Butler, Herrera outrighted, Reinheimer claimed

Texas Rangers transactions: Eddie Butler and Ronald Herrera have cleared waivers and been assigned outright to AAA Round Rock, the team announced today. In addition, infielder Jack Reinheimer has been claimed on waivers from the Chicago Cubs.

Herrera, acquired from the New York Yankees one year ago today in exchange for Reiver Sanmartin, was supposed to be a AAA depth option for the Rangers rotation in 2018. Instead, the righthander missed the entire year with a shoulder injury. Butler, a 27 year old former first round pick who came over from the Cubs in the ill-fated Cole Hamels trade, had been discussed as a possible rotation option for 2019, but his 6.47 ERA in 32 relief innings (with a 7.41 FIP) post-trade apparently led the Rangers to believe he wasn’t worth devoting a 40 man roster spot to. The rest of the league agreed with them.

Both pitchers will, I believe, remain in the Rangers organization and be in their minor league system this coming season.

Reinheimer, 26, was a 5th round pick of the Seattle Mariners in 2013 out of East Carolina. He was traded by the M’s to the Diamondbacks in June, 2015, as part of the trade that sent Welington Castillo to Arizona and fetched the M’s Vidal Nuno and Mark Trumbo. He was claimed on waivers from the D-Backs by the Mets at the end of July, 2018, and was claimed on waivers by the Cubs from the Mets on November 2, 2018. He will likely be waived again by the Rangers later this offseason as they try, as the Mets and Cubs did before them, to sneak him through waivers.

Reinheimer is a righthanded hitting utility guy who has mostly played shortstop as a professional. He has a career .278/.343/.371 slash line in AAA, and is presumably the new Hanser Alberto.

The 40 man roster is now at 32, though there will be at least one, and possibly a half-dozen, additional players added this evening, in advance of the deadline to add players to the 40 man roster to keep them from being eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft.