The Texas Rangers are always looking for pitching depth, and on Tuesday they claimed a lefty off waivers from the Seattle Mariners in the form of Michael Kickham, not to be confused with recent Rangers castoff Michael Kirkman.
Kickham struggled in the Mariners' Triple-A rotation but never made it to Seattle. However, he does have 14 appearances and three starts over his time with the San Francisco Giants — all of which went horribly. Kickham's career numbers in the bigs are an 0-3 record with a 10.98 ERA. Yikes. Kickham was immediately optioned to Triple-A Round Rock.
The bigger news, really, out of this whole deal was that to make room for Kickham, the Rangers shifted outfielder Ryan Rua from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day DL as his fractured heel is obviously worse than we originally thought.
It was initially expected to be a 3-4 week deal, but now it's turned into at least a couple of months after Rua was injured in the Rangers' home opener on April 10. Since his injury, the left field spot has been rotated between Jake Smolinski and Carlos Peguero.