Wait, so the Rangers might use a reliever to start a game? Yep, this is a thing now
The pitching trend that swept into baseball last season, including in September with the Texas Rangers, hasn’t been completely ruled out for 2019 by pitching coach Julio Rangel. But The Opener likely won’t be utilized as much as thought six months ago.
The Rangers have five starting pitchers, and Mike Minor, Lance Lynn, Edinson Volquez, Drew Smyly and Shelby Miller are going to be given a chance to pitch every fifth day.
The Opener, in other words, won’t be a part of the Rangers’ rotation as it was last season with the Tampa Bay Rays much of the season and Oakland A’s down the stretch.
“If you look at the numbers and the numbers say it makes sense, that’s fine,” Rangel said. “Right now, we’re talking about it as a staff. When it makes sense we’ll probably do it, and if it doesn’t make sense, we won’t do it.”
The concept is designed to help out starting pitchers by allowing a reliever to pitch the first time through the lineup. The starter that day, or the primary pitcher, would come in and, ideally, get the game to the eighth or ninth inning.
Rangel said that data-driven information will help dictate when and if the Rangers deploy The Opener, but so will necessity. The rotation might be in the midst of a long stretch without an off day, and The Opener could be used to give the starters a day off. A starter might struggle the first time through a batting order against a certain team, so the Rangers might use The Opener then.
The A’s used The Opener last season, in part, because they lost multiple starters to injury.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” Rangel said. “It’s something we’ve got to sit down a look at what might be the best option for us and what might be the best for our starters as well.”
The Rangers used Jeffrey Springs and Connor Sadzeck twice as The Opener last season and Alex Claudio once, and it’s hard to argue with the results. They posted eight scoreless innings, five by Springs, and the Rangers went 3-2.
“It was pretty neat to be able to do The Opener concept,” Springs said last month. “I haven’t spoke exactly about that, but I’m just preparing to try to win a job.”
This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 5:44 PM.
