Kyle McClellan was just signed today to a minor league contract with a ST invite. This could be a sneaky signing. I'm not saying I'm extremely excited or gushing over him, but I am intrigued.

McClellan is coming off of shoulder injury last July classified as a "frayed labrum and a split in the right shoulder capsule" requiring surgery and rehab. He had some success as a reliever for the Cardinals in 2010 and 2011 and stepped in for Wainwright when he went on the DL. He was a serviceable replacement during his time as a starter. He is turning 29 this year.

Now for the intriguing part. If he is able to break ST in the Rangers' starting rotation, the situation would work out magnificently IMO. That provides he beats out Perez, Ross, Grimm, and whoever else is up for the #5 starting spot. I don't think that it's that far out there that he is able to make the rotation. Only time will tell of course, but he could break the rotation ahead of our young guys who appear to need some more seasoning in the minors (Grimm ad possibly Perez) while keeping Ross in the BP where he was excellent last year.

If he is able to fill in the #5 rotation spot until May/July when Colbra and Feliz are expected back, he could slide right back into the BP where he's shown an aptitude for being the setup guy in 2010 and 2011. 2012 the Cardinals overused him in a month (presumably because of his success) and he strained his elbow, landing him on the DL where he messed up his shoulder in rehab.

Now I know he has a lot of injury problems. But if he's able to break camp with the Rangers as a starter, he really only needs to be healthy until May/July where he can then slot back into what becomes a rather deep bullpen of Nathan, Soria, Feliz, Ross, Scheppers, Lindblom, and one or two others. That would make for a very deep bullpen IMO. I'm not sure why but I feel like this could be a classic sneaky JD move to keep his team competitive until the pitching cavalry arrives in May/July/possibly August.

Tear in labrum = bad

I know that messing up labrums is bad, but I look at this as a good low risk, high reward type signing. If he is able to slot into that #5 role for a month or two and then he implodes or breaks down, he's fulfilled his contract as it's presumably very cheap as a minor league contract.

Also, is this signing somewhat just insurance for if we trade Perez (and maybe Grimm) and don't sign a FA like Lohse?

Who's in the pen til he and Soria arrive?

In my mind it's Nathan, Ross, Lindblom, Scheppers, Grimm/Perez, Kirkman, and maybe Font. When Soria, Colbra, and Feliz arrive they presumably push down Perez, Grimm, and Font to AAA.

Don't get your hopes up. This is nothing more than the Rangers buying a cheap lottery ticket, and their upside if they get lucky is perhaps a replacement for Feldman: a long reliever for the pen and a spot starter. And that's the best case scenario.

St Louis knows him best. If they thought he had anything worth having and wanted to retain him, all they needed to invest was a 40-man roster spot. And they declined even that piddling amount. Meh.

Good point. Here's hoping he slots into that 5th spot for a month or two, but I agree it's unlikely.

If our 5th best starting pitching option to start the season is McClellan, then something went wrong along the way...

I'm not here to crash the party, but there was already a post created about this guy right here. And I'm not calling just you out, because I've seen several people make double posts in the last couple weeks.

With all the recent bitching about policing the forum and banning users, it's important to keep in mind we can do our own part to keep the forums as a useful source of all things Rangers.

Sorry about that. It must have passed my notice. I looked through the first page on the forum topics and didn't see it. Just saw the signing this morning.

Henchmen, contributors here shouldn't have to read and memorize every thread in order to start another. While you may read every word of every thread, I don't opt to invest that much time, so I cherrypick threads to peruse by titles There's nothing in that other thread title you referenced that mentions McClellan, so no reasonable expectation that anyone who wanted to start a thread about McClellan will know another exists. Unfortunately we are limited by life as it is, not how we wish it was.

Feierabend and Pucetas, not making up the names, was also signed. Every beginning before Spring Training teams sign players like today as much to create a competitive AAA team, as anything else. Even saying that, a few type signs will spend some time on the Major League roster. McClellan has a greater chance then others, but he is still looked upon as backup to backups, and if healthy and does not want his release at the end of March, will pitch at Round Rock, and be a possible injury driven call up.

