Wolff Ready To Go For Rangers

ARLINGTON—Just about every member of the Rangers’ development staff felt that 2015 was going to be a breakout year for righthander Sam Wolff.

A sixth-round pick in the 2012 draft from New Mexico, Wolff had a terrific offseason and had fine-tuned his repertoire of pitches. He was going to be a starter again, one with the chance to rise through the system.

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Then, his Achilles tendon popped a week into spring training, and 2015 was suddenly lost.

“It was heartbreak at the beginning of the year,” farm director Mike Daly said. “It took him a day or two where he kind of felt sorry for himself, and then he got back to it. That’s the kind of kid he is.”

Wolff tried to make the most of his misfortune, and in doing so he saved 2015 and put himself in position to open 2016 in the rotation at Double-A Frisco.

He was sharp during the fall instructional league and carried that form over to the Arizona Fall League, where he posted a 2.84 ERA in 25 innings and reaffirmed that the 24-year-old is back on track.

“Now, it feels great and feels like nothing happened when I’m throwing,” Wolff said.

Wolff said that he added 15 pounds of muscle to his 6-foot-1 frame, something he hopes will benefit him as he navigates the Texas League. He has always had a mid-90s fastball and had sharpened his breaking ball and developed a feel for a changeup.

The Rangers want Wolff to continue to work on fastball command, but because he wasn’t dealing with an arm injury, it wasn’t like starting over once he started throwing again.

“It all came back pretty quick,” Wolff said. “It’s one of those things where what happened happened and you go from there. I try not to think about losing any kind of time because I’ve been able to turn it into a positive.”

RANGERS ROUNDUP

• The Rangers moved Jeff Andrews from pitching coach at Frisco to assistant pitching coordinator to give minor league pitchers a resource with big league coaching experience.

• The Rangers were pursuing catching help with their depth in the organization thinned out. Robinson Chirinos and Chris Gimenez are on the 40-man roster. Next in line would be Brett Nicholas, who has been at Triple-A Round Rock the past two seasons.