Rangers Notes: Texas Adds Ruggiano for Outfield Depth

In 83 at-bats against left-handed pitchers last year, Justin Ruggiano batted .301 with an on-base plus slugging percentage of .948.

The Rangers signed well- traveled outfielder Justin Ruggiano on Thursday to a $1.65 million contract for next season, giving Texas a right-handed option behind starters Josh Hamilton and Shin-Soo Choo.

Ruggiano, who was born in Austin and attended Blinn College as well as Texas A&M University, spent much of the 2015 campaign with Seattle before joining the Dodgers in September. Across a total of 57 games last year, he hit .248 with eight doubles and 20 runs scored.

“My family and I couldn’t be happier about it,” Ruggiano said about returning to his roots in the Lone Star State.

“My son is starting kindergarten this year. I think he’s lived in 13 different states or cities since he was born. It’s nice to have some normalcy and also get a chance for the team I grew up watching.”

Originally drafted by the Dodgers in 2004, Ruggiano was sent to Tampa Bay in 2006 and made his major-league debut the following year.

He enjoyed his best MLB season after joining the Marlins’ lineup in the summer of 2012, connecting for 13 home runs and 23 doubles while stealing 14 bases and getting starts at all three outfield positions.

One year later, Ruggiano played in a career-high 128 games for Miami and set personal bests in homers (18), walks (41) and RBIs (50), but his batting average dipped to .222 as he struck out 114 times.

Following stints with the Cubs, Mariners and Dodgers, the pull-hitting Ruggiano is expected to make an impact for Texas against the lefty-heavy American League West division.

His career on-base plus slugging percentage against southpaws (.856) ranks 10^th-best among active outfielders with at least 500 plate appearances, an asset that the Rangers can utilize backing up Choo or, more specifically, Hamilton.

“The reality is Josh has had two knee surgeries since toward the end of the year,” Texas general manager Jon Daniels said.

“We want to be protected, and we want to protect him by giving him strategic days off. If Josh goes down or isn’t swinging the bat well, we have a veteran hitter with some pop.”

Jones Re-Signed; Jaye Acquired from Chicago

Outfielder James Jones was re-signed by Texas to a minor-league deal on Dec. 10, one week after he had been non-tendered by the ballclub ahead of the winter meetings.

The Rangers non-tendered Jones to create roster flexibility in case they made an addition at the meetings, but nothing ultimately panned out.

Jones, acquired last month from Seattle as part of the Leonys Martin trade, hit seven triples and stole 25 bases in 72 games for Triple-A Tacoma last year.

In another minor move, Texas traded left-handed pitcher Will Lamb to the White Sox for right-hander Myles Jaye, who went 12-9 with 104 strikeouts across 26 starts last season for Chicago’s Double-A affiliate.

Texas Signs Barnette, Wilson

The Rangers added to their stable of right-handed relievers when Tony Barnette agreed to a two-year contract (with a club option for 2018) worth $3.5 million.

Barnette was originally drafted by Arizona but spent the past six years pitching for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in Japan, where he had collected 97 saves over 244 relief appearances since 2011.

Texas also re-signed catcher Bobby Wilson to a minor-league deal that includes an invitation to spring training, which is now just two months away.

Rangers Notes: Win Streak Reaches Three in Houston

Outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. (right) celebrates Wednesday’s 11-3 victory with Rougned Odor and Elvis Andrus at Minute Maid Park.

The Rangers’ first winning streak of the season climbed to three games this week with a sweep of the Houston Astros, who themselves had won 10 games in a row and occupied first place in the A.L. West division before the series against Texas.

Houston jumped to an early lead on Monday when Jose Altuve was issued a leadoff walk by Ross Detwiler and scored on a sacrifice fly by Evan Gattis, and Texas trailed for much of the ballgame, 1-0. Delino DeShields put himself into scoring position with a walk and a stolen base in the eighth inning, and an RBI single by Jake Smolinski plated DeShields with the tying run.

Adrian Beltre then connected for a leadoff double in the top of the ninth and came around to score the go-ahead run on a sac fly from Robinson Chirinos, and closer Neftali Feliz pitched a perfect bottom of the ninth to seal the 2-1 win.

In a matchup of pitchers facing the clubs that originally drafted them, Texas left-hander Wandy Rodriguez fared much better than Houston right-hander Scott Feldman on Tuesday, striking out eight batters across eight innings while allowing just one run as the Rangers sailed to a 7-1 victory.

