Rangers prepared to ride out bullpen’s struggles

The visiting manager’s office at Petco Park is a small one, one of the smallest in baseball.

There’s just enough room for a desk, three chairs, a coffee table that serves as a bench, and a mini-fridge. The space is functional for one-on-one meetings and a daily briefing with a small media contingent.

So, things were more than a little cramped when manager Jeff Banister held a closed-door sit-down Monday afternoon with nine Texas Rangers relievers, who together make up one of the most beleaguered groups in baseball.

Only two bullpens in the American League owned a worse ERA than the 5.10 ERA the Rangers’ bullpen, which has been consistently bad much of the season. The relievers have walked too many hitters, allowed too many inherited runners to score and blown too many late leads.

Banister didn’t berate the relievers, who didn’t need to take another beating. He tried to let them know that he still believes in them and gently told them that they must be better.

But Banister has no choice but to believe. The relievers costing the Rangers games are the best they have, and there is no other choice to put to ride out the current woes until the bullpen is a strength again.

“This is the group of guys we have that we feel is the best group,” Banister said. “The solutions are right here.”

The revolving door kept spinning Monday as the Rangers placed Jose Leclerc on the 10-day disabled list with a bruised right index finger. Leclerc walked three and allowed two runs Sunday in the seventh inning as the Rangers blew a 3-0 lead and lost 4-3.

The injury isn’t causing pain but weakness, Banister said, and he decided that the 23-year-old needed time to regain the strength in the finger. Left-hander Dario Alvarez, who was optioned Sunday to make room for Austin Bibens-Dirkx, was recalled to take Leclerc’s spot.

Leclerc had been one of the lone bright spots in a bullpen that saw Sam Dyson flop as closer to start the season. Matt Bush has taken over at closer but has only one save and has been sitting in the bullpen while others struggle in the innings he used to pitch.

Dyson, whose record fell to 0-4 after he allowed the game-winning homer Sunday in the eighth inning to Kyle Seager, remains the key for the Rangers’ bullpen.

He might not be the closer again, but if he can be an effective eighth-inning reliever, he would add stability to a bullpen that would also become deeper. Since his demotion and Bush’s resulting promotion, the Rangers have been losing games in the seventh and eighth innings that Bush used to manage.

A deeper bullpen with an effective Bush-to-Dyson equation would allowed Keone Kela, Tony Barnette or Jeremy Jeffress to be used in the sixth and seventh innings rather than the seventh and eighth.

Those three can work the eighth inning when pitching well, but they just aren’t pitching well enough.

One thing Banister told the group is to pitch to their strengths and to keep it simple. Jeffress, for instance, needs to rely on his two-seam fastball and then his slider. Kela needs to rely on his power fastball and curveball.

The Rangers need that to happen and to happen soon. They don’t have anyone better at Triple A Round Rock or Double A Frisco.

The group of relievers that is going to solve the bullpen woes is the same struggling group the Rangers have now.

“To state the obvious, they have to be able to come in, get the outs, eliminate the walks, and get back to do what they’re designed to do,” Banister said. “They have had their challenges along the way. We’ve tried just about every combination out there to maneuver around and get the outs we need to get. It has not worked especially well.

“However, we still believe these guys are extremely capable. They’re one clean game away from gaining the confidence to be able to build on what they’ve done so well previously.”

This story was originally published May 8, 2017 at 10:18 PM with the headline "Rangers prepared to ride out bullpen’s struggles."