Former Rangers Catcher Jose Trevino 'Shafted' by Texas

Rangers manager Chris Woodward felt the catcher was given every opportunity to succeed in Texas

Former Texas Rangers catcher Jose Trevino doesn’t feel he got a fair shake with his old club. In fact, the current New York Yankees backstop felt “shafted” by the Rangers, according to a teammate who also spent time with Trevino in Texas.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who came up through the Rangers system with Trevino and is also with the Yankees, shared that sentiment Friday.

“He got shafted, pretty much, in Texas,” Kiner-Falefa told The New York Post. “For him to have this opportunity to do what he’s doing now, there was never a doubt for me thinking that he was gonna do this. It was more so questioning Texas’ decisions and what they were thinking, the whole process of signing those guys and bringing those guys in [ahead of Trevino] didn’t make any sense to me.”

The Rangers traded for catcher Mitch Garver from Minnesota in March in a deal that included Kiner-Falefa. Trevino was traded to New York in April.

Rangers manager Chris Woodward has a different take on Trevino’s time in Texas.

“The hard thing for me to obviously hear anything of that nature because I felt like we gave him a tremendous opportunity here,” Woodward said, according to MLB.com. “I think the world of Jose Trevino. I think he’s a winner and a champion, and I’ve told him many times.

“After the 2020 season, I pulled him aside and wanted him to lead our team. The fact that there’s any of thought that maybe he got screwed here, I mean he got a chance to play every day and got a chance to get a ton of at-bats. I felt there was more in there, especially offensively. I don’t know to this extent, and I hope he sustains it. But I love him to death.”

Trevino, 29, is garnering All-Star buzz this season by posting a .282/.336/.470 slash line, and leading all catchers in Baseball Prospectus’ pitch framing metric and ranking second among AL catchers in both fWAR and wRC+, according to The Post.

“I feel like it’s been inside of me,” Trevino said of his uptick in production. “I feel like I’ve shown this before, I’m just glad it’s showing up right now.”

Trevino didn’t show it in Texas, at least to the extent Woodward and the Rangers had hoped. Trevino’s slash line in four years with Texas of .245/.270/.364 pales in comparison to his play in pinstripes.

Woodward previously admitted that trading Trevino – considered the "backbone" of the team – was difficult.

The Rangers won’t see Trevino and the Yankees again until the final series of the regular season (Oct. 3-5) in Arlington.