Rangers recall pitching prospect amid flurry of roster moves

The Rangers announced a few minor moves going into their final series of the season. Texas recalled relievers Marc Church and Daniel Robert from Triple-A Round Rock while activating Ezequiel Duran from the paternity list. The Rangers optioned Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker and Sandro Fabian to open active roster spots.

That’s most notable for the 23-year-old Church. He joins Bruce Bochy’s bullpen for the first time and could get a chance to make his big league debut. Texas had added him to the 40-man roster last offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He opened the season in Round Rock and missed a good portion of the year to a rotator cuff injury.

The injury has limited the former 19th-round pick to 22 1/3 innings. Church impressed in that relatively small sample, turning in a 3.22 earned run average with a near-26% strikeout rate and a solid 7.5% walk percentage. In July, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked Church the No. 15 prospect in the Texas system. Longenhagen credited Church with a promising fastball/cutter combination but expressed concern about his strike-throwing consistency. The righty should be in the mix for a middle relief spot in camp next year.

Optioning Rocker and Leiter is essentially a procedural move. The former Vanderbilt teammates combined for all eight innings in Thursday’s loss to the A’s. Rocker tossed 73 pitches, while Leiter threw 48 pitches in relief. Neither was going to appear again this season. Texas will get a pair of fresh arms up to lengthen the bullpen and potentially offer Church his first work at the highest level.