The Texas Rangers made a curious move last week when signing outfielder Hunter Pence to a minor league deal. Pence has had an outstanding career, but his numbers took a deep dive in 2018 with the Giants. Deep dive as in career lows in just about every statistical category.
Minor league contracts are risk averse. Texas signing Pence to such a contract is no issue, but the reason(s) behind the signing is what’s confusing. The team already has an outfield cluster; we’ve covered it all offseason. Joey Gallo, Nomar Mazara, Delino DeShields, Willie Calhoun, Carlos Tocci, Scott Heineman… they have a ton of guys ready to fill three spots.