Locked on Rangers Podcast: 5 Spring Training Questions, Wyatt Langford ready, which relievers will step up
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00:00 Pitchers and catchers have officially reported,
00:01 and on today's show I'm breaking down the five biggest questions
00:04 the reigning champs have to answer during this spring training.
00:06 All and more on this episode of Locked On Rangers.
00:08 Let's get into it.
00:10 You are Locked On Rangers.
00:14 Your daily Texas Rangers podcast.
00:17 Part of the Locked On Podcast Network.
00:21 Your team, every day.
00:24 You are Locked On to the World Series Champion Texas Rangers.
00:37 I'm Bryce Patrick, a cripplingly addicted Texas Rangers fan,
00:39 covering this team for 10 seasons, including all five as the founder
00:42 and host of this podcast.
00:43 Thank you so much for making Locked On Rangers your first listen
00:45 every single day.
00:46 If you're not already, you can follow me on Twitter @BrycePatrick.
00:48 You can follow the show @LockedOnRangers.
00:50 Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and on YouTube.
00:53 For the best way to help grow the show is to comment nearly any single
00:56 thing below.
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01:05 Now, the Rangers are here.
01:08 Spring training is here.
01:10 We have seen videos.
01:12 Let's hear the sounds of cracking of bats and, you know, the popping
01:15 of mitts, baseballs being thrown into the catcher's gloves, and
01:19 it's just, that's such a glorious time.
01:22 Football season is over and it is finally baseball season.
01:26 We don't have any games just yet, but just seeing those grainy videos
01:30 from big reporters and all kinds of different updates.
01:34 I can't wait to hear about who's in the best shape of their life.
01:36 I mean, I feel like we hear that every single year and you know
01:38 what?
01:39 I never get tired of it because it means baseball is almost back and
01:42 it means the long, cold, dark winter is almost over.
01:46 Granted, this was the shortest winter in Rangers history, not because
01:51 of Pax Atani Phil, because the Rangers won the World Series.
01:54 And so the offseason goes a little bit faster when you have an
01:58 extra month of playing baseball and you win a championship at the
02:01 end of that extra month of free baseball.
02:04 But alas, we are here, spring training, and we have five big
02:09 questions that the Rangers need to answer in spring training.
02:12 And the number one question, of course, surrounds what some think
02:16 to be the number one prospect in the Rangers system is, is Wyatt
02:19 Langford ready?
02:22 Is Wyatt Langford ready for the big leagues?
02:24 And how ready is he for the big leagues?
02:26 Now, there is a lot of speculation on how ready Wyatt Langford is
02:32 for the big leagues.
02:33 He might have been ready for the big leagues in September of last
02:37 year, or maybe even August.
02:38 I mean, the guy had one of the most, no, the most incredible minor
02:42 league debuts in a draft season that we have seen at least this
02:47 century.
02:48 It was absolutely bananas how good he was at every single minor
02:53 league level of his debut.
02:56 I mean, whether it was three games in the Arizona Complex League,
03:00 whether it was, you know, 14, 24 games at high A or 12 games at
03:04 double A or even the five games you played in the regular season
03:07 in triple A and a couple in the playoffs.
03:09 The guy was absolutely outstanding at every single level.
03:15 All the concerns about him pre-draft and, you know, his swing decisions
03:19 and how much he might chase out of the zone.
03:20 And if he really was going to be as patient and show as much game
03:25 power in game as he did at Florida, all those concerns were gone.
03:31 And like I said many times, if not for the little savior Evan Carter
03:35 being right there ahead of him, he might have been that injury
03:38 replacement for Adoles Garcia when he went down with that injury in
03:42 early September.
03:44 Because that's how stinking good Wyatt Langford was.
03:46 Now there was some thought the Rangers might pursue a DH, they might
03:51 pursue a DH in free agency like a JD Martinez or a Brandon Belt.
03:55 While both those guys are still available, I think that ship has
03:58 sailed.
03:59 I think that almost all, actually no, I think that all the ships have
04:02 sailed for any more free agent signings.
04:04 Barring some last-minute injury to a starting pitcher, then maybe
04:09 the Rangers might be willing to fork over some more money to bring
04:10 back Jordan Montgomery.
