Rangers Notes: Fielder to Undergo Season-Ending Surgery

First baseman Prince Fielder, hitting just .247 with 11 extra-base hits, is out for the year with a herniated disc in his neck.

When he joined the Texas lineup in an offseason trade with Detroit, Prince Fielder had not missed a game since September 2010, when he was a member of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Fielder’s streak came to an end at 547 straight games when he was sidelined with a stiff neck last weekend against Toronto, and now his first season in a Rangers uniform has been cut short after it was announced Thursday that he will likely undergo a cervical fusion procedure to repair a herniated disc.

The 30-year-old Fielder sat out both Saturday and Sunday, and he was tentatively scheduled to return for Tuesday’s game against Seattle. He was a late scratch, however, when he took some swings and still felt stiffness in his neck.

It was announced that Fielder would not travel with the Rangers to face his former club this weekend in Detroit, and general manager Jon Daniels confirmed via conference call Thursday that the first baseman had opted for the fusion surgery, which typically has a recovery time of three to four months.

“[Fielder] takes a lot of pride in being there for his teammates and playing every day,” Daniels said earlier in the week. “We got to a point where [manager Ron Washington] and the medical team told him, ‘You’re not letting anybody down. We want to get you right.”

Although he had been putting up numbers this season that were far below his career averages, Fielder’s absence will nonetheless leave a hefty void in the Texas batting order. The five-time All-Star had been the Rangers’ regular cleanup hitter between Alex Rios and Adrian Beltre.

Beltre will likely slide into the cleanup spot for the time being, and Mitch Moreland figures to reclaim his role as the club’s everyday first baseman after starting the year at designated hitter.

In a cruel twist of fate, the player who was thought to make Ian Kinsler expendable toward the acquisition of Fielder – second baseman Jurickson Profar – may also be out for the season as well after re-injuring his right shoulder, Daniels said Thursday.

Losing Slump Continues on Homestand

The Rangers fell further behind in the American League West division standings by dropping three of five games on their recent homestand, and Texas now occupies fourth place while sitting a full eight games behind Oakland.

Right-hander Yu Darvish took the hard-luck loss on Friday against Toronto, retiring 19 of the first 22 batters he faced but getting touched for two runs on Melky Cabrera’s RBI double in the top of the eighth.

Texas, meanwhile, was held to three hits by starter Drew Hutchison, who delivered a dominant complete-game performance en route to a 2-0 victory for the visiting Blue Jays.

Southpaw Robbie Ross limited Toronto to one earned run in his start the following night, but four walks and a high pitch count forced an early call to the bullpen. Each of the five relievers used by Texas allowed at least one base runner, and the Blue Jays secured a 4-2 win with late rallies against Neal Cotts and Jason Frasor.

The Rangers were the team to rally from behind on Sunday afternoon, as Mitch Moreland broke a 2-2 tie with a two-run homer off R.A. Dickey in the seventh, and Texas produced two more runs against Todd Redmond in the bottom of the eighth, avoiding the sweep with a 6-2 victory.

Following a rare off day at home Monday, Rangers starter Colby Lewis worked around trouble in each of the first two innings Tuesday versus Seattle, but his luck ran out in the third when the Mariners got to him for four earned runs.

Brad Miller and James Jones reached Lewis for back-to-back singles to start the frame, and Michael Saunders followed with an RBI single into center. After Robinson Cano walked to load the bases, Kyle Seager blooped a single into shallow left field to drive home two more runs and help Seattle to a 6-2 win.

Wednesday afternoon saw Texas jump to an early lead when Elvis Andrus connected for his second home run of the year in the first inning, part of a three-run frame against former Rangers right-hander Chris Young.

Texas starter Nick Tepesch did allow the Mariners to tie the game at 3-3 in the top of the fourth, but Shin-Soo Choo provided the go-ahead run with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the fifth, lifting the Rangers to victory by a 4-3 final.

Starting Stints Over for Ross, Scheppers

Former relievers Robbie Ross and Tanner Scheppers both won roles in the Texas rotation this spring, but each will return to the bullpen in the coming weeks as their short-lived stints as starters appear to be over.

Scheppers, the team’s Opening Day starter after Yu Darvish was pushed back, made just four appearances before he was placed on the disabled list in mid-April with elbow inflammation, and Ross has been largely ineffective while posting a 1-4 record across nine starts.

Veteran right-hander Scott Baker will start in place of Ross on Friday in Detroit, although he could also be bumped from the rotation when southpaw Joe Saunders comes back from a stress fracture in his left ankle.

Rangers Notes: Team Weighs Free-Agent Options

Third baseman Adrian Beltre (left) and catcher Victor Martinez could both be attractive free-agent options for the Rangers this offseason.

Baseball’s free-agent shopping season officially began on Sunday, and the Rangers may look to add upgrades at several positions, in addition to trying to re-sign ace left-hander Cliff Lee.

The area which is in need of the most improvement seems to be catcher, where youngsters Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Taylor Teagarden and Max Ramirez were either injured or failed to produce at the big-league level this year, giving way to veterans Matt Treanor and Bengie Molina before the season’s halfway point. The team would clearly like to have a consistent No. 1 catcher for an entire season, and the free-agent market provides options in the form of John Buck, Victor Martinez, A.J. Pierzynski and Yorvit Torrealba, to name a few.

General manager Jon Daniels tried to add a right-handed-hitting first baseman before this year’s trade deadline but could only muster Jorge Cantu, who batted .235 with just two runs batted in and 19 strikeouts in 30 regular-season games with Texas. While Mitch Moreland performed well after his mid-season call-up (nine home runs and 25 RBIs, including a team-high .462 batting average in the World Series), the Rangers are still seeking a right-handed bat to complement him at first. Choices among this year’s group of free agents include Paul Konerko, Troy Glaus, Derrek Lee and Ty Wigginton.

Across the infield, Michael Young is closer to a defensive liability than an asset at third base, and a move to designated hitter may not be too far off. Among free-agent third basemen this offseason, the bar is set high with Adrian Beltre – who hit .321 with 28 home runs and 102 RBIs for the Red Sox this year – but then falls off drastically with the likes of Pedro Feliz, Akinori Iwamura and Nick Punto.

Whether or not Cliff Lee decides to re-sign with Texas, the team will likely try to add depth to its starting pitching rotation, where the only guaranteed spots for next season appear to belong to left-hander C.J. Wilson and right-hander Colby Lewis. Topping this year’s list of free-agent starters are right-handers Jon Garland, Brandon Webb and Chris Young and left-handers Erik Bedard, Jorge De La Rosa and Jeff Francis.

In other news, the Rangers announced Friday that they had outrighted three players off of the 40-man roster – infielder Esteban German and right-handers Doug Mathis and Brandon McCarthy – making them all free agents. The moves brought the number of players currently on the team’s 40-man roster to 31, not including three right-handed pitchers still on the 60-day disabled list: Omar Beltre, Eric Hurley and Guillermo Moscoso.