Garver activated, Solak optioned

The Texas Rangers have activated Mitch Garver from the injured list, the team announced today. To make room for Garver on the active roster, the Rangers have optioned Nick Solak to AAA Round Rock.

Garver spent two days on a rehab assignment, one with Frisco and one with Round Rock. With Round Rock playing at Sugar Land while the Rangers are in Houston for the four game set starting today, I thought Garver might be slated to spend another day or two on the rehab assignment, but apparently not.

Garver is going to be limited to DH duties for the time being, as the strained flexor he is dealing with is not going to allow him to handle catching duties, though he may be able to handle first base before long. I still haven’t seen anything to indicate how long it will be before Garver will be able to resume catching duties.

Nick Solak being sent down is something of a surprise. With the number of pitchers on the roster being capped at 13 beginning on May 30, I think the expectation was that Texas would go ahead and send down a reliever now, since they are currently at 14 pitchers. Texas did have an extra inning game yesterday and a four inning outing from their starter the day before, and this series will be the final four games of a stretch where they will have played sixteen games in fifteen days, they may feel they need the extra arm in the pen.

Something to keep an eye on...Texas is off on Monday, and depending on how things shake out, you could see the Rangers swap out a reliever for a position player then. Zach Reks returning would be a possibility. But the Rangers could also be ready to bring Leody Taveras back up, as well...

As for Solak, he is slashing .194/.242/.226 in the mont of May and .209/.293/.313 overall as the short side of the left field platoon. That’s not good enough, even before factoring in the fact he’s pretty poor defensively in the outfield.