What are Rangers looking for most from lefty relievers early in camp? (Hint: Not results)
The latest left-hander to audition for the Texas Rangers’ bullpen on Opening Day was Kyle Byrd, who on Tuesday threw two perfect innings against the Seattle Mariners.
Another, Brett Martin, was scheduled to pitch Wednesday.
Bird did what he needs to do to prove he belongs at Globe Life Park on March 28 against the Chicago Cubs by mowing through each lefty hitter he faced. He also competed and pitched with conviction.
Those are things that will be used to judge the lefties competing for potentially two bullpen spots. The group includes seven pitchers, most of whom either no big-league experience or very little.
Bird has none. Jeffrey Springs, who debuted July 31, is a relative veteran in the group.
But they are all essentially on equal footing as they push for a roster spot.
“At the end of the day, that’s something I can’t control,” said Bird, who was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in the three-team Jurickson Profar trade. “All I can control is going out on the mound and being the best I can and doing whatever I can to help this team win. I’ll leave that decision up to the front office.”
That’s the answer manager Chris Woodward and pitching coach Julio Rangel likely want to hear from those competing. The pitchers’ focus needs to be on executing their pitches and competing on the mound.
They are armed with more analytics and are falling in line with what the data says will help them, but they are also in tune with the need to pitch with conviction. The results might not be as good now as they will be toward the end of camp, but mound presence should be a constant.
“If a guy gives up four or five runs now, you really don’t put that against him,” Woodward said. “The competitiveness, the intent, the conviction behind the pitches. I don’t want them to get in trouble, but I kind of do just to see how they handle it.
“How do they do against lefties? That’s a big one for me. We’d love for them to be a right or left guy, but if they’re not dominating lefties or they don’t have the intent against the lefties and there’s a little fear there to get the ball over the plate, that’s what I look for.”
Springs, who along with C.D. Pelham will take their next turns Thursday, also said that he isn’t focused on the roster competition, but he acknowledged that this camp is much different than this first big-league spring training a year ago.
He has pitched in the majors, replacing Jake Diekman at the trade deadline, and had some success. Springs doesn’t want to return to the minors.
“Once you get a taste of the big leagues, you definitely, obviously, want to pitch at that level,” he said. “I feel like I had a little bit of success, but there’s still a lot of things I want to work on and improve on. I want to be a contributor to the bullpen. I want to be a guy down there my teammates can count on every time I take the ball and the manager knows what to expect.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 2:39 PM.
