Jose Leclerc has experience, but Texas Rangers might not have a traditional closer
Jose Leclerc arrived at Texas Rangers spring training Thursday night following a visa issue and was expected to enter into the intake testing phase at some point Friday.
After a couple days in quarantine and a negative COVID-19 test, he will be good to go after missing almost all of last season with a shoulder injury.
When he does hit the field, he will do so as the Rangers reliever with the most experience at closing games. That pedigree made him seem like a shoo-in to be the Rangers’ closer.
That’s not the case, however.
Leclerc will get save chances, manager Chris Woodward said Friday morning, but the right-hander won’t be the only reliever working the ninth inning when the Rangers have a lead.
“He’s done it before. I think we have a few guys that we could potentially put down there,” Woodward said. “I don’t think I’m going to name a closer, by any means.”
Fellow right-handers Jonathan Hernandez and Matt Bush, and left-hander Joely Rodriguez, who also arrived from the Dominican Republic on Thursday, could be candidates for the ninth inning.
Hernandez is similar to Leclerc in his ability to log multiple innings. Woodward is a believer that the highest leverage situation in a game might not be in the ninth inning.
Bush was briefly the Rangers’ closer in 2017 and is coming off Tommy John surgery. Rodriguez will likely be limited to one-inning appearances, Woodward said.
Woodward isn’t sure how he will define the role yet, either.
“Whether that closer’s role means he closes and then two days later pitches two innings in the sixth and seventh inning against the Angels’ top of the lineup, I don’t know that that looks like,” he said. “I don’t want to put too many roles in there right now. We can determine that a little later.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 11:04 AM.
