The Texas Rangers went through a bad slump and then turned things around to end the season tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for the second wild card spot and with one game to be played for the right to go to the postseason, suspended slugger Nelson Cruz will be activated by the team.
Whether it's a selfish move or not is for others to decide, but according to ESPN.com, the Texas Rangers have decided to bring the disgraced slugger back onto the active roster, as his suspension for his involvement in Biogenesis is now complete. Cruz was suspended along with a number of other players and now that his 50-game ban is up, he can rejoin the Rangers like he did nothing wrong and he could play against the Rays on Monday night.
The report says that there is no confirmation on whether Cruz will be in the lineup for the game on Monday night, but after the way the Rangers offense performed down the stretch, they likely will bring him in at some point. The team will made another move to get Cruz back on the roster and clearly the Rangers are no team like the Giants, who decided to keep Melky Cabrera away as they went to the World Series after his suspension was complete.
Cruz was able to play in the Arizona leagues and according to ESPN.com, he "was 9-for-27 with five doubles, a home run and nine RBIs" during that stretch and now he can join the major league club. According to ESPN.com, Ron Washington will have the final decision on whether to play Cruz or not and the Rangers are coming into the matchup with a seven game winning streak, which was the reason they stayed alive in the race in the first place and they tied the Rays with a 6-2 win over the Angels on Sunday.
Cruz was leading the team in a number of categories when he was suspended and Daniels tried to say the situation with Cabrera was different, since Cruz has been with the team a longer while, making his cheating somehow not as bad as Cabrera's since the Rangers desperately need his bat, which obviously reigns supreme. Cruz had a .269 average with 27 home runs and 76 RBIs when he was suspended and now he will get back in the saddle against the Rays.