04:11 But I digress, this is about Wyatt Langford and I think he's ready.
04:16 I think the Rangers need to know how ready though and where he will
04:19 play. Right now, I think he slots in as the Rangers everyday DH.
04:23 There will definitely be a competition between him and Justin Foscue
04:27 and probably Ezekiel Duran.
04:28 Maybe Josh Smith gets in the mix a little bit as well, but I'm pretty
04:32 sure that Wyatt Langford is going to come out on top.
04:34 And even though the Rangers aren't going to go sign a DH tool in your
04:40 deal and kind of make Wyatt Langford absolutely prove himself to
04:44 steal that position away from whoever they sign.
04:48 I think it's a little bit about financial caution of not spending
04:54 dollars on a DH when they think Langford might be just as good as
04:57 someone they signed or good enough at pre-arbitration level
05:02 salaries.
05:02 But the good thing with Langford is that he doesn't have to do
05:07 everything.
05:08 It's kind of a similar situation as to Evan Carter.
05:11 Granted, he's not going to be coming up in the middle of a stretch
05:15 run postseason chase.
05:16 He'll be coming up in the beginning of the season, hopefully, in a
05:19 season where the Rangers definitely have postseason aspirations.
05:23 But he's not going to be asked to do too much.
05:25 He's not going to be batting third in the World Series like 30 games
05:30 into his career.
05:30 I'm pretty sure.
05:32 Unless some things go very differently than I anticipate, but I'm
05:36 pretty sure he's not going to be batting third in a playoff game
05:39 that quickly into his career.
05:42 He's going to be batting a little bit lower in the lineup and it'll
05:45 ease a little bit of the pressure off of him and also deepen this
05:49 lineup that is already incredibly talented.
05:52 I mean, the nice thing about him is he slots in and I remember a
05:56 tweet that I sent out at opening day when Brad Miller was hitting
05:59 eighth and DHing.
06:00 I said, "Wow, if your DH is hitting eighth, then you probably don't
06:05 have that good of a DH and you probably need to get an upgrade there."
06:08 And then, of course, Brad Miller proceeded to Homer and I was like,
06:11 "Oh, well, maybe your DH can't hit eighth if your lineup is just, you
06:15 know, basically the 27 Yankees."
06:16 And for the first half of last year, this lineup pretty much was
06:20 hitting like the 27 Yankees.
06:22 It didn't quite, you know, stay that level of insanity through the
06:27 entire second half, but it's still an incredibly deep and talented
06:30 lineup and adding Langford's at-bats in there is going to be a nice
06:36 way to improve this lineup that was already so good.
06:39 He's going to be replacing a lot of at-bats from Mitch Garver.
06:42 He's not going to be asked to be Mitch Garver.
06:44 He's not going to catch.
06:45 He's also, I don't know if he has to say, it's kind of probably
06:50 pretty close of the insane light tower power both those guys have
06:54 and they both have pretty good swing decisions, but Langford doesn't
06:58 have quite the level of Major League experience as Mitch Garver did.
07:02 But I think he's going to slot in really nicely to this lineup.
07:06 I think he's going to be a huge addition.
07:08 I think that they're definitely going to bat him kind of low in the
07:11 lineup, maybe seventh or eighth or maybe even ninth.
07:15 I think he'll probably slot in a little bit ahead of Lee Taveras, but
07:18 the Rangers need to know, is he ready for every day at-bats or is
07:22 Justin Foskey going to beat him out of camp?
07:24 There is entirely, there's an entirely real possibility that Foskey
07:29 does. Foskey's got a whole lot more minor league plate appearances.
07:32 He's got a lot more, you know, reps under his belt. Langford was
07:37 exceptional, absolutely exceptional at every single aspect that the
07:41 Rangers were asking him to be exceptional at, at the plate last
07:44 year, but it was still only 200 plate appearances combined for in
07:50 what, two and a half months, which is solid, but there might still be
07:54 some holes and some ways to improve that he hasn't quite figured out
07:58 that minor league pitchers haven't attacked him with just yet.
