Heim activated, Huff optioned, Thompson claimed on waivers

Jonah Heim has been activated from the 10 day injured list, the Texas Rangers announced today. To make room for him on the active roster, Sam Huff has been optioned.

Well, that was fast. Heim was placed on the injured list on July 27 after injuring his wrist swinging at a pitch on July 26. The initial diagnosis was that it was a tendon strain that would likely need surgery, but that Heim might be able to play through if he could tolerate the pain. The initial prognosis was that the Rangers would re-evaluate in 2-3 weeks and see where things stood.

Here we are, less than three weeks later, and Heim is back in the lineup. Reports are that Heim, a switch hitter, will be hitting just lefthanded for now, as that will put less stress on his injured left wrist. The Rangers had lefthanded minor league pitcher Tristan Polley throw batting practice to Heim so he could get some live swings from the left side off of a lefthander before having to do it in game action. Heim has hit .281/.337/.479 overall, and .324/.361/.471 as a lefty, this season.

The Rangers weren’t going to carry four catchers on the active roster, so Sam Huff gets sent back down. Austin Hedges, acquired at the deadline when there was uncertainty about whether Heim would be back, will be the third catcher, a luxury that allows the Rangers to use Heim or Mitch Garver at DH and not have to worry about losing their DH should they have to replace the catcher.

UPDATE — In addition, a few minutes ago, the Kansas City Royals announced that they had claimed outfielder Bubba Thompson on waivers from the Rangers. Thompson was designated for assignment earlier this week to make room on the 40 man roster for J.P. Martinez.