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With the 2022 regular season over, it is that time where we go back and take a look at the players who appeared for the Texas Rangers this past season.
Today, we look at relief pitcher Spencer Patton.
Spencer Patton did not make the Opening Day roster for the Texas Rangers in 2022. He diid, however, pitch in the second game of the season, because he was on the taxi squad for Rangers’ trip to Toronto to start the season, and when Jon Gray was placed on the injured list after his Opening Day start due to a blister, Patton got tapped to take his spot on the roster.
Patton ended up pitching in seven of the first twelve games of the season, then went on the injured list with an oblique issue on April 24. He never returned to the majors. Instead, Patton went out on a rehab assignment on May 10, was activated and optioned two days later, designated for assignment in late June, cleared waivers, was outrighted, and then was released in mid-August.
I could have sworn that Patton was up and down during the course of the season. I thought he had been one of the guys who bounced up and down between AAA and the majors, rather than just being sent down and forgotten about.
Patton was pretty unremarkable in his brief April stint in the bigs, putting up a 3.86 ERA and a 5.68 FIP in seven innings. Whatever. His final line for Round Rock was pretty terrible, as he had a 6.44 ERA in 29 innings when he was released, but he pitched pretty well there for a while after being sent down. The wheels came off in mid-July, though, as he allowed 18 runs in 11.2 IP and a 1295 OPS over his final nine appearances, including 13 runs in his final three appearances. That’s pretty ugly, and is the sort of thing that will get one released.
Patton didn’t sign with anyone after the Rangers released him, and appears to still be a free agent. He turns 35 in a few days, and after bouncing around for over a decade — including spending four years in Japan prior to re-joining the Rangers in 2021 — he may just be ready to hang ‘em up.
Or he could be throwing, and staying in shape, with an eye towards getting a minor league deal from a team during spring training that finds itself in need of bullpen depth.
Previously:
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