Opening Day jitters didn’t hit rookies, Rangers manager

Ryan Rua sat at his locker at O.co Coliseum on Monday afternoon, listening to tunes and fiddling around on his iPad. Logan Verrett was chatting up teammates and reporters.

They are two of the nine Texas Rangers players on an Opening Day roster for the first time in their career and two of the six rookies. They said that they weren’t too nervous, just excited, to be at a major league opener.

“Once the first pitch is thrown, I’ll be fairly locked in,” Rua said. “It’s what everyone who plays the game dreams of. It was my goal since I was drafted, to get up here and help the team any way I can.”

Manager Jeff Banister isn’t a rookie, but he was managing his first big-league game. He was expecting to have that “funny feeling” in his stomach, but he said that happens before every game.

“I think once we exchange lineup cards, I’ll be OK,” said Banister, who had mostly recovered from an illness. “We’ve got a great staff and a great group of players I believe in. It’s one game.”

Mendez makes it

An argument can be made that no Rangers reliever, not even Keone Kela, had a better spring than Roman Mendez.

The numbers, the power arm and the stuff suggested that he would be on Opening Day roster, just as they did for Kela, but Mendez didn’t know for certain until Saturday afternoon, and it took two injuries for his spot to be secured.

Those injuries and that stuff, though, could put Mendez into a key late-game role.

“That would be great,” he said. “I’m ready to go. In whatever position or whatever situation they want bring me in, I want the challenge.”

Mendez allowed only one run in 10 spring innings, striking out 11 and limiting opposing batters to a .167 average. He built on a debut season in which opponents batted only .174 against him in 33 innings.

The lone complaint from 2014 was too many walks, 17 of them. Mendez had four in spring training, and Banister said that the inexperienced bullpen can’t fall behind hitters.

“Above all else, we’re going to have to throw strikes,” Banister said. “We’re going to have to be very good at what our strengths are.”

Rodriguez added

The Rangers continued their pursuit of more options for the starting rotation, signing veteran left-hander Wandy Rodriguez to a minor league contract and assigning him to Triple A Round Rock.

Rodriguez went 2-0 with a 3.13 ERA in six starts this spring for Atlanta, which released him from his minor league deal Thursday. Rodriguez, 36, is 91-94 with a 4.06 ERA in 258 games/248 starts in his career.

“Wandy gives us an experienced starting option at Round Rock if we have an early need,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “He threw well in winter ball and again this spring.”

Rodriguez could make up to $1.8 million in bonuses.

This story was originally published April 6, 2015 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Opening Day jitters didn’t hit rookies, Rangers manager."