Five Candidates Texas Rangers Could Consider for Struggling Bullpen
The Texas Rangers start a nine-game, 10-day road trip on Monday at Pittsburgh Pirates. Entering the trip, the bullpen is intact. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is in the eye of beholder.
The few moves the Rangers have made to their minor-league system for bullpen help have been familiar ones — Josh Sborz, Joe Barlow and John King. All three were in the bullpen last season. Throw in Yerry Rodriguez, who made his MLB debut late last season.
But might that change soon? Three different relievers — José Leclerc, Jonathan Hernández and Cole Ragans — have had their difficulties the past few weeks. Ragans had a solid two-inning outing in his appearance in the just-completed Colorado Rockies series. Hernández struggled with location, though it was in a blowout win on Saturday. Leclerc had a scoreless inning on Friday and then gave up two runs in another rout on Sunday.
All three threw in low-leverage situations during the homestand. In essence, little was at stake.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy has stated he wants to get those three relievers right and that they’re capable of doing the job. All three were part of the bullpen’s amazing start — a scoreless streak of 23 2/3 innings between March 30 and April 7.
But what if the Rangers do have to make a move? With the Rangers leading the American League West, Bochy knows a leaky bullpen can cost runs and victories. The bats can’t mash every night.
If the Rangers need to call someone up, here are a few pitchers to call from down on the farm.
Grant Anderson (Triple-A)
The right-hander is 2-0 with a 4.07 ERA. While the ERA isn’t scintillating, it’s the strikeouts that the Rangers could use. Entering Monday, Anderson had 43 strikeouts in 24 1/3 innings of work.
The Rangers bullpen is last in the American League in strikeouts.
He typically gives the Express one or two innings and in May batters are hitting less than .200 against him. He also has a low walk rate. He did a short stint at Triple-A last season (6.39 ERA, .308 batting average allowed), so he’s improved since he was recalled from Double-A Frisco earlier this season.
Chase Lee (Triple-A)
The right-hander has been a workhorse and is just two years out of college at Alabama. With the Express he’s appeared in 15 games, gone 1-0 with a 3.91 ERA in 25 1/3 innings and has a 1.30 WHIP. Like Anderson, Lee can work the strike zone with efficiency (33 strikeouts to 10 walks) and he can go up to two innings.
Taylor Hearn (Triple-A)
At this point most know the drill on the left-hander — great stuff but can be inconsistent. Well, with Round Rock he’s been terrific — a 1.02 ERA in 11 appearances and batters are hitting .190 against him. He’s given up just two earned runs. He’s struck out 20 and walked eight. He’s good enough to go one or two innings for a Rangers bullpen that could use a little more of that. The Rangers optioned him on April 12. It may be time to bring him back.
Kyle Cody (Triple-A)
He’s started six of his eight games at Round Rock, but he’s capable of toggling into a reliever role. He’s done some MLB time — 15 games and five starts for his career with a 1-3 record and a 3.17 ERA. Pitching in the show isn’t foreign to him. He’s 0-3 with a 6.83 ERA so far but striking out hitters by a near 3-to-1 margin. The downside is Triple-A batters are hitting .333 against him.
Marc Church (Double-A)
Asking a pitcher to skip Triple-A is a hard ask, but Church might be the rare pitcher to consider. He’s 2-3 with a 4.00 ERA in 13 games (no starts) at Frisco. He’s only thrown 18 innings, so he’s strictly a three- or four-out guy. But he has 31 strikeouts against 10 walks and has given up fewer hits (14) than innings pitched. He might be the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option.
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