08:01 It's possible that's not true and he's just this amazing and that's
08:06 great, but we need to figure out how ready Wyatt Langford is during
08:10 the spring training and how ready to play the outfield he is, because
08:14 that's going to factor a lot into this lineup construction, who all's
08:17 playing every single day and honestly the long-term future of this
08:22 team, because Evan Carter is a acceptable to maybe even I think
08:28 eventually decent defensive left fielder.
08:31 I think he absolutely can be because he's got the speed, the
08:33 athleticism. He doesn't have that many reps in the outfield. It takes
08:38 a little bit of time to get those reps down to get that confidence
08:41 down and just get that consistency because he spent a lot of his
08:45 high school time as a catcher and a little bit of time as a first
08:49 baseman as well.
08:50 And so, you know, learning those routes and getting that muscle
08:54 memory and that, you know, tracking the ball skill that it takes a
08:59 while for some guys to get.
09:00 It doesn't always come in instinctually for everybody and he's got
09:05 the athleticism to be at least fine out there and it is left field.
09:08 It's not like he's playing a premium defensive position that they're
09:12 trying to train Matt.
09:13 It's just left field.
09:15 He's got plenty of speed, plenty of ability to do that.
09:18 And he also hits like an absolute maniac.
09:20 I hope he's ready to do that at the big league level from day one.
09:23 But if he's not, at least the Rangers do have a few options behind
09:27 him.
09:27 If he needs a little bit of time in the minor leagues to get ready
09:31 to help this team go back to back as champions.
09:33 Coming up, we'll look at the next four questions the Rangers have
09:36 to answer this spring training, including a little bit about the
09:39 young bullpen and can they step up.
09:41 Right after this word from our sponsors.
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10:57 Shout out to the everydayers for making Lockdown Rangers your first
11:04 listen every single day on tomorrow's show.
11:06 I'll be back and doing my first version one of the opening day roster
11:11 projection looking at what this roster will look like on opening day.
11:14 It's going to be a lot of fun.
11:16 Very excited a lot of decisions to make for the Rangers.
11:19 Now speaking of decisions for the Rangers, I guess not really that was
11:23 a terrible transition.
11:24 Anyway, number two question this Rangers team has to answer in spring
11:27 training is can this rotation get through spring training healthy?
11:31 Now the main question of last spring training was can the Rangers
11:37 rotation gets opening day fully healthy?
11:40 And the answer was no.
11:42 Alas not quite fully healthy.
11:46 They experienced a little bit of a setback from Jacob to Graham heading
11:50 into the season.
11:50 He wasn't a fully healthy on opening day was set at about a 75 ish
11:56 pitch count limit was able to make his opening day start which was a
12:01 lot of fun and exciting and weird and out fun that opening day was but
12:06 it felt like every single day.
12:08 It was just let's see what's going on with Jacob to Graham's elbow or
12:13 I can't remember what exactly it was the beginning of last year.
12:15 It feels like it's always something new but now the Rangers know that
12:20 Jacob Graham is not going to be healthy for opening day.
12:22 We are tabling those discussions and worries for another day.
12:27 He's looking good in his recovery.
12:28 But again, it's an August target date for when he comes back.
12:32 So not too much concern there.
12:33 We already know that Max Scherzer is not ready for opening day.
12:36 He's going to be back.
12:37 Hopefully sometime in June.
12:38 That's fine.
12:39 Mally back sometime in July, but then the question turns to everybody
12:45 else in this rotation.
12:46 They are now a little bit older.
12:48 I guess a year older than last year.
12:50 Nate Eovaldi is going into his age 34 season.
12:53 Andrew Heaney is going into his age 33 season.
12:57 John Gray is going to be 32 this year.
12:59 Dave Dunning is still young at 29.
13:01 He'll be fine.
13:02 But there are questions about guys who have had injury concerns in the
13:08 past in their career and Heaney and Eovaldi and Gray.
13:10 Gray has been pretty consistent for the Rangers during his time here.
13:14 But Eovaldi getting him healthy for opening day.
13:19 I mean, it feels like a lot of the Rangers playoff hopes just completely
13:24 rest on Nate Eovaldi's health during the first half.
13:28 If they have an injury to Andrew Heaney or whatever, but something
13:33 happens to Cody Bradford in the first half.
