Luis

Curvelo

Curvelo appears to have avoided serious injury after a scary-looking scene in West Sacramento where he threw his glove in pain after delivering a pitch on Tuesday night. The 25-year-old will get a couple weeks off but it sounds like he didn’t suffer any structural damage to his pitching arm.

It’s encouraging that this might not have been as bad as it looked, but there are surely tests to run. An IL stint would still seem to be the likely outcome.

Something went very wrong as Curvelo was throwing his pitch, and the ball ended up about 10 feet to the catcher’s right, and Curvelo immediately signaled for a trainer. He’s almost certainly IL bound. Curvelo was working for a second straight day despite throwing two innings as the Rangers’ only reliever to pitch in Monday’s game.

The 25-year-old hurler will replace the injured Carter Baumler (oblique) in the Rangers’ bullpen. Curvelo made eight appearances for the Rangers during Cactus League play, posting a 4.15 ERA, 0.81 WHIP and a strong 12/1 K/BB ratio across 8 2/3 innings. He’ll function in a middle relief role initially, but could move to a high-leverage spot if he proves to be capable.

Osuna and Helman come up short on bids to break camp in the big leagues with the Rangers going with Ezequiel Duran and Andrew McCutchen in reserve roles. Osuna got into 63 games as a rookie last year and has the look of a reserve outfielder. Helman is a gritty jack-of-all-trades utility specialist with plenty of defensive versatility. He should get another look in the near future.

With Chris Martin and Cole Winn both heading to the injured list on Friday the Rangers’ bullpen was in desperate need of reinforcements. Curvelo has made 16 appearances with the Rangers this season, posting a 5.50 ERA, 1.39 WHIP and a 19/10 K/BB ratio across 18 innings of work.

Curvelo has been shipped back to the minors to make room for veteran lefty reliever Danny Coulombe to return from the injured list. The 24-year-old rookie holds an underwhelming 5.50 ERA across 18 innings over 16 appearances this season at the big-league level.

Curvelo returns to Texas’ relief corps for Wednesday’s contest against the Angels with veteran Jacob Webb hitting the injured list with back spasms. The 24-year-old rookie will be making his big-league debut when he gets into a game.

Some were hoping the Rangers might make Teodo their closer, but while that could be the long-term plan, it’s obviously not happening on Opening Day. Fellow rookie Marc Church is still around and could be part of the late-game mix with Chris Martin. It hasn’t yet been said whether Teodo will remain a starter in the minors for now.

Curvelo officially joins the Rangers after it was reported Sunday that the 24-year-old would be joining the Rangers. He’s coming off a fantastic season in Double-A Arkansas with a 2.57 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and a 78/18 K/BB ratio over his 66 2/3 innings of work. He’ll get a chance to win a spot in the Texas bullpen, and he may have the stuff to be a high-leverage reliever.