Rangers release Matuella, Dease

The Texas Rangers have released minor league pitchers Mike Matuella and Ryan Dease, per Scott Lucas on Twitter.

This is disappointing but not entirely unexpected news regarding Matuella. Matuella was at one point considered to be the likely #1 overall pick in the 2015 draft, but the righthander from Duke dropped to the third round because of back and elbow issues, and between injuries and the pandemic, has accumulated just 171.2 IP as a professional, none above high-A. He was part of the Alternate Training Site group this spring, and I had assumed he would pitch out of the bullpen for either Frisco or Round Rock in 2021, but apparently that won’t be the case. Matuella would have been a free agent after 2021 had he not been added to the 40 man roster by season’s end, so it appears the Rangers determined there wasn’t enough there at this point to warrant a roster spot.

Dease is a little more surprising — a fourth round pick out of a high school in Florida, Dease had a nice pro debut in the AZL in 2017, then had an up-and-down year with Spokane (with one outing in Hickory) in 2018. Dease missed all of 2019 due to Tommy John surgery, and I guess he did not recover from the procedure well.

In addition, per Baseball America, Tyson Ross has been released. The righthander had signed a minor league contract with the Rangers this spring.