Arihara, Mathias up, Rodriguez down, Hernandez DFA’d

The Texas Rangers have purchased the contract of Kohei Arihara from AAA Round Rock and have recalled utilityman Mark Mathias from AAA Round Rock. To make room for Arihara on the 26 man and the 40 man roster, the Rangers have designated outfielder Elier Hernandez for assignment. To make room for Mathias on the 26 man roster, the Rangers have optioned pitcher Yerry Rodriguez.

Yerry had been called up to replace Matt Moore when Moore went on the paternity list a couple of days ago. Today is the last day Moore can be on the paternity list, so I would guess that Moore will be activated tomorrow and Arihara, who is starting today, sent back down.

The Rangers needed to clear a 40 man roster spot in order to add Arihara, and Elier Hernandez, not surprisingly, was the odd man out. He was added earlier this year to give the Rangers a righthanded hitting outfield option, but he hasn’t hit and, of late, has barely played, so he’s not a surprising 40 man roster casualty.

The Rangers had to replace Hernandez on the active roster with a position player, since they were already at the maximum of 13 pitchers on the roster, and thus Mathias, acquired in the Matt Bush deal, gets called up to sit on the bench until Josh Jung is deemed ready to be in the majors.