Rangers release Sandy Leon

On Monday, it was announced that catcher Sandy Leon had cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to AAA Round Rock. That was good news for the Rangers, as it provided them with additional catching depth in the system.

On Wednesday, it was announced that Leon had requested, and been given, his release by the Rangers. So, that’s not so great news.

I’m not sure what happened in the interim. Initially I thought that the Boston Red Sox losing catcher Reese McGuire to an injury may have triggered this, since Leon spent most of his career with Boston, and maybe there was the prospect of him being signed to a major league deal by Boston. But Leon’s release was announced before the McGuire injury, so that wouldn’t be it.

Leon was replaced on the active roster by Sam Huff, who, in eight games since being called up, has appeared once — as a defensive replacement for Mitch Garver in the seventh inning of Sunday’s game against the Blue Jays, right after the Jays stole two bases the previous inning off of Garver, with Garver having a throwing error on one of the stolen bases. The decision to bring up Huff seemed odd because it didn’t seem like he was playing well enough in AAA to have forced the Rangers to get him up and get him playing time, and it didn’t seem like there was an obvious path for him to get playing time anyway. As it turns out, there hasn’t been playing time for Huff.

The Rangers did clear a 40 man roster spot by dropping Leon and replacing him with Huff, though that spot hasn’t been filled as of yet. It will sooner or later — Glenn Otto is on a rehab assignment and will be taken off the 60 day injured list before long, and Texas may add someone else before that anyway — but it wasn’t like the move was precipitated by an immediate need to add someone to the 40 man.

Huff will likely be sent down when Brad Miller is activated from the injured list, unless then Rangers designate Miller for assignment, in which case there will be two open spots on the 40 man roster. So who knows.