Former Texas Rangers outfielder Willie Calhoun is returning to the American League West to play for a former Rangers manager.
The Los Angeles Angels signed Calhoun to a minor-league deal on Wednesday, which comes with an invitation to Major League spring training.
While Calhoun never played for Ron Washington when he was with the Rangers, he will now, after the Angels hired the former Rangers skipper to lead the Angels next season.
Calhoun was with the New York Yankees last season, where he slashed .239/.309/.403/.712 with five home runs and 16 RBI in 44 games. He briefly found himself in a starting role thanks to injuries in the Yankees’ outfield, including Aaron Judge.
The Yankees outrighted him to Triple-A on July 31, and he elected free agency a day later.
Calhoun joined the Rangers at the trade deadline in 2017, the centerpiece of a deal that yielded the Los Angeles Dodgers the Rangers’ ace at the time in Yu Darvish.
Calhoun is a lifetime .240 hitter who had one big season for the Rangers in 2019, when he batted .269 with 21 homers and 48 RBI in 83 games. Injuries and consistency at the plate were always an issue, and in August 2021, he was diagnosed with a left ulna bone fracture.
By 2022, Calhoun had fallen out of favor with the Rangers and was demoted to Triple-A Round Rock. He declared that he was going to Triple-A to “put myself in a position to get traded.”
The Rangers found no takers and released him on June 10. He ended up with the San Francisco Giants, playing mostly for their Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento and spending one week with the Giants in September before they designated him for assignment.
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