Jeffress activated, Frieri DFA’d, Claiborne outrighted

The Texas Rangers have activated righthanded relief pitcher Jeremy Jeffress from the disabled list. To make room for him on the 25 man roster, the Rangers have designated righthanded relief pitcher Ernesto Frieri for assignment. In addition, the Rangers have announced that Preston Claiborne, who was designated for assignment over the weekend, has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to AAA Round Rock.

The return of Jeffress will, one hopes, help buttress a struggling bullpen. Jeffress has been up and down this year, mixing in solid outings with disaster outings, and has a 5.46 ERA in 29.2 IP this season. He had shown improvement before landing on the d.l. with a back issue, however, and hopefully will continue to trend positively.

Frieri being designated for assignment is somewhat surprising, since both Nick Martinez and Austin Bibens-Dirkx could be optioned. Frieri gave up a couple of runs last night in the 11th inning against Boston, costing the Rangers the lead, but has had just 6 appearances since being called up, and hadn’t been bad before last night. The Rangers will now have 10 days to waive, trade or outright him.

And speaking of being outrighted, Preston Claiborne, who was designated for assignment two days ago, has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to AAA Round Rock. He could have declined the assignment, but I suspect the Rangers conditioned his being called up last month on him agreeing to accepting an outright assignment if he was dropped from the 40 man roster.

With Frieri being DFA’d, the 40 man roster now stands at 39.