After Rough Start, Rangers 'Expecting Improvement' From Pitching Staff

While the renovated Texas Rangers offense has been expectedly better, an unproven pitching staff has struggled mightily in the club's first eight games.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Despite spending a record of $580.7 million in free agency, the Texas Rangers are not expected to make a serious run at a spot in the postseason in 2022. We knew that before spring training started. And based on the first eight games of the season—a very small sample size—we have seen reasons why.

The biggest issue with the Rangers this year was always going to be pitching. The vast majority of that record amount spent to renovate the team was directed toward rebuilding the lineup (Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Kole Calhoun, Brad Miller, etc.). Jon Gray was the largest investment made in the pitching staff, and he could be a fine addition at $56 million over four years.

And so far, the offense already looks much different than last season. Outside of a lackluster performance in Saturday's 7-2 loss to the Los Angeles Angels, the lineup has performed far better than its 2021 counterpart—in both process and results.

The pitching staff, however, has been on the other end of the spectrum. There have been a couple of standout performances, probably none better than six shutout innings from the bullpen in the Rangers' first win of the season a week ago in Toronto.

However, the bullpen has allowed 11 home runs in eight games. What's more, only two pitchers used thus far own a spotless ERA: Brock Burke and Nick Snyder, and the latter has only pitched one inning.

Because the Rangers aren't quite ready to make up the necessary 30-40 wins to make a serious run at the postseason, 2022 will be a year where the club finalizes some answers on who can be part of the future, especially on the pitching side.

"We've been pretty outspoken about our desire to win," said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. "We've had a couple years with some of these guys and are expecting improvement. ... We expect there to be improvement from year to year. And when the same thing happens, that's frustrating for us because there's not as much growth as we need to see there to be on what we want to be a winning team."

Kolby Allard

Taylor Hearn

Dane Dunning

Woodward is in a tough spot right now when it comes to managing the bullpen. It's a juggling act of the best matchup and who's performing and executing well, all while trying to protect the health of every pitcher on the roster—starter or reliever. The truncated spring training was going to limit pitchers early on, and that's why Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association agreed to expand active rosters to 28 players for the first month of the season.

Even so, the longest outing from a starter thus far was five innings by Dane Dunning in the second game of the season. At 42 2/3 innings, the Rangers are tied for the third-highest usage of relievers, while owning a 5.48 ERA out of the bullpen—the worst in all of baseball.

Woodward has shown some public signs of frustration recently when Kolby Allard couldn't maintain a 6-2 lead in Friday night's loss to the Angels or when starter Taylor Hearn couldn't get through the fourth inning on Saturday to help pick up the bullpen.

"You start to see who you can count on in those spots," Woodward said. "And it's not a slight on guys, but it's like, 'Hey, man, if you want to be part of this thing when we go into a situation where we're going to be a winning team, you got to perform that way.'"

A part of the problem right now could be overworking the bullpen. Because Hearn was only able to go 3 2/3 innings on Saturday, Woodward had to turn to some pitchers like Greg Holland that he didn't want to because of back-to-back days, matchups, etc. 

So while the bullpen is being challenged to perform better, the rotation is challenged to step up and be as efficient as possible to help support them. Woodward is hoping for Martín Pérez, who was brought in to be a veteran presence in the rotation, to be the guy who can step up and give the bullpen some relief.

"In a lot of ways, Pérez might be the perfect guy to do it," Woodward said. "He's experienced. He's been around. Hopefully, he can get out there and right the ship. The off day [on Monday] will help. But at some point, somebody's gotta step up."

The future of the pitching staff is bright. With prospects like Jack Leiter, Cole Winn, Owen White, Ricky Vanasco and many others, the Rangers have never had better depth—in both quality and quantity. However, the Rangers still need answers on who they have now. There more guys that can be part of the future, the better for the franchise.

It cost ownership over half a billion dollars to renovate the offense, and that was only a few positions. The pitching staff can't be fully rebuilt with the free agent market. In order for this to work, some pitching will have to be developed internally.

"If you play this game and you have a uniform on, you should desire to be a champion," Woodward said. "And there's expectations and there's pressure that comes with being a champion, or being in contention to be a champion. So you get to see the cream rise to the top."