I like the McClellan signing bc I think it gives JD a little bit more negotiating power if he tries to come to a deal with Boras. Basically with the in house options and McClellan signing Losche isn't a necessity.

McClellan would lessen the need (if one exists) of signing Lohse? Come on, let's get real. McClellan is a scrub signed as a longshot to even make the team. Lohse is a solid mid-rotation starter for almost any team. The comparison and linkage is ludicrous.

Sweet Jeezus I hope we don't sign Lohse. Don't want to give up the draft pick for him and even more than that don't want to give up the draft money.

Ansel, I'm not advocating people read every word of every forum. But it stands to reason if you're interested in a topic enough to create a thread for it, you should at least glance over some of the more recent posts to see if it's been covered before.

Again, I'm not trying to pick on any individuals here, but it is a pretty common theme around here to make multiple threads about the same topic or hijack someone else's thread to push a topic being discussed elsewhere. This probably doesn't bother everyone but it kicks my OCD in overdrive.

There are probably a few things to be said about making forum titles more transparent, educating posters on basic HTML, and allowing Mods to edit/delete unncessesary threads. But nobody wants to read that here and I've already broken my rule of hijacking a thread so I'll stop now and just copy/paste what I'd written on the other forum per Mr. McClellan:

Coming off a shoulder injury, I'd expect he'll compete for a spot in the pen (where he was pretty good in 2009-10) rather than a role as a starter (which he hasn't succeeded in).

He's a possible value signing, but I'm not holding my breath until he 1) signs a deal, 2) passes a physical, and 3) throws a decent ST inning without going Brandon McCarthy/Webb on us.

I'd still like to see a deal for Jurrjens/Chris Young to try to compete for the #5 spot.

IMO McClellan is at best the 5th starter if we trade Perez, either trade Grimm or don't want to ruin him by starting him in the big leagues too early after a mediocre performance last year in the minors, and don't sign some FA pitcher in hopes that he will be able to get us to either Feliz or Colbra coming back.

I still think there's a decent chance he breaks camp in the BP as our BP will be depleted until Feliz and Soria get back. We have Font and one or two minor league options that we would presumably be willing to use in the big leagues, so not sure where that could put him.

Henchmen, understood. In reflection, I probably was a bit too strident in my reaction to you (and guilty of doing what I thought you did, over-reacting). If so, sorry about that. Your linking to that other thread (which I had NOT read, and like the OP did not know existed because the title was so vague) was helpful no matter what, so thanks for that.

Back to topic.

Ansel your analysis of McClellan is overwhelmingly analytical. Thank u for such an overpowering scouting report. Btw I wasn't comparing Losche and McClellan. Go back and read it and try to understand the overall point. If u can't I will re type it in a paint by numbers type of format for u to understand.

No problem with multiple threads about same topic. It's not hard to keep up with them, we don't have tons of stuff going on here all the time any way.

SR17, I understood your point. But understanding it, and thinking it makes sense, are two different thin\gs. I thought it was simply wrong.

If McClellan was a bonafide SP with a dependable track record, that would be one thing. But he's little more than a warm body with an extreme outside chance of even making the team, being invited to camp. Given who he is, I can't see it making any difference in something regarding Lohse. Boras could even more easily argue that if the Rangers are currently depending on the likes of McClellan for their starting rotation, they are in desperate need of his client, raising the ask rather than lowering it.

The guy had a pretty serious injury

I don't want to hijack this thread either, but can we please stop with the Lohse wishful thinking? Lohse was mediocre to not very good, for years in the AL, with Minnesota. He goes to the NL, has some success with a very good team, and suddenly he's a great starter? IMHO, his ceiling, if he didn't have the high mileage on his arm, is barely a 3. He's a 4 on a good-to-great team. Dempster's a slightly better pitcher, and they both belong in the NL. Just say no to a Boras-inflated contract, and the loss of a draft choice/minors bonus pool money.

I'd call JD & ask him why he's interested YU4. We're just speculating.
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