The Rangers have granted infielder Jonah Bride his release, per Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News. He’s now a free agent and is eligible to sign with any club.
Bride, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in November. He has spent this year with Triple-A Round Rock, putting up good numbers. He stepped to the plate 357 times over 80 games with the Express. His 18.2% strikeout rate and 16% walk rate were both much better than average. He has a .271/.389/.418 line. Even in the hitter-friendly context of the Pacific Coast League, that production is 12% better than league average, by measure of wRC+. Defensively, he split his time between first base, third base and left field.
Given that solid performance, it’s a bit surprising to see the Rangers release him and sacrifice depth, especially with Corey Seager, Cody Freeman and Michael Helman all on the injured list. Perhaps Bride had some sort of opt-out in his deal or recently received an offer from a team in another country.
He doesn’t have a lot of major league success on his track record, with a .221/.311/.313 line and in 690 plate appearances. But he has at least 250 innings at the three non-shortstop infield positions with respectable defensive metrics at each one. He has also hit .287/.418/.475 at the Triple-A level over the years. He’s a solid depth piece and should get interest from various clubs if he’s sticking in affiliated ball. The Rangers might even want to re-sign him. Though as mentioned, it’s also possible he’ll receive tempting offers to join other leagues.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
