The Rangers released outfielder Cody Thomas from his minor league contract. Texas also officially selected Kevin Pillar onto the 40-man roster after announcing yesterday that he’d make the team. They had an opening after outrighting Dane Dunning earlier in the week. Additionally, the Rangers reassigned a number of minor league signees to Triple-A Round Rock: Joe Barlow, Tucker Barnhart, Caleb Boushley, David Buchanan, JT Chargois, Matt Festa, Adrian Houser, Patrick Murphy (minor league injured list), Hunter Strickland, Alan Trejo and Chad Wallach.
Thomas signed a minor league deal after spending the ’24 season in Japan. The lefty-hitting outfielder spent most of the season with the minor league affiliate of the Orix Buffaloes. He only appeared in 10 NPB games and went 0-18 with seven strikeouts. Thomas went 2-18 this spring. He walked three times with six strikeouts.
An Oklahoma product, Thomas appeared in 29 MLB games with the A’s between 2022-23. He has hit well over parts of three seasons in the Pacific Coast League. The 6’4″ outfielder owns a .292/.356/.585 slash with 42 homers in 176 Triple-A games.
In other Rangers news, Patrick Corbin will begin the season in Triple-A. The veteran southpaw has more than enough service time to refuse any minor league assignments, but he agreed to be optioned because he didn’t sign his one-year free agent deal until March 18. That nearly coincided with the birth of his third child, so he did not pitch in any games this spring.
GM Chris Young told reporters on Tuesday that Corbin will start two games with Round Rock before being recalled (relayed by Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News). Young identified April 11 as the target date for Corbin’s team debut. Texas will go with Nathan Eovaldi as their Opening Day starter. Jacob deGrom, Tyler Mahle, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker round out the season-opening starting five.