three years and 124 days of official Main League service time, which performs an vital position in his waiver standing. As a result of Taveras has greater than three years of service time, ought to he clear waivers, he can flip down an outright project to Triple-A and change into a free agent. Nevertheless, as a result of he has lower than 5 years of MLB service time, changing into a free agent implies that Taveras would forego his $3.8MM in remaining wage.
It leaves the outfielder with an attention-grabbing determination to make ought to the scenario come up, although one other group may make it a moot level by merely claiming Taveras off waivers. Public defensive metrics have been considerably blended on Taveras’ efficiency as a middle fielder, although the Outs Above Common metric has been solidly in his nook over his six MLB seasons. Transferring him right into a nook outfield spot (or having Taveras as a fourth outfielder somewhat than strictly as a middle fielder) would solely assist make him extra of a clear-cut defensive plus.
Taveras has been a below-average hitter over the course of his profession, and he has significantly struggled this 12 months by hitting .241/.259/.342 over 82 plate appearances. Taveras has an 84 wRC+ over 1825 profession PA within the majors, with a excessive level of a 100 wRC+ (from a .266/.312/.421 slash line in 554 PA) in the course of the Rangers’ World Sequence championship season in 2023. The switch-hitter has carried out a bit higher as a lefty batter than as a righty batter throughout his profession, however even his .241/.291/.387 slash line from the left aspect of the plate is fairly modest.
Taveras is a Tremendous Two participant who has two remaining years of arbitration eligibility, so a brand new group would even be gaining management over his providers by the 2027 season within the occasion of a declare. There wasn’t a lot suggestion that the Rangers may non-tender Taveras final winter even within the wake of an uninspiring 2024 season, although there was some commerce hypothesis surrounding Taveras final January. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning Information experiences that the Rangers once more tried to deal Taveras as not too long ago as final week, however discovered no takers keen to each transfer gamers and take up all of Taveras’ contract.
A waiver declare would enable the Rangers to cleanly half methods with Taveras whereas transferring a bit of additional cash off the books. Remaining underneath the $241MM luxurious tax threshold is among the Rangers’ chief objectives for the season, and with an estimated (as per RosterResource) $237.1MM tax quantity in the mean time, Texas solely has a little bit of house to spare. Transferring Taveras would give the Rangers extra respiration room to remain underneath the tax line whereas nonetheless chance having some flexibility so as to add on the deadline.
Kevin Pillar, Dustin Harris, or utilityman Josh Smith may share middle discipline duties if Taveras is certainly on his means out of Texas. For Smith specifically, extra time in middle discipline would give the Rangers a means of maintaining Smith’s sizzling bat in what has been an in any other case fairly dismal lineup. Former prime prospect Evan Carter could possibly be a candidate to be known as up from Triple-A, however Carter is hitting solely .221/.333/.416 over 90 PA at Spherical Rock to date in 2025.
