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The Texas Rangers have acquired infielder Eliezer Alvarez from the Philadelphia Phillies for cash considerations. The Phillies DFA’d Alvarez last week to make room on their 40 man roster for Pedro Florimon. Texas moved Ronald Herrera to the 60 day disabled list to make room for Alvarez on the Rangers’ 40 man roster.
Alvarez was originally signed by the St. Louis Cardinals out of the Dominican Republic in 2011. The Cardinals traded him to the Phillies for Juan Nicasio in September, 2017, after the minor league season was over, so Alvarez never actually appeared in an official game in the Phillies’ organization (unless you count spring training games).
Alvarez mostly plays second base, and spent most of 2017 in the Texas League, putting up a .247/.321/.382 slash line for Springfield. He had a breakout year in 2016 in the Midwest League, where he slashed .323/.404/.476 with 36 steals in 51 attempts.
Alvarez has two options remaining, so Texas will presumably send him to Frisco or Round Rock and take a look at him at second base for a while.
In other news, the Rangers in the past couple of days have released catcher Curt Casali, infielder Darwin Barney and pitcher Erik Goeddel, all of whom were in camp on minor league deals, and none of whom were going to make the major league roster. The Rangers have also, per the beat guys, informed outfielder Destin Hood and reliever Steve Delabar they will most likely not make the team. Hood will be assigned to AAA, while Delabar has the right to opt out should he not wish to go to AAA.
Trevor Plouffe hasn’t officially been released or told that he is not making the team, but he has been informed that he likely won’t be on the major league roster, per the beats, and he was pulled from today’s lineup, where he was originally scheduled to start at third base. Evan Grant says Plouffe has officially left camp to consider his options.
Jesse Chavez, on the other hand, has been told he will make the team, and to anticipate being used in a swingman role, being a multi-inning relief pitcher but also starting occasionally.