13:36 It's not as devastating as losing the guy who's going to be your number
13:41 one for the vast majority of the season.
13:44 If not the entirety of the season, depending on how healthy Jacob
13:48 Graham is when he comes back, if he comes back, what time he comes
13:51 back, all of those factors, Nate Eovaldi is your ace for the vast
13:56 majority of the season.
13:57 And there was a lot of workload put on him in the first half last year.
14:02 And it took its toll, especially at midseason.
14:06 Still don't know why he starred in the All-Star game.
14:08 That feels like a very foolish decision at the time and definitely in
14:12 hindsight with him getting injured two weeks later.
14:14 But the health of Nathan Eovaldi and Heaney and Gray and Dunning and
14:21 also Cody Bradford, all of those guys need to make it to opening day
14:24 healthy.
14:25 Like we just cannot have any setbacks at all.
14:29 Like it is.
14:29 I'm just hoping for just no news is good news consistently because we
14:34 have already it's day two or whatever of of spring training and there's
14:39 already news out of Orioles camp that Kyle Bradish who was amazing last
14:43 year.
14:43 He's hitting the injured list with a straight.
14:46 I believe is a strain in his sprain in his UCL tear or UCL not a tear.
14:51 So not Tommy John surgery, but still I feel like this happens every year.
14:55 There's always some kind of injury to pitchers in spring training.
14:59 It just always and maybe the Rangers got their bad injury news out of the
15:04 way by signing a guy who is already coming off of Tommy John surgery
15:07 already knowing that their actual ace in Jacob Graham is not me back for
15:11 most of the season and they also got the bad news of the surgery for
15:16 Max Scherzer's herniated disc in the offseason.
15:19 So maybe they can go through spring training and not have any starting
15:22 pitcher injuries.
15:23 That is the hope that is the goal.
15:25 That is the prayer for all Rangers fans during the entire first half of
15:29 the season and especially in spring training just make it to opening day
15:34 healthy and make it to opening day ready to throw every fifth game ready
15:39 to throw about a hundred pitches.
15:41 If it's a little bit less than that and we get there and everything is
15:44 fine.
15:44 No drama and and native always throwing 80 pitches on opening day fine
15:49 fine, but just no news is good news.
15:52 Please everyone's elbows and shoulders and UCL's and all of that good
15:57 stuff.
15:57 Just stay intact or or at least be fully intact by the time we hit opening
16:02 day because I've had enough with pitcher injuries and I don't think that
16:06 I can take one more number three question.
16:09 This Rangers team has to answer in spring training.
16:11 I think they've already got their answer, but they need a definite answer
16:14 is who is the closer?
16:16 My answer is is going to be Jose the clerk until it's proven otherwise and
16:21 there's been a lot of doubt about Jose the clerk.
16:24 There's been a lot of doubt about him heading into the postseason as the
16:27 Rangers closer.
16:28 I feel like there's still some doubt about how good he actually is after
16:33 that postseason run.
16:34 And granted that was a smallish sample size.
16:38 It was about a month to five weeks, but for the last couple years and
16:44 honestly for the majority of his career.
16:46 Jose the clerk has been really freaking good.
16:49 I don't understand why fangrasses projections who said that the Rangers
16:54 bullpen is shaky at best and they not seen what Jose the clerk was doing.
16:59 Have they not seen the numbers that he's putting up?
17:01 I mean, it's not like this guy was just throwing in a bunch of low-leverage
17:05 situations and racking up innings when there was absolutely nothing on
17:08 the line.
17:09 I mean he was doing it in the postseason and even during the regular season
17:13 like he was incredibly good.
17:15 He was incredibly good even in difficult situations and in safe situations.
17:19 He had a 321 era and for the season.
17:22 He had a sub 3 era for the last couple years.
17:24 He's had a sub 3 era 268 era this year 57 innings also 67 strikeouts.
17:31 He's averaging more than 10 strikeouts per nine the last couple years
17:34 actually for his entire career.
17:35 He's only had one season where he had less than 10.2 strikeouts per nine
17:40 innings and that was his rookie year when he pitched in 12 games and he
17:44 had a sub 2 era that year the guy's been a strikeout machine.
