Arlington, Texas — The Texas Rangers today announced that the club has acquired right-handed pitcher Kyle Dowdy in a waiver claim from the New York Mets.

Dowdy was selected by the Mets from the Cleveland Indians with the 10th pick in the 2018 Rule 5 Draft at Baseball’s Winter Meetings last December. He must stay on the Rangers’ active roster for the entire 2019 season in order to remain in the Texas organization.

Dowdy, 26, had no record and a 5.56 ERA (7 ER/11.1 IP) over 6 Grapefruit League appearances with the Mets this spring, posting 7 walks and 7 strikeouts. He was originally acquired by Cleveland in a July 31, 2018 trade with the Detroit Tigers in which the Indians also acquired outfielder Leonys Martin. He is still seeking his first major league action after pitching at the Triple-A level for the first time in 2018, when he combined to go 9-12 with a 5.15 ERA over 30 games/20 starts with Toledo (Detroit AAA), Erie (Detroit AA), and Akron (Cleveland AA).

The California native was selected by Detroit in the 12th round of the 2015 June draft out of the University of Houston. He has posted a 3.99 ERA and 1.332 WHIP figure spanning 78 games/58 starts and 365.2 innings over a three-year minor league career, averaging 8.0 strikeouts per 9.0 innings and 2.5 walks per 9.0 innings.

With the acquisition of Dowdy, the Rangers now have 39 players on the club’s major league roster and one player (Scott Heineman) on the 60-day injured list.