'Excited To Prove Them Wrong.' DFA'd Texas Rangers Reliever Made Small Change After Joining Los Angeles Angels

Former Texas Rangers Rookie of the Year Brock Burke was shocked when the club designated him for assignment less than a month ago. He hopes to make them pay with the Los Angeles Angels.

Aug 22, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Brock Burke (46) delivers a pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays in the first inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images / Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

ARLINGTON — Brock Burke wants to make the Texas Rangers pay.

The left-hander reliever is still smarting over being designated for assignment by the Rangers on Aug. 11 after a tumultuous few months.

Burke, 28, was claimed by the Los Angeles Angels a few days later and has been a different pitcher — or, at least has an entirely different stat line since arriving in Anaheim.

"I don't know how you DFA a guy that's throwing 100 miles an hour from the left side," Burke said before throwing a perfect inning of relief against his old team on Friday night. "It was a little surprising. I thought I started showing a little bit of success, [throwing] a little better and throwing hard."

The Rangers, apparently, had seen enough from Burke after he allowed four runs on five hits and two walks in 1 1/3 innings against the Yankees on Aug. 10.

Burke, who was 7-5 with a 1.97 ERA over an MLB-leading 82 1/3 relief innings when he was named the Rangers' 2022 Rookie of the Year, was gone.

Has the surprising move motivated Burke?

"A little bit, I wouldn't say so much of a wake-up call as much as just trying something new, seeing new things," Burke said.

Before Thursday's series opener, Burke joked with injured Rangers slugger Corey Seager, who is on the injured list, that the shortstop was dodging him.

"I'm excited to face them all. I played with them all the last three or four years," said Burke, who finally got a shot against his teammates on Friday. "I feel like I've watched them a good amount, and feel like I might know their tendencies, but until you get out there, you never know, but I'm definitely excited to face them."

Burke allowed an infield hit from Marcus Semien in the eighth, but struck out Wyatt Langford on three pitches, and got Josh Jung to ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play in a 15-pitch eighth inning in the Angels' 5-1 win Friday night.

"The zero was good enough," Burke said with a smile. "It was definitely something different, and I was excited to get out there and prove them wrong for DFAing me, and I plan to keep doing that."

Burke didn't exactly impress Rangers management when he punch a clubhouse door in Houston after a rough outing against the Astros in April. He broke his non-throwing right hand and was on the injured list for the next two months. He struggled after returning, and had a 9.22 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings before Texas DFA'd him despite Burke still having one minor league option remaining.

Since joining the Angels, Burke is 1-1 with a 2.45 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 11 innings. Much of his turnaround, he said, is in part because of a minor alteration the Angels made.

They had Burke move his positioning on the rubber from the third-base side to closer to the first-base side. It has made a big difference, he said.

"[The Angels] sat me down and looked at what I was doing differently between 2022 and 2023 and the main thing that we saw was on the rubber," Burke said. "[The Rangers] moved me last year to be super-far on the third base side, which is probably six to eight inches over from where I normally was."

The alteration improved Burke's pitching posture and, more importantly, helped him locate his pitches more effectively by limiting his cross-body motion and preventing him from leaning forward as much during his pitching motion.

"The first day that I [used] it was against the Braves, and, literally, in the middle of the outing, I could feel a difference," he said. "'Oh, this is how I used to throw.' I could feel how I'm supposed to throw and it set me back up to how I felt in 2022, and I wasn't even throwing that hard in 2022, so I'm excited to see how I can keep building from this."

Brock was acquired in December 2018 in a three-team trade between the Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, and the Rangers. It was the trade that sent Jurickson Profar to Oakland. Brock was one of The Rangers received Brock, left-hander Kyle Bird and right-hander Yoel Espinal from the Rays in the move.

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