17:48 He has been better at you know, laying off the walks.
17:51 He is, you know, got very he's very hard to square up.
17:55 He's getting a lot of swings and misses.
17:57 He was a top 4% of baseball in swing and miss rate.
17:59 He's in the top 6% of baseball last year in the average exit velocity.
18:03 The expected ERA the expected batting average all those were, you know,
18:07 in the top 10 or top 2% of baseball last year.
18:10 It was just incredibly good and I feel like he's not getting the respect
18:14 he deserves as one of this games elite clovers because that's what he
18:17 is. He is an elite closer.
18:20 Now it might have taken him going nuclear on a national stage to help
18:25 the Rangers win a World Series and pitching in what felt like every
18:28 single game to show people that this is really who Jose the clerk is.
18:33 But those of us who have watched him for several years know that this
18:38 guy has got incredible stuff.
18:40 He's got ridiculous stuff and he can be one of the best closers in the
18:45 game.
18:45 The last couple years.
18:46 He's been very consistent in doing so and he just showed that he can
18:50 do it on the biggest stage.
18:51 I don't see any reason why he should be dethroned as the Rangers
18:56 closer whether it's from Josh spores of finding consistency or whether
19:00 it's from signing David Robertson or or if the Rangers want to go with
19:03 Kirby Yates for some reason.
19:05 I don't know but I don't think that Jose the clerk is going to lose
19:08 that closing job this year and I'd be very surprised.
19:11 You'd have to have a honestly truly horrendous year this year for the
19:15 Rangers to not try and bring him back and make him their closer for a
19:18 long long time.
19:19 This guy is so good and he absolutely deserves all the respect in the
19:22 world and it's not just because of a one-month stretch.
19:25 This guy has been darn good for years and it's about freaking time people
19:30 start understanding that coming up with a look at the last couple of
19:33 questions.
19:33 The Rangers need to answer the spree training including where's Leo
19:37 de Tavares going to play next year.
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20:00 They've got odds for American League Rookie of the Year and I'm sure you
20:02 can guess who is the betting favorite to win American League Rookie of the
20:06 Year.
20:06 That's right.
20:06 It is Evan Carter at +280.
20:09 Then in second place is Jackson Holliday of the Orioles.
20:12 Then third place of course, Wyatt Langford at +750.
20:16 They also have a couple other Rangers on there.
20:19 If you're feeling really bold, Antoine Kelly at +5000 or if you're
20:23 feeling incredibly bold, they also have odds on Jack Leiter at +20,000.
20:28 That is a wild bet if you want to make it but if you wanted to go check it
20:33 out or you want to put some money on Wyatt Langford, you're believing in
20:36 the Wyatt Langford experiment that he is going to be an absolute stud in
20:40 his rookie year and win AL Rookie of the Year, head to fanduel.com/lockedon
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20:51 Now the fourth question the Rangers must answer in spring training is
20:55 who's going to play center field for the Rangers?
20:57 There are a few options for Texas.
20:59 Obviously, Leo DiTovares is the incumbent.
21:02 He played 143 games for the Rangers last year.
21:04 I don't think he played any games outside of DH and center field.
21:08 Pretty sure all of his games were, almost all of his games were in
21:12 center field.
21:12 But there's this new kid, Evan Carter, who you might have heard of.
21:16 He also plays a pretty darn good center field.
21:18 And the question between those two is who's going to play center
21:22 field more?
21:23 Obviously, we saw it down the stretch and in the playoffs, Leo
21:27 DiTovares was the Rangers center fielder.
21:28 There was not much of a doubt about that.
21:30 He was going to play every single day.
21:31 Fridays, lefties, didn't matter.
21:33 And he was going to play center field.
21:34 But I don't know if that's the best choice in 2024.
21:39 There are a few things that Leo DiTovares can do better than Evan
21:44 Carter.
21:44 I think his raw power is a little bit better.
21:46 He's obviously a switch hitter, which Evan Carter is not.
21:49 His arm is a lot better.
21:51 And he's made more of the spectacular plays than Evan Carter.
