Texas Rangers acquire Seth Maness from Atlantic League

The Texas Rangers have purchased right handed pitcher Seth Maness from High Point if the independent Atlantic League, the team announced today. Maness is starting tonight for the Nashville Sounds.

Maness, 30, was a reliever for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals from 2013-17. He was with the Royals in 2018 on a minor league deals, but was released in May, and was out of baseball until joining High Point this spring. Maness made one start for High Point this year.

Maness is best known for undergoing, three years ago, an alternative procedure that repairs rather than replaces a torn UCL, a procedure that takes less time to return from than Tommy John surgery does. He appears to have been added to provide some additional depth for the Rangers in the upper minors, and it isn’t clear whether he will be used primarily in a starting or in a relief role.

UPDATE — Maness threw 6 shutout innings, allowing 1 walk and 1 hit, and then started the 7th by allowing two doubles, a single and a home run, and then was pulled from the game.