Michael Choice recalled, Alex Claudio optioned

The Texas Rangers have recalled outfielder Michael Choice from AAA Round Rock today.  To make room for Choice on the 25 man roster, the Rangers have optioned Alex Claudio to AAA.

This is an interesting move that leaves the Rangers with a five man bench and a six man bullpen, although the bench is effectively a four man bench, I suspect, with Shin-Soo Choo likely unavailable because of back spasms which kept him out yesterday.  The Rangers had no real backup outfielder yesterday, and had Joey Gallo and Ryan Rua manning the outfield corners.  This, at least, gives the Rangers a true outfielder for the bench.

Choice has had a disappointing year for Round Rock so far, putting up a .242/.299/.404 line in 241 plate appearances this season.  He has, however, been better of late, with a .400/.455/.650 line over the past two weeks in 44 plate appearances.

With the Rangers playing in Toronto this weekend, it will be interesting to see if Choo stays on the active roster, since the turf in Toronto is hard on players dealing with injury, and you would think the Rangers would prefer to avoid having Choo risk aggravating his back on the turf.  If Choo does go on the d.l., you'd have to assume that a pitcher would end up coming back up.