Texas Rangers site Lone Star Ball has more on the small but significant pitching move.
Mark Lowe being activated and added to the bullpen, and Clay Rapada being de-activated.
This isn’t a huge surprise, I don’t think…the Rangers were really fired up about Lowe in September, and I thought he was going to end up on the ALDS roster. Rapada had been added to the ALCS roster for the purpose of shutting down Robinson Cano, and given that Rapada didn’t do that, and the Giants don’t have a real lefty-heavy group, he figured to be dropped.
Lowe gives the Rangers a righty power arm that they’ll probably look to to help them navigate the middle innings if a starter goes less than 7 innings.
There was some speculation of Barry Zito being added for the roster according to NBC’s Hardball Talk, but nothing really happened.
There was some speculation that Zito could be added to the World Series roster in place of reliever Guillermo Mota, who went unused in the first two rounds, but apparently manager Bruce Bochy thinks a superfluous right-handed middle reliever is more useful than the veteran left-hander who made $18.5 million this season as part of a seven-year, $126 million deal that runs through 2013