The Rangers sent reliever Michel Otañez outright to Triple-A Round Rock, per the MLB.com transaction log. Texas designated him for assignment last weekend when they selected Joe Ross onto the MLB roster.
It’s the first career outright for Otañez, who’ll accordingly need to accept the minor league assignment. The 28-year-old (29 next month) has spent the entire season in Round Rock despite previously holding a spot on the 40-man roster. He has struggled to a 6.15 earned run average through 26 1/3 innings. Otañez, claimed off waivers from the A’s last winter, has an excellent 30.8% strikeout rate but has issued walks to more than 20% of batters faced.
That’s a typical profile for the hard-throwing sinkerballer. Otañez can miss bats but has been far too wild throughout his minor league career. It’s a similar story at the MLB level, where he racked up a 34% strikeout rate but walked 14% of opponents across 42 appearances with the A’s over the last two seasons. He posted an ERA close to 5.00 over 39 1/3 MLB frames.
Otañez will remain in the Texas system and try to put himself back on the radar for his team debut. He’ll reach minor league free agency at the end of the season if the Rangers don’t add him back to the 40-man roster.
