A baseball season is grueling. It is 162 games in a half a year’s time. Injuries will happen. Players will get suspended. Bouts of infirmity are inevitable. Since every team deals with these, it is a true test of character to overcome them and still produce. No team has done that more over these first three months than the Texas Rangers. They’ve leaped hurdle after hurdle and still sit 10 games ahead in the AL West. They have laughed in the face of adversity. They are going to have to keep that laughter going though if they are going to remain in their lofty position.
The season didn’t get off to the best of starts in Arlington. The Rangers were 10-10 through their first 20 games. Consistency was hard to come by. Their bullpen was in shambles. Most of all, the injuries were starting to pile up.
Yu Darvish started the season on the disabled list. Josh Hamilton was ruled out for the year shortly thereafter. The bullpen’s ranks have been decimated by countless ailments since day one. In all over 500 days of DL time have been logged by Rangers players, most of them vital contributors.
The cliche “next man up” has been front and center for these Rangers. They are a very young team with an average age of 28.5. Meshing in youngsters like Nomar Mazara and Rougned Odor with established veterans Adrian Beltre and Prince Fielder is no easy task. Plugging in untested bullpen arms is a risky proposition. Banister has done both swimmingly. He’s trusted his men and been rewarded handsomely for doing so.
Mazara has been in left field since Opening Day. He’s hit .288 with 11 home runs in 64 games. His defense, viewed as a weakness in the minors, has been just as solid. Ugly incident aside, Rougned Odor has given the Rangers their most middle infield pop since Ian Kinsler. He leads the team in home runs with 13 and is second in doubles with 15. While Mazara and Odor are playing great, it is a humbled veteran truly leading the way.
Ian Desmond was going to be a $100 million plus player. He provided power at a position bereft of it, even in today’s baseball. All that promise came crashing down though, as injuries made him a liability in the plate and in the field in Washington. Instead of becoming a highly sought after free agent, Desmond became a reclamation project. Enter the Texas Rangers. Texas originally wanted to deploy Desmond in left field to keep Elvis Andrus at shortstop and space open for the aforementioned Mazara and Joey Gallo. Delino DeShields Jr. was to man center field. That lasted a little over a month before Desmond made the shift to center following DeShields’ demotion. It has gone better than anyone could have expected.
For a player that never played the position, Desmond is beyond comfortable in center field. His dormant bat has also caught fire again in the Texas heat. Desmond has more than compensated for the struggles of Mitch Moreland and Prince Fielder. He leads the Rangers in doubles, RBI, stolen bases, hits, and WAR. Not bad for a $8 million bargain buy, eh?
While the offense has seen their share of tumultuous times in 2016, the pitching has seen so much more. Staff ace Cole Hamels has been on an island in the rotation. Darvish lasted about three weeks before returning to the disabled list. A.J. Griffin was 3-0 early on, but has been out since early May. Derek Holland and Colby Lewis are heading to the DL as well. Still, that sum is greater than its parts mentality has shined through.
Martin Perez, the rotation deputy by default at the moment, has battled through walk issues to win five of his last six starts. The one non-win was a no decision in his last outing against St. Louis, a game the Rangers came back to win. After him though it gets dicey.
Nick Martinez has shown a bit of mound rust in his lone start. Kyle Lohse, Chi Chi Gonzalez, and Cesar Ramos don’t give Rangers fans much confidence either. But Griffin and Darvish should be back before the All-Star Break. Texas also has enough assets to make a trade for a Sonny Gray or Julio Teheran if need be. The injury list doesn’t look good right now for the starting rotation, but I think they’ll be able to weather the storm. Just look at what they’ve done with the bullpen.
Jeff Banister’s managerial resume makes sense when you look at his life. When you’ve suffered paralysis and seen your dreams melt before your very eyes, a closer change is hardly panic inducing. Shawn Tolleson took hold of the closer’s role last year and ran with it after Neftali Feliz was DFA’ed. He finished with 35 saves, fifth best in the AL. Nevertheless, Tolleson’s early season woes (9.20 ERA, 4 blown saves) forced Banister into a change.
Sam Dyson took over and, like Tolleson last season, hasn’t looked back. He has made the transition from setup to closer very well. He has converted all 15 of his chances since being named closer. The bullpen around him has been an equally impressive story.
Jake Diekman has molded himself into one of the prime bullpen southpaws in the American League. A throw-in as part of the Cole Hamels trade, Diekman has held left handed batters to a .154 average this season with just one extra base hit. Then there is Matt Bush.
Yup, that Matt Bush. The former #1 overall pick turned inmate turned relief pitcher has been superb in the late innings for the 2016 Rangers. He has a WHIP under 1.00 and an ERA barely breaching that number. He’s been a model citizen with this second chance and Banister is not afraid to send him out in high leverage situations. His strikeout to walk ratio is nearly 5. He’s only allowed one of seven inherited runners to score this year. Honestly though, this is a story that belongs on this edition of the Rangers.
While other teams have hit extended rough patches with injuries, the Rangers have endured. From what they’ve shown thus far, I don’t expect this latest rash of maladies to change that. Jeff Banister will get the next man up. This Rangers team has the character of a champion. They’ve made two World Series in the 2010’s but lost. With all they’ve dutifully handled already, could this be the year they get on the right side of that final series?