Rangers announce playoff roster

The Texas Rangers have announced the playoff roster for the Wild Card Series against the Tampa Bay Rays that starts today. The roster is as follows:

Catchers — Jonah Heim, Mitch Garver, Austin Hedges

Infielders — Nathaniel Lowe, Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Josh Jung, Josh Smith

Outfielders — Evan Carter, Leody Taveras, Adolis Garcia, Robbie Grossman, Travis Jankowski

Pitchers — Grant Anderson, Brock Burke, Matt Bush, Aroldis Chapman, Dane Dunning, Nathan Eovaldi, Andrew Heaney, Jose Leclerc, Jordan Montgomery, Martin Perez, Josh Sborz, Will Smith, Chris Stratton

I made a guess as to the Wild Card Series roster yesterday, and had 24 of 26 of the roster spots correct. The two that I got wrong was that I had Jonathan Hernandez and Cody Bradford on the playoff roster, and Grant Anderson and Matt Bush are on there instead. Anderson is someone who has extreme platoon splits, and given that the Rays platoon a lot, he could be useful in a situation where the Rays have already used their lefty bench guys and there are a stretch of righty batters due up.

I projected in my post that Hedges would make the roster instead of Ezequiel Duran, due to the fact that, in a three game series, Duran’s only value would be as a righthanded pinch hitter, which isn’t likely to be utilized. Hedges allows the Rangers to have Mitch Garver at DH and not lose their DH if Jonah Heim ends up getting banged up or pinch run for, and gives them a catcher available behind Heim should Garver get pinch run for.

UPDATE — Per the beats, Hernandez is not on the roster due to a shoulder injury.