The Rangers are calling up swingman Cal Quantrill and reliever Gavin Collyer, reports Kennedi Landry of MLB.com. Texas will place righty relievers Chris Martin and Luis Curvelo on the 15-day injured list. In corresponding 40-man roster moves, Texas designated Marc Church for assignment and transferred Cody Bradford to the 60-day injured list.
Martin and Curvelo both made early exits from last night’s loss to the A’s. The former is dealing with a shoulder impingement, while the latter has a biceps strain. That’s actually a relief in Curvelo’s case, as his injury initially looked serious. He’ll miss at least a couple weeks, but there’s apparently nothing amiss structurally with his elbow.
Quantrill will be available as a long man out of Skip Schumaker’s bullpen. The veteran righty finished last season in the Texas organization and re-signed on an offseason minor league deal. He didn’t win a job out of camp and has taken three turns through the rotation in Triple-A. Quantrill has surrendered eight runs over 14 innings but has recorded 13 strikeouts against only four walks.
The Stanford product made 26 big league starts a year ago. Quantrill spent the majority of the season with the Marlins and took the ball twice for the Braves. He allowed 6.04 earned runs per nine across 117 2/3 innings. Quantrill has generally struggled since an excellent two-year stretch with Cleveland between 2021-22.
Collyer, 25 next month, gets his first call to the big leagues. The 6’1″ righty was a 12th-round pick in 2019 who signed for well above slot value out of high school. Control issues pushed him to the bullpen within a couple seasons. The strike-throwing remains a concern, but he has intriguing stuff. He punched out 30% of opponents with a massive 16% walk rate en route to a 4.40 ERA between the top two minor league levels a year ago.
Texas re-signed Collyer as a minor league free agent over the offseason. He has been out to an excellent start with Triple-A Round Rock, striking out 11 across 6 2/3 innings. Collyer has also been around the strike zone in that small sample and only issued two walks. Even if that level of command probably isn’t sustainable, he’ll bring a power arm out of the middle innings. Collyer is averaging around 98 mph on his heater and has both a slider and cutter in his arsenal.
Collyer has shown enough to jump Church on the depth chart. He has a similar profile as a 25-year-old righty with big stuff and well below-average control. Church has made brief MLB appearances over the past couple seasons, tossing 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball. He has spent most of the last two years on the minor league injured list. He has battled oblique and elbow issues, as well as a teres major injury in his shoulder.
Church has struggled over his first few appearances with Round Rock. He has given up four runs on nine hits and four walks across 4 2/3 innings. The fastball is in the 96 mph range, but the Rangers evidently felt more comfortable bringing Collyer up in the short term. They’ll have five days to trade Church or place him on waivers.
Bradford is working back from last year’s UCL surgery. He went on a rehab assignment in early April but hit a snag when he experienced some soreness after that outing. While the Rangers have downplayed any long-term concern, there’s no timetable for the resumption of the rehab stint. The 60-day window backdates to Opening Day, meaning Bradford won’t be able to pitch in the majors until late May at the earliest.