21:56 Now, Carter did have that spectacular play in Houston, up against
22:01 that wall in his first game in Houston against the Garage to double
22:05 off Jose Altuve, which I know we will all be enjoying.
22:07 Every time a ball gets hit into that corner in left field in Houston,
22:12 we're all going to think of that play and smile a little bit every
22:15 single time we're watching a game against the Rangers, against the
22:19 Astros in Houston, which the Rangers have dominated there.
22:22 I believe it's a five-game active winning streak in Houston.
22:26 We'll see if they extend that during this regular season.
22:28 But I think that overall, Leo DiTovares does get dinged in my book for
22:35 his defense because of some of the inconsistencies.
22:38 He makes a spectacular plays.
22:40 He does have great speed.
22:43 He doesn't always get the best reads.
22:45 And he can be a little bit inconsistent in how often he is making those
22:51 great plays.
22:51 But the thing about Evan Carter that I really like about his defense,
22:55 and why I think he should be playing every day in center field, is that
22:59 he's consistent.
23:01 You know exactly what you're getting with him.
23:03 He doesn't make that many bad reads or bad jumps.
23:07 He's just going to make plays look a lot easier than they should be.
23:10 He's also a little bit faster than Leo DiTovares.
23:14 His arm isn't anything crazy, cannon-like like Leo DiTovares' and I
23:19 love watching a center fielder with an absolute cannon for an arm.
23:23 That's why I liked watching Leonis Martim play center field.
23:26 I love watching outfield assists just in general.
23:28 And I don't think Evan Carter's going to have all that many, especially
23:32 compared to Leo DiTovares.
23:34 But I think the consistency in center field and just a little bit more
23:38 speed should give Evan Carter the edge in center field.
23:43 Now, a lot of, actually I'd say the vast majority of the value of Leo
23:50 DiTovares, who is a very good player.
23:52 He was a 2.5 win player last year as a 24 year old.
23:57 Every day center fielder, switch hitter, with some pop, plays some
24:00 decent defense, swipes some bags.
24:02 That's a hard player to develop and a type of player the Rangers have
24:06 not developed in a long time.
24:07 Just developing an at least average first division starter.
24:12 That was a starter in center field on a team that won a championship.
24:16 He is a first division starter.
24:18 He was pretty solid last year.
24:20 But if Wyatt Langford is also in this lineup and can play a decent left
24:29 field, which I think he might end up being able to do, he's going to
24:33 have a little bit more value than Leo DiTovares.
24:38 So the question would then become, okay, well, if Evan Carter is playing
24:44 every day in center field, then that kind of moves Leo DiTovares down
24:48 the pecking order just a little bit.
24:49 And if you put Wyatt Langford out there in left field, then is it better
24:53 for your team if you have Justin Foscue as your DH?
24:57 So you have Evan Carter in center field and then you have Wyatt in
25:01 left and then you have Foscue at DH.
25:03 Is that better than Leo DiTovares in center field, Evan Carter in left
25:08 field, and Wyatt Langford at DH?
25:09 Or swap Evan Carter and Leo DiTovares and put Leo DiTovares in left field
25:13 and Wyatt Langford at DH?
25:17 That's the kind of question that the Rangers will be answering this
25:20 season.
25:20 I'm not exactly sure what the best configuration of that looks like.
25:24 I just think that the consistency and that little bit of an edge in
25:29 speed, I think the ceiling for Leo DiTovares' defense, I think it's a
25:34 little bit higher than Langford's because he is able to make some of
25:39 those more athletic plays than I've seen Evan Carter make because he
25:43 does have that.
25:44 It's not just a plus arm.
25:46 It is a double plus arm.
25:47 It is one of the best arms of baseball and not that Evan Carter's arm
25:52 is bad.
25:53 It's kind of average, which is fine.
25:56 Usually you don't need it.
25:57 It's not a necessity for having a cannon for an arm and playing center
26:00 field.
26:01 It is a luxury.
26:02 I think that the defensive ceiling of Leo DiTovares is a little bit
26:08 higher than Evan Carter's, but if he's not going to get to that ceiling
26:12 that kind of leads questions to how much is Leo DiTovares going to play?
26:17 Is it going to be every day or is it going to be Evan Carter out there
26:20 every day in center field?
