The Texas Rangers will be fun for American Association fans to watch during spring training.
Jeff Banister and his staff now have a third pitcher who has been in the league to evaluate once the Rangers get to their Surprise, Ariz., camp. The newest addition is Tayler Scott, a 26-year-old right-hander who put together a stingy earned run average of 1.88 before Milwaukee bought his contract from Sioux City at the end of June in 2016.
Scott joins another non-roster invitee, lefty Brandon Mann (Fargo), and righty Chris Martin (Grand Prairie), who has returned to the majors after two years in Japan and is on Texas’s 40-man roster.
Scott struck out 32 batters in 28.2 innings spread over 17 relief appearances at Sioux City while allowing only 23 hits and six walks. He finished that season two years ago with a 3-2, 4.39 performance at Double-A Biloxi, then duplicated his 1.88 ERA of Sioux City in the Arizona Fall League. The 6-foot-3 hurler was back at Biloxi (4-6, two saves, 2.34) last season until moving to the Texas farm system for the last month with a strikeout per inning, but a 7.62 ERA in Triple-A (Round Rock).
New Surroundings
While former major leaguer Caleb Thielbar‘s (St. Paul) new opportunity with Detroit (Triple-A Toledo) has grabbed the spotlight, several other onetime American Association players also have found new homes in recent days.
Infielder Jose Sermo (Gary) has joined the Kansas City organization, Lincoln hurler Tanner Kiest is now with Minnesota and Winnipeg third baseman Wes Darvill has been signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Darvill, who can play all over the infield and in the outfield, helped the Goldeyes win back-to-back American Association championships, hitting safely in 17 of 19 playoff games in that span. The 26-year-old Canadian native stole 48 bases in 51 attempts in his two seasons with Winnipeg, hitting .309 last season.
“Wes works extremely hard day-in and day-out and was a great teammate,” praised manager Rick Forney.
He was only 17 when he played the first of seven seasons in the Chicago Cubs system so it will be interesting to see how far his added experience will taken him. The Dodgers have Darvill listed on the Tulsa roster for now, the same level (Class AA) where he finished with the Cubs.
Right-handed pitcher Cody Satterwhite (Sioux City) has re-signed with Washington.
Previously the chief spokesman for Baseball Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Peter Ueberroth, Bob Wirz has been writing extensively about Independent Baseball since 2003. He is a frequent contributor to this site, has a blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com, and a book about his life, “The Passion of Baseball”, is available at www.WirzandAssociates.com.
