Rangers Spring Training Plan for Mitch Garver

The Rangers have a healthy catching option but will give Mitch Garver a few days at the plate before he gets behind it.

Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy revealed the plan for catcher and designated hitter Mitch Garver for the first four games of Spring Training.

The Rangers already disclosed the pitching lineups they intend to use for Friday and Saturday games against the Kansas City Royals.

Friday’s game is at 2:05 p.m. CT. Saturday’s game is also at 2:05 p.m. and available on both Bally’s Sports Southwest and 105.3 The Fan in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.

Garver will play in Friday’s opener but will only hit. The Rangers feel good enough about where he’s at in the field to schedule him to play catcher in the fourth game against Cincinnati.

“He’s got the fourth day catching,” Bochy said. “He’s DH’ing tomorrow (Friday). He threw yesterday (Wednesday). He threw very well. He’s good to go. He’s good to catch but we just pushed it back a little bit.”

Garver batted .207/.298/.404/.702 with 23 runs, seven doubles, 10 home runs and 24 RBI last season. He walked 23 times and struck out 53 times. He joined the Rangers last March in a trade with the Minnesota Twins for infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa and pitcher Ronny Henriquez.

The hope last season was that Garver would pair with Jonah Heim as a catching tandem, but that never quite materialized as Garver went on the 10-day injured list on May 10 with a right forearm flexor muscle strain.

That basically derailed his season. When he returned, he was unable to throw back to the plate, which required the Rangers to keep prospect Sam Huff with the team. Hoping to use Garver’s bat, the Rangers made him their full-time designated hitter.

Before his injury he played 14 games at catcher and the other 36 at DH.

The Rangers moved him to the 60-day injured list in July and announced his season was over. He underwent surgery to repair the tendon, with the hope that he would be healthy and ready for Spring Training.

Garver and the Rangers agreed to a one-year contract in January, avoiding salary arbitration. Garver will be a free agent next offseason.

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