Rangers release righty Drew Anderson

The Rangers have released right-hander Drew Anderson, according to the transactions page at MLB.com. Signed to a minor-league deal in the winter, he had his contract selected at the end of July to provide an extra arm for the team’s staff after they traded Joely Rodriguez, Ian Kennedy and Kyle Gibson at the trade deadline.

The 27-year-old has seen limited MLB action in five straight seasons now. Coming into this year, he had 22 1/3 big league innings over 2017-2020, and then added 22 further innings in 2021. Despite a miniscule strikeout rate of just 9.9%, he still managed to keep his ERA down to 3.27 over those 22 innings this season. In Triple-A this year, he logged 70 2/3 innings with an ERA of 3.06, strikeout rate of 29.9% and walk rate of 10.1%.

In the offseason, there is no longer any injured list and players on the 60-day IL have to take up a roster spot once again. With the release of Anderson, as well as players heading into free agency and those coming off the IL, the Rangers will have 42 players on their 40-man roster, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. That means the Rangers will surely have to do more roster scrubbing in the coming days.