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The Texas Rangers announced today that catcher Drew Butera and pitcher Justin Anderson have been signed to minor league deals.
We talked about Butera yesterday, when reports came out that the Rangers had agreed to terms on a deal with him. He is a veteran glove-first career backup catcher who, we noted, was likely signed for AAA depth purposes.
The Anderson signing is new — I thought this had already been announced, but that was Drew Anderson. Justin Anderson is a 27 year old Texas native who was a 14th round pick of the Los Angeles Angels out of UT-San Antonio in 2014. He accumulated 102.1 innings over 111 appearances as a righty reliever for the Angels from 2018-19, with 127 Ks, 72 walks and a 4.75 ERA/4.10 FIP.
Anderson had Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2020, and thus will be out for all of 2021. The Rangers signed Anderson to a two year deal, which means that he will not be a minor league free agent after 2021, but will still be in the Rangers system for the 2022 season.