Elvis Andrus to the injured list, Willie Calhoun up

Texas Rangers transactions: Elvis Andrus has been placed on the injured list with a strained hamstring, and Wei-Chieh Huang has been optioned to AAA Nashville. To take their place on the active roster, the Rangers have recalled outfielder Willie Calhoun and pitcher Jeffrey Springs.

Okay, let’s get the easy part out of the way...Huang pitched yesterday, the Rangers need a fresh arm in the pen, and so Springs is back. Shawn Kelley is expected to be activated tomorrow, so Springs’ stay in the majors could be brief, or the Rangers could keep him up and do something with one of the other arms when Kelley is officially activated.

The more interesting part...Elvis left yesterday’s game with a tight hamstring, though he said afterwards he didn’t think it was a major issue. That being said, with the roster situation and it being a hamstring, it was always possible the Rangers would err on the side of caution and put him on the i.l. to make sure he didn’t aggravate it and make it worse. No word yet on the severity of the strain.

I thought the most likely move if Elvis went to the i.l. would be to have Delino DeShields come back up. However, instead, it appears that the Rangers are going to give Willie Calhoun a shot. Calhoun received significant praise this spring for being in better shape and generally doing a lot more to earn a roster spot than he did last spring, but ended up getting sent down due to a numbers situation. He has a .304/.416/.557 slash line for Nashville in 32 games this year, and has played well enough that he has reasonably earned a look in the majors.

Calhoun has also been playing a little at second base, his position when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers, which means that his presence here could put some pressure on both Rougned Odor and Nomar Mazara, neither of whom have put up good numbers so far this season. Calhoun is in the lineup today, and we shall see how he responds to playing time.