The Texas Rangers made a trade before the MLB waiver deadline on Tuesday and the San Francisco Giants placed yet another outfielder on the disabled list with an injury.
Texas acquired outfielder Will Venable from the San Diego Padres yesterday, according to John Blake, the Rangers' executive vice president of communications. The Rangers sent catcher/outfielder Marcus Greene (and a player to be named later) to San Diego in the deal and designated outfielder Michael Choice for assignment.
FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal noted Venable cleared revocable waivers and is owed $1.1 million the rest of the season. General manager A.J. Preller told Corey Brock of MLB.com that the player to be named later is "someone closer to the big leagues" and is "viewed as a key piece to the deal."
Venable is batting .258/.318/.378 with 34 runs scored, 6 home runs, 30 RBIs and 11 stolen bases in 98 games this season. The addition was likely made due to the questionable status of Josh Hamilton, who has played in only 38 games since being acquired by the Rangers in late May.
The San Francisco Giants are dealing with some outfield issues of their own. The team is already without Angel Pagan and Nori Aoki (who is expected to return on Thursday), and now Hunter Pence is going to be out for a little while.
Pence was diagnosed with an oblique strain and will likely be placed on the disabled list, according to Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area. Both Pavlovic and Joe Harris of MLB.com reported Pence is expected to miss about two weeks. Harris noted an MRI revealed a "moderate strain" of the veteran's left oblique.
San Francisco has been without Pence for much of the year already. He has played in only 52 games after missing the first month and a half of the season due to a fractured forearm. He then went back on the DL for a month in early June thanks to tendinitis in his wrist. This injury-plagued season comes after Pence played in at least 160 games in each of the past three years (2012-2014).
The Giants will need Pence back as soon as possible. They trail the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers by two games and sit three games behind the Chicago Cubs for the second NL wild-card spot.
