Texas Rangers trade Anthony Ranaudo to Chicago White Sox

The Texas Rangers have traded righthanded pitcher Anthony Ranaudo to the Chicago White Sox for pitcher Matt Ball, per John Blake on Twitter.

Ranaudo, 26, was originally drafted by the Texas Rangers in 2007, but the Rangers couldn't sign him.  He ended up getting drafted in the supplemental first round of the 2010 draft by the Boston Red Sox, and then was traded to Texas prior to the 2015 season for lefthanded reliever Robbie Ross.

Ranaudo made four appearances for Texas last year, putting up a 7.63 ERA in 15.1 IP, and was called up last week to be a long man.  In two appearances, Ranaudo allowed 7 runs in 3.2 IP, most notably walking 5 of the 9 batters he faced on Tuesday when he was brought into the game in relief of Derek Holland against, ironically, the same Chicago White Sox team he has now been traded to.  Ranaudo will be out of options after this season, and did not appear to have a long-term future with the Rangers, so the fact he's leaving the organization isn't exactly shocking, though the timing is a bit of a surprise.

Coming over to Texas in this deal is righthanded pitcher Matt Ball.  Ball, 21, was an 11th round pick of the ChiSox in the 2013 draft.  He's been working in relief for Kannapolis of the low-A Sally League this season, with 24 Ks and 5 walks in 16 IP over 10 relief appearances.  He pitched against Hickory three times in April, so the Rangers have had a chance to see him up close against the Crawdads, and Ball will be assigned to Hickory, per Blake.

Ball is 6'5" and was described as "projectable" coming out of high school.  He got a $150,000 bonus -- $50K over the limit you can sign someone after the 10th round without dipping into your pool.  I don't know much else about him.

The Rangers' 40 man roster now stands at 39, and this could be a precursor to another move.  The Rangers could opt to bring up an outfielder not currently on the 40 man roster, such as James Jones or Jared Hoying, in place of Delino DeShields, or could be looking at adding a non-roster pitcher such as Jimmy Reyes or Matt Bush to the 40 man roster.  Or this could be just a regular ol' move, that isn't a precursor of something else.