Ronald Guzman activated, Chris Martin optioned

Texas Rangers transactions: Ronald Guzman has been activated from the seven day concussion disabled list in a move that had been expected to happen today. However, in a surprising move, pitcher Chris Martin has been optioned to make room on the active roster for Guzman.

I think most had assumed that Ryan Rua, who was called up to replace Guzman last week, would be sent back down. But with Shin-Soo Choo, Nomar Mazara, Joey Gallo and Adrian Beltre all nursing nagging leg issues, I guess the Rangers felt they needed the extra position player instead.

I was under the impression veteran players who signed as free agents from Japan generally had provisions in their contract keeping them from being optioned, but either I imagined that or that wasn’t the case with Martin. Martin has been solid in the bullpen this year, and he’s going down, it appears, because he could be optioned and the team needed the roster spot, not on merit. Apparently, the Rangers want to continue hanging on to Matt Moore for the time being.

UPDATE — Per Levi Weaver on Twitter, Jeff Banister said this was about having an extra bench player due to several position players being banged up, not a reflection on Martin’s performance.