Ruggiano loses spot in Rangers’ roster crunch

Outfielder Justin Ruggiano, signed as a free agent in the off-season to fill a key role against left-handed pitching, was designated for assignment Friday by the Texas Rangers as they cleared spots on the 25- and 40-man rosters for right-hander A.J. Griffin.

The Rangers have 10 days to trade, release or push Ruggiano through waivers. He has the right to refuse an outright assignment to the minors if he clears waivers, but would forfeit his minor league salary if he were to do so.

Ruggiano, a native Texan who lives in Heath, was going to serve as the right-handed option in a left-field platoon with Josh Hamilton, but those plans changed when the Rangers signed Ian Desmond to play left full time. Ruggiano attempted to learn first base in spring training, but Ryan Rua proved to be a better player there and had a better spring at the plate.

Ruggiano collected an RBI double Wednesday in his lone game early on this season.

The Rangers purchased Griffin’s minor league contract from Triple A Round Rock so that he could start Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels. The Rangers were also faced with a shortage of bullpen arms after a heavy workload the past two games and would have been even more thin had they optioned long man Phil Klein to Triple A.

Had Klein been optioned, the Rangers would have had to designate another player for assignment.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Ruggiano loses spot in Rangers’ roster crunch."