Darwin Barney, Texas Rangers utility infielder candidate

Darwin Barney is a Texas Rangers utility infielder candidate, it appears. The Texas Rangers announced the signing of the 32 year old Barney to a minor league deal yesterday, and he is getting an invitation to the major league camp.

Barney is kind of an odd guy to be a utility infielder option, given that most of his career in the majors has been spent at second base. He was the regular second baseman for some bad Chicago Cubs teams from 2011-13, and actually had a 4.6 bWAR season in 2012 on the strength of some great defensive numbers (Barney won the Gold Glove in the N.L. for second base that year). Barney has just 57 career games in the majors at shortstop, with 39 starts, and 83 games 959 starts) at third base.

Barney was traded by the Cubs to the Dodgers in the summer of 2014, and the Dodgers shipped him on to Toronto in September, 2015. He was with the Jays in 2016 and 2017, but never hit enough to get a regular role, and he comes to Texas with a career .246/.294/.341 slash line.

My guess is that Barney ends up being infield depth in Round Rock, particularly given that indications are the Rangers are planning on keeping Jurickson Profar around as the utility infielder. However, if the Rangers end up moving Profar, and they want a utility infielder who can sit on the end of the bench and play once every two weeks, Barney would seem to be in line for the job.