Rangers Place Joc Pederson On Injured List, Rule Out Cal Quantrill For Season

The Rangers made a handful of moves before the start of a crucial series against the Mets. Designated hitter Joc Pederson lands on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to September 19, with a fracture in his left hand. Texas activated Michael Helman from the 60-day injured list and reliever Peyton Gray from the 15-day IL, optioning Adam Macko to open a spot on the pitching staff.

To open a 40-man roster spot for Helman, the Rangers transferred Cal Quantrill to the 60-day injured list. Quantrill, who went on the shelf over the weekend with a lat strain, is done for the season. Pederson will miss the rest of the regular season but would be eligible to return for the start of the Wild Card Series if Texas hangs onto the AL West lead.

Pederson suffered a small fracture when he was hit by a pitch from Brandon Pfaadt on September 12. The power-hitting DH said he hoped to play through the injury but needed to wait for the swelling to subside. That hasn’t improved as quickly as hoped, leading Texas to shut him down for the last week of the regular season.

Today marked something of an unofficial deadline for the Rangers to make the IL call. Injured list stints can only be backdated by a maximum of three days. The Wild Card Series begins a week from now. If Texas had waited any longer to put Pederson on the shelf, they wouldn’t have been able to reinstate him for the first round.

Of course, that only matters if Texas makes it to next week. Eleven of the 12 teams currently in playoff position have either already clinched or enter the regular season’s final week with a three-game cushion. The 78-78 Rangers are the lone exception, as they’re holding a one-game advantage on the Astros. Houston won the season series and holds the tiebreaker, so the Rangers need to preserve their lead. They’re technically still alive in the Wild Card picture as a fallback. That’d require a collapse from either the Guardians or White Sox for Texas to end up behind Houston while making up multiple games in the Wild Card race.

Pederson has been the team’s best power bat against right-handed pitching. Texas hasn’t had a full-time DH since his injury. Corey Seager has gotten some work there with Ezequiel Duran taking over at shortstop. Seager is playing the field tonight with Duran in center field and Elias Díaz drawing in as a designated hitter against Mets left-hander Sean Manaea.

Texas hosts the Mets for three and will finish the season with a three-game series in Minnesota. The Astros are on the road for their final six, playing three apiece in Seattle and West Sacramento against a depleted A’s team.

Helman is back as a right-handed bat and potential pinch-runner. He has made 15 MLB appearances this year, batting .167 with one home run. He has missed three months after breaking multiple bones on his right hand on a hit-by-pitch. Texas opted to stick with Diaz against the lefty tonight rather than plugging Helman into center field, suggesting he’s a pure bench piece for the final week.

It was already known that Quantrill’s regular season was over when he landed on the 15-day injured list. He’ll return to free agency coming off his best season in four years. Quantrill turned in a 2.86 earned run average despite a modest 18% strikeout rate across 110 innings. He began the season in low-leverage relief and moved seamlessly into the rotation in the middle of June.