Wood, Gibson to i.l., Evans, Benjamin up

The Texas Rangers have placed Kyle Gibson and Hunter Wood on the injured list, the team announced today. To replace them on the active roster the team has recalled pitchers Demarcus Evans and Wes Benjamin from AAA Round Rock.

Gibson has a groin strain that has, apparently, been bothering him his last couple of starts, and per the beats he is expected to miss just a short period of time. Wood, of course, left his last outing this past weekend with elbow soreness, and I would expect he will be out for a while, but there’s still nothing new on that front.

Benjamin is back up for his third stint with the big club, having started the year in the majors, was sent down, came back up for a start, pitched poorly, and got sent back down again. I am not sure if he will be in the bullpen or in the rotation — if he is in the bullpen, then Kolby Allard would seem likely to be in the rotation in Gibson’s place.

Evans is a big righthanded reliever with a high spin rate fastball, a quality breaking ball, and some command issues. He spent a little bit of time in the majors last year, and in 7.2 IP over 5 games for Round Rock this season he has struck out 16 of 33 batters, walked 4, allowed 2 home runs, and thrown 2 wild pitches.