Rangers Set Lineup to Face Yankees Star Prospect Making MLB Debut

The Texas Rangers have set their lineup for Wednesday’s game against the New York Yankees as they prepare to face a rookie.

Texas Rangers first baseman Jake Burger. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

The New York Yankees’ desire to reset their starting rotation may play into the hands of the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.

The Rangers have set their lineup for Wednesday’s series finale with the Yankees, which is a day game after a night game. With an off day on Thursday before a trip to Detroit this weekend, Texas doesn’t have to reshuffle its lineup from Tuesday if it doesn’t want to. But there was another factor to consider — a new starter.

Rangers Face Yankees Rookie

New York Yankees starting pitcher Elmer Rodriguez. | Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images

Before Tuesday’s game, the Yankees decided to call up 22-year-old Elmer Rodriguez to start Wednesday’s game. The originally scheduled starter, Will Warren, was pushed back. He wasn’t injured. New York expressed a desire to reset its starting rotation.

Rodriguez is the franchise’s No. 3 prospect per MLB Pipeline. His fastball is his best graded pitch at 60 on the 20-to-80 scouting scale. His curveball, slider and splitter are all graded at 55. His worst scouting grade is for his control, which is 50. This will be the second straight starter that the entire Rangers lineup hasn’t faced. None of Texas’ hitters had ever faced Cam Schlittler, the Yankees starter for Tuesday.

Texas has a chance to jump on a young starter. Here’s how they plan to do it on Wednesday.

Rangers Lineup vs. Yankees on April 29

Texas Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi. | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

RF Brandon Nimmo (L)

3B Josh Jung

SS Corey Seager (L)

DH Joc Pederson (L)

1B Jake Burger

CF Evan Carter (L)

C Kyle Higashioka

LF Alejandro Osuna (L)

2B Ezequiel Duran

RHP Nathan Eovaldi

With a right-hander on the bump, it was likely Texas was going to deploy as many left-handers as possible. The question was how many? The Rangers used six in Tuesday’s game, and it boiled down to how many of them manager Skip Schumaker wanted to use in a day game after a night game with a day off afterward?

He stuck with the first six hitters from the lineup on Wednesday, five of which are left-handers. From there, Texas flipped in Higashioka at catcher in the No. 7 spot, slotted Osuna at No. 8 and moved in Duran at No. 9. So the Rangers will continue to play the left-handed matchups on Wednesday.

Texas will see the Yankees again soon. The Rangers head to Detroit to take on the Tigers from Friday-Sunday, followed by a day off on Monday. After that, the Rangers will be in New York to take on the Yankees from Tuesday-Thursday next week.