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The Texas Rangers have acquired 27 year old lefthanded pitcher (and native Texan) Sam Freeman from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for a player to be named later or cash.
Freeman was born in Houston and attended Hebron High School in Carrollton, giving the Rangers' the possibility of having a very D/FW-centric pitching staff, with starter Yovani Gallardo having graduated from Fort Worth Trimble Tech, and Keller's Jon Edwards battling for a bullpen spot.
Freeman has a career 3.33 ERA in 70.1 IP over 81 games for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2012-14. He is out of options, and apparently wasn't going to make the Cardinals' 25 man roster, so this is their opportunity to get something for him. Freeman will get a chance to win a bullpen job for Texas, which is currently very light on lefty relief options -- Alex Claudio is the only other lefthanded reliever still in the major league camp.
Freeman is a groundball pitcher who has averaged 93.8 mph on his fastball in the majors, and also throws a slider and a changeup. He's likely going to be competing for a setup role as a one inning or less guy in the pen. Freeman filling that role could allow the Rangers to use Claudio in a multi-inning role, much like Claudio did in the minors last season.
The Rangers 40 man roster is now full.
