The Texas Rangers have announced that they have purchased the contract of first baseman Blaine Crim from AAA Round Rock and have recalled utility guy Jonathan Ornelas. To make room for Crim on the active roster, the Rangers have optioned first baseman Jake Burger to AAA Round Rock. To make room for Crim on the 40 man roster and Ornelas on the active roster, the Rangers have designated infielder Nick Ahmed for assignment. All of this was reported yesterday, of course, but becomes official today.
Jake Burger, acquired this past offseason from the Miami Marlins, was supposed to give the Rangers some pop from the first base position that they weren’t getting from Nathaniel Lowe. Instead, he’s struggled all season, putting up a .190/.231/.330 slash line with a particularly ugly 3:32 walk to K ratio. His .290 xwOBA is better than his .247 actual wOBA, but is still well below expectations, and so he’s heading down to Round Rock for what is reportedly supposed to be a “reset,” with the expectation that Burger will return in the relatively near future.
Taking Burger’s place as the team’s first baseman — or at least the team’s righthanded hitting first baseman — is Blaine Crim. Crim was the team’s 19th round pick in 2019 out of Mississippi College, and got a $5000 signing bonus as a senior sign. Crim first reached AAA in 2022, when he spent most of the year at Frisco but got 13 games at Round Rock, and spent all of 2023 and 2024 with the Express before returning there this year. In 1351 career plate appearances at AAA, he has slashed .286/.373/.486. This year, he is slashing .313/.365/.565 in 126 plate appearances. Since 2022, other than a 51 innings at third base, he’s gotten all his playing time at first base or DH.
We shall have to see whether Crim gets used as the full time first baseman, or if he will primarily play against lefthanded pitchers. Although Crim has very large platoon splits this year (though with a small sample size), he has not historically had big splits at the AAA level. If the Rangers opt to use him in more of a platoon role, Josh Smith could get some starts at first base against righthanders once Corey Seager returns from the injured list. Dustin Harris also has experience at first base and could get some time there against righties.
Crim doesn’t really profile as the type of masher that Burger was supposed to be — he’s more of a line drive guy who draws some walks. I’m skeptical about his ability to provide much value, but if he can hit lefties well enough, he could stick around as Joc Pederson’s platoon partner once Burger returns.
As for Ahmed and Ornelas, Ahmed came up to provide the Rangers with a backup infielder while Seager was out. Seager could return as soon as Sunday, the first day he’s eligible to be activated, and even if he doesn’t he isn’t expected to be out much longer than that. Thus, Ornelas gets to be the bench infielder for a few days until Seager is back, and the Rangers will be hoping Ahmed accepts an assignment to Round Rock once he clears waivers.
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