Less than two weeks after he was activated from the injured list, Texas Rangers reliever Josh Sborz was placed back on the 15-day injured list with the same injury. Sborz has a strained right rotator cuff.
The Rangers will announce a replacement for Sborz on Friday ahead of their series in Colorado. There doesn’t seem to be much mystery, though. The only healthy pitchers on the 40-man roster are Grant Anderson, who has already been called up twice this season, and left-hander Antoine Kelly, who was just activated from his own stint on the IL.
Sborz was removed from the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader at Oakland after throwing nine pitches - eight of them for balls. He looked uncomfortable on the mound and staff came to get him. Sborz, 30, had been on the IL with a rotator cuff strain from April 7-25. He made four appearances after his return, allowing three walks and four hits in 2.2 innings. His average velocity has been down almost 2 mph from last year when he averaged 96.9 mph with his four-seam fastball. His fastball was only 93.9 mph Wednesday.
Sborz said as recently as Sunday in Kansas City after an inconsistent outing that his shoulder felt fine, but he was aware of the drop in velocity.
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