Rangers add Culberson, G. Holland on minor league deals

The Texas Rangers have reportedly signed veterans Charlie Culberson and Greg Holland to minor league deals, per the folks on Twitter.

Culberson, you may recall, spent the 2021 season with the Rangers, essentially platooning at third base with Brock Holt while also backing up the other infield positions. Culberson had huge platoon splits last year — 382 OPS against righties, 932 OPS against lefties — and while he’s not likely to be as bad against righties or as good against lefties this year, if he can hit lefties well he might be a viable platoon option at third base with Brad Miller.

Or he might not.

Holland, meanwhile, would seem to be a “see if there’s anything left in the tank” signing. The righthanded reliever had a dominant run in the Kansas City Royals’ bullpen in the early 2010s, got hurt, and has kicked around with a number of teams since then. He had a 4.85 ERA in 57 games for the Royals in 2021. He’s 36 and I doubt he’s an effective reliever anymore, but then, I said the same thing about an upper-30s former Royal reliever who was an NRI last year, and Ian Kennedy turned out okay.