As expected, Willie Eyre is heading to the disabled list after re-aggravating his groin last night. In a mild surprise, Luis Mendoza is being called up to replace him.
Mendoza is already on the 40 man roster, of course, and has thrown 10+ shutout innings in AAA so far this season. I'm a little leery of this move, though...I'm almost all alone on the Mendoza bandwagon right now, but one of the things I was hoping we'd see from the Rangers this season was Mendoza being left alone in Oklahoma for several months. Both his command and his confidence level were horrible last season, and I think that he would be best served by spending an extended time in AAA in the rotation, getting innings and working on both those things.
Instead, he's up in Texas, filling the role of bullpen long man with Scott Feldman moving to the rotation. And who knows...maybe he's in a better state mentally, and his command issues are behind him. I just know that the guy we saw last season had some really awful body language on the mound quite often, and looked like someone who didn't believe he could get the job done.
If Mendoza can command his sinker and slider, and keep his head straight, he can be a real asset out of the bullpen. If not...well, we'll probably see him head back to Oklahoma before too long.