Santana, Herget, Heineman non-tendered

The Texas Rangers non-tendered Danny Santana, Scott Heineman and Jimmy Herget today, the team announced this evening. The 40 man roster now stands at 36.

Santana was entering his final year of team control, will miss a good chunk of 2021 while recovering from elbow surgery, wasn’t good in 2020, and was due to make around $4-5 million in 2021. His being non-tendered was expected.

Herget and Heineman being non-tendered is mildly surprising. I mentioned Herget as a possible candidate to be non-tendered yesterday, but said that Art Warren seemed a more likely candidate among the righthanded relievers on the 40 man roster. Herget, claimed on waivers last winter, made a positive impression in 2020, and seemed to be talked about as someone with a decent chance to be in the major league pen in 2021.

As for Heineman, I pegged Adolis Garcia as the outfielder who was a non-tender candidate, and didn’t even mentioned Heineman. Garcia and Heineman are very different players — Garcia has a bunch of tools but has major contact issues which limit his present utility, while Heineman is a serviceable backup outfielder who can play all three outfield positions, but whose ceiling is as a bench guy.

I suspect Heineman and Herget are players the Rangers want to bring back, and are being non-tendered so they can be re-signed to minor league deals without having to clear waivers. Don’t be surprised if one or both is back in the system in the next week or two.