Texas raced to a quick 4-0 lead against Feldman when Prince Fielder collected a two-run double and Carlos Peguero delivered a two-run homer in the first inning, and Rodriguez settled down after giving up a solo home run to Luis Valbuena in the bottom of the first.

Peguero again led the way for the Rangers with a pair of solo homers and three RBIs in Wednesday’s series finale, when Texas also received multiple runs batted in from Chirinos, DeShields and Shin-Soo Choo.

Colby Lewis, the beneficiary of an 11-run outburst by the Rangers lineup, scattered six hits over eight innings of work as Texas held on for an 11-3 win to complete the sweep at Minute Maid Park.

Prior to their series in Houston, the Rangers had dropped two out of three games to the Oakland Athletics at Globe Life Park over the weekend.

Texas carried a 5-0 lead into the eighth inning of last Friday’s series opener, but relievers Shawn Tolleson, Roman Mendez and Neftali Feliz proved ineffective out of the bullpen as the A’s scored seven unanswered runs en route to a 7-5 win.

Another collapse by the Rangers’ bullpen on Saturday was overshadowed when Choo connected for a game-tying three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, and Rougned Odor gave Texas its first walk-off victory of the year, 8-7, with a bases-loaded single in the tenth.

Oakland catcher Stephen Vogt and right fielder Josh Reddick combined to drive in six runs Sunday while Sonny Gray recorded 10 strikeouts to lead the Athletics to a series-clinching 7-1 win over the Rangers.

Texas Claims Kickham from Seattle

Left-handed pitcher Mike Kickham was acquired on a waiver claim from the Mariners on Tuesday and optioned to Triple-A Round Rock, with outfielder Ryan Rua getting transferred from the 15- to the 60-day disabled list in a concurrent roster move.

Kickham, 26, had posted a record of 0-2 with a 7.29 earned run average across five appearances (all starts) this season for Triple-A Tacoma in the Seattle organization, which had obtained him in a trade with the Chicago Cubs in January.

The entirety of Kickham’s major-league service time came with San Francisco in 2013 and ’14, when he went 0-3 with a career ERA of 10.98 in just over 30 innings pitched.

Rule 5 Pick Verrett Returned to Mets

Twenty-four-year-old right-hander Logan Verrett was returned to the New York Mets this week after being designated for assignment by Texas and getting cleared through waivers.

Verrett had been acquired by Baltimore as part of last December’s Rule 5 Draft but was then claimed by the Rangers when the Orioles attempted to pass him through waivers in early April.

He made his major-league debut with four appearances out of the Texas bullpen this season, allowing six earned runs on 11 hits with four walks and three strikeouts across exactly nine innings of work.

Rangers Notes: Texas Sweeps Past Indians in Cleveland

Outfielder Endy Chavez went 11-for-21 with four runs scored and five runs batted in on the Rangers’ recent road trip to Tampa Bay and Cleveland.

The Rangers completed their first four-game road sweep in more than a decade Sunday with a 2-0 victory over the Indians at Progressive Field.

The win was the fifth in a row for Texas, which increased its lead in the A.L. West to 2.5 games over the Seattle Mariners.

In Thursday’s series opener, veteran outfielder Endy Chavez went 4-for-4 with a triple and two runs scored as the Rangers bounced back from an early deficit to beat Cleveland by a final of 7-4.

Right-hander Dave Bush, making a spot start for Texas while Matt Harrison continues to deal with a blister on his throwing hand, retired the Indians in order in the first inning but ran into trouble in the second. Carlos Santana drew a leadoff walk and moved to third on Grady Sizemore’s double, and both came around to score on singles by Travis Buck and Orlando Cabrera. Buck later scored on an infield groundout to give Cleveland a 3-0 lead.

Indians starter Carlos Carrasco retired 12 of the first 14 batters he faced before Nelson Cruz led off the top of the fifth with a double. Cruz came home with the Rangers’ first run on a ground ball by Yorvit Torrealba, and Elvis Andrus and Josh Hamilton added RBI singles in the inning to tie the game at 3-3.

Left-hander Michael Kirkman took over for Bush and kept Cleveland off the board for two innings while Texas scored another three runs. After a sacrifice fly by Torrealba had given the Rangers a slim 4-3 lead with two outs in the sixth, Endy Chavez kept the rally going with an RBI triple into right field. Chavez then scored on an error by Carlos Santana during Ian Kinsler’s at-bat to put Texas in front, 6-3.

Cleveland added a single run in the seventh inning while the Rangers did the same in the ninth for a 7-4 final score.

