Dodgers trade Josh Sborz to Rangers for minor league pitcher Jhan Zambrano

The Dodgers on Tuesday traded pitcher Josh Sborz to the Rangers in exchange for minor league pitcher Jhan Zambrano. Sborz was designated for assignment last Thursday to make 40-man roster room for Trevor Bauer.

Earlier Tuesday, Sborz was listed by the Dodgers as a non-roster invitee in spring training, though that was a mistake. Instead, he heads to Texas in exchange for a minor league right-hander who turned 19 in December.

Zambrano was signed out of Venezuela at age 16 by the Rangers on July 2, 2018. Ben Badler at Baseball America said of Zambrano at the time, “He throws a changeup that’s advanced for his age and keeps hitters off balance, with the changeup his primary secondary pitch right now ahead of his curveball.”

In 2019, Zambrano and he put up a 2.55 ERA in 60 innings in the Dominican Summer League in 2019, with 52 strikeouts and 16 walks. He was not listed among Texas’ top 30 prospects heading into 2021 by Baseball America.

Sborz was the Most Outstanding Player of the 2015 College World Series, leading Virginia over Walker Buehler’s Vanderbilt team. A few weeks after the Dodgers selected both within the first 74 picks of the draft, including Sborz in the Competitive Balance Round B, just after the second round.

Sborz pitched 11 games in the majors in parts of the last two seasons, allowing nine runs in 13⅓ innings, with nine strikeouts and five walks. In 2020, the right-hander allowed a run on two hits in 4⅓ innings in his four appearances, with two strikeouts and a walk.