It’s always fun to see fan favorites return to their former teams, and it seems that you see it happen in baseball a little more often than you do in other sports.
Texas Rangers fans will now get to experience this after the front office just made a nice early-season trade to bolster the outfield.
The Rangers officially announced that they have acquired outfielder Robbie Grossman from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for right-handed pitcher Anthony Hoopii-Tuoionetoa.
Welcome back, Robbie!
We’ve acquired OF Robbie Grossman from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for RHP Anthony Hoopii-Tuionetoa. pic.twitter.com/OVh6m1E741
It was not a long stay in Chicago for Grossman, as he spent all of 2023 with the Rangers and won a World Series ring before he signed a minor league deal with the White Sox this past offseason.
Grossman hit 10 homers and drove in 49 runs for the Rangers last season and was off to a poor start to this season in Chicago with just a .211 batting average in 71 at-bats.
Texas is currently sitting atop the AL West and has scored the 4th-most runs in the league so far, but the Rangers aren’t getting much offensive production out of their outfield spots outside of Adolis Garcia.
Evan Carter is hitting .222 with a .749 OPS, Wyatt Langford is hitting .224 with just a .588 OPS and one home run, and Leody Taveras has a .685 OPS.
Rotational outfielder Travis Jankowski isn’t hitting either, so bringing in some familiar help at the plate is a wise move.
It remains to be seen how many at-bats Grossman will get, but if he can even repeat his performance from last year, it will help this offense right now given the struggles of the young guys.