After collecting a season-high 20 hits last week in Tampa Bay, Texas pounded out another 19 base hits Friday en route to an 11-2 win over the Indians. Right-hander Alexi Ogando remained undefeated in 11 starts this year, limiting Cleveland to one earned run on four hits with six strikeouts across eight innings of work.

The Rangers put together a two-out rally against Indians starter Justin Masterson in the top of the second, as Mitch Moreland and Mike Napoli connected for back-to-back singles before Endy Chavez laced an RBI double into right field. Michael Young added a run-scoring groundout in the third to give Texas a 2-0 lead.

Ogando retired the side in order in three of the first five innings before Cleveland got to him for a run in the sixth. Michael Brantley led off with a single and advanced to third on a hit by Asdrubal Cabrera, then came home when Shin-Soo Choo grounded into a double play to make it a 2-1 game.

In the top of the seventh, however, Masterson allowed a walk and a single before Josh Hamilton lined a three-run home run over the wall in right. Adrian Beltre reached on a fly ball that Brantley and Choo lost in the sun, and Nelson Cruz followed with a two-run homer to extend the Rangers’ lead to 7-1.

Texas added three more runs on a bases-clearing double by Elvis Andrus in the eighth inning and another in the ninth, while Cabrera provided the Indians’ second run with a leadoff homer against Yoshinori Tateyama in the bottom of the ninth.

On Saturday, left-hander Derek Holland tossed a complete-game, four-hit shutout over Cleveland as the Rangers rolled to a 4-0 win. Making his first career start in his home state of Ohio, Holland limited the Indians to five hits and just one walk over nine innings, striking out five while recording 10 ground ball outs.

Texas provided an early lead for him to work with after Josh Hamilton hit a two-run homer off Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona in the top of the first. From there, Holland retired 16 of the first 17 batters he faced while only once allowing a runner to get past third base.

Carmona settled down following Hamilton’s first-inning home run, keeping the Rangers off the board over the next five frames before surrendering a two-run homer to Nelson Cruz in the top of the seventh.

Holland wrapped up his shutout with a perfect ninth inning, which included a swinging strikeout of Austin Kearns to end the ballgame.

Sparked by early home runs from Mitch Moreland and Elvis Andrus, the Rangers completed their four-game sweep with a 2-0 victory over the Indians on Sunday afternoon.

Cleveland starter Mitch Talbot worked a scoreless top of the first before yielding a solo home run to Moreland with one out in the second, and Andrus greeted him with a leadoff homer in the third inning to give Texas a 2-0 lead.

Meanwhile, left-hander C.J. Wilson provided 7 and 2/3 shutout innings of work for the Rangers, recording seven strikeouts while allowing just three hits to earn his sixth win of the year.

The last time Texas had swept a four-game series on the road was April 22-25, 1999, against the Minnesota Twins at the old Metrodome in Minneapolis. The Rangers’ four winning pitchers in that series were starters Aaron Sele, Mark Clark, Mike Morgan and Rick Helling.

Matthews Taken in First Round of Draft

With the 33^rd overall pick in this year’s amateur draft, Texas selected left-handed pitcher Kevin Matthews from Richmond Hill High School in Georgia.

Matthews, 18, is considered small at 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, but his fastball has been clocked in the low-90s and is said to be offset by a good slider and decent changeup. He went 4-2 with an earned run average of 1.68 in his senior year at Richmond Hill, racking up 94 strikeouts in 42 innings of work over 10 appearances.

Signability may become an issue as Matthews has committed to the University of Virginia, though the Rangers feel confident they can work out a deal with him.

Texas used its second-round pick (No. 37 overall) to select outfielder Zach Cone out of the University of Georgia, where he led the Bulldogs with a .317 batting average, 10 home runs and 53 RBIs as a sophomore in 2010.

Delcarmen Inked to Minor-League Deal

The club made a pair of roster moves at the Triple-A level last Thursday, granting right-hander Yhency Brazoban his unconditional release and signing veteran reliever Manny Delcarmen to a minor-league deal.

Brazoban was signed by Texas in mid-December and had a clause in his contract which allowed him to be released if not promoted to the majors by June 1.

Delcarmen, who had spent the first two months of the season with the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma, possessed a similar out clause as Brazoban and was given his release by Seattle on Wednesday. The 29-year-old was assigned to Triple-A Round Rock by the Rangers.

Across 28 innings pitched for the Tacoma Rainiers this season, Delcarmen posted a record of 2-2 with a 5.14 earned run average in 16 appearances. In parts of six big-league seasons with the Boston Red Sox and, briefly, the Colorado Rockies, Delcarmen has an 11-8 record with a career ERA of 3.97 and three saves.