Rangers Bid Farewell to Peguero

It's easy to forget now, but not that long ago, Carlos Peguero had a streak of reaching base in 11 straight games for the Rangers, and for a brief time held the team lead in home runs.

It was those times that had us quietly excited about the 6-5, 260-pound slugger who was once one of the top prospects in the Seattle Mariners organization before hitting 30 homers for Kansas City's Triple-A Omaha team last season.

There was some hope he could develop into something for the Rangers this year at age 28, in the mold of a late bloomer like Nelson Cruz. That didn't happen, though, and now Peguero has been designated for assignment on Wednesday afternoon to make room for Phil Klein, who is coming up to make his first big-league start on the mound tonight in Boston against the Red Sox.

With the move, Peguero will hit waivers and be available for any team to pick up. If he clears through waivers, he can accept an assignment to Triple-A Round Rock or become a free agent.

Things have been turning sour for Peguero for a while, but his game took a massive nosedive over the past week and a half. In fact, in Peguero's last 14 at-bats with the Rangers, he turned in a big, fat 0-for and had eight strikeouts in those 14 at-bats. In all, he had 36 strikeouts in 70 at-bats — more than a 50 percent K rate, which is impossible to keep up in the majors.

We hoped one of the two of Peguero and Kyle Blanks could find a way to help the Rangers, and now it's all up to Blanks.

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