26:22 I think that that might end up being the case and you might see Leo
26:26 DiTovares a little bit more in left field this year, but I'm not Bruce
26:29 Bochy.
26:30 I'm not the one making those decisions and I think the Rangers already
26:33 have a little bit of a feel for what they're going to do with that, but
26:35 I think we might see a little bit of a switch up from what we saw every
26:38 day in the postseason last year.
26:39 Now the fifth and final question the Rangers must answer in spring
26:44 training is which young reliever is going to step up?
26:47 Because the Rangers did sign a couple of relievers that are, you know,
26:51 pretty decent.
26:52 David Robertson, solid signing.
26:55 Kirby Yates, solid signing.
26:57 But the guys who they had last year were for the most part, especially
27:04 during the regular season, outside of like a couple months of Will
27:08 Smith, outside of a few months from Josh Bores, outside of honestly
27:12 most of the season from Jose LeClerc, just kind of under the radar,
27:15 most of that pen was an absolute abject disaster for the vast majority
27:20 of last year.
27:21 And I think just bouncing back to the mean, bouncing back to the
27:26 average of what these players I think actually are, this pen is going
27:31 to improve so significantly much from where they were last year.
27:36 And I think they're going to get some help from some youngsters on
27:40 the farm.
27:41 I think Antoine Kelly is my bet for the guy who is going to step up
27:45 the most and pitch the most in high-leverage situations of these
27:48 youngsters that either haven't quite cracked the big leagues yet or
27:51 have just barely gotten a taste.
27:53 I don't think that Grant Anderson is going to get the 57 innings that
27:57 VanCraft is projecting him to throw this year.
27:59 I love Grant Anderson and you know, he is a World Series champion.
28:03 He's getting a ring and he really stepped up and helped the Rangers
28:07 in a time where they just needed anything in their bullpen.
28:10 And man, that Major League debut in Detroit was so incredibly fun.
28:16 That was one of the better Major League debuts I've ever seen was
28:20 Grant Anderson's.
28:21 But I think the Rangers need some other guys, some other youngsters
28:25 to step up and you know, step up in this pen and actually contribute
28:30 and maybe even contribute in high-leverage situations.
28:33 They're going to need more consistency from Josh Bores.
28:35 I think they'll get it.
28:36 They're going to need a little more consistency from LeClerc.
28:39 I think they'll definitely get that.
28:40 I think they feel really good about what they're going to get from
28:43 Robertson and Yates.
28:44 I feel like that's pretty predictable of what those guys are going
28:47 to bring in their veteran presence.
28:48 There's not going to be a whole lot of ups and downs.
28:50 I think with them.
28:51 I'm hoping.
28:52 Granted, they are on the older side.
28:54 So at any moment, they could just fall off a cliff and father time
28:56 could claim them.
28:57 But I'm really excited about some of these young guys about seeing
29:01 what you know, Owen White could look like in the bullpen.
29:05 Maybe the Rangers are going to have to, you know, use him for some
29:08 of those starter innings.
29:09 If they, God forbid, do have a starting pitcher injury in the first
29:12 half, Owen White's going to be one of those first names called.
29:14 But I'm excited to see what Mark Church can look like in a big league
29:17 pen.
29:18 If he can kind of hone down those walk issues, his slider is absolutely
29:22 filthy, absolutely disgusting.
29:25 I'm looking forward to seeing it in the Rangers big league pen this
29:28 year.
29:29 I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of Antoine Kelly, maybe a little
29:32 bit of Carson Coleman.
29:33 We'll see how quickly he recovers.
29:35 He's the Rangers rule five pick from the Yankees.
29:38 He is still recovering from Tommy John surgery.
29:40 So he's not going to be healthy to start the season, but I'm excited
29:44 to see what he looks like.
29:44 And if Jonathan Hernandez can bounce back from a abject awful 2023,
29:51 the stuff is still really nasty.
29:53 He was still getting a lot of ground balls.
29:54 Can he stay in the strike zone and not have a walk-off walk in extra
30:00 innings this year?
30:02 I'm hoping that he can avoid that.
30:04 I'm just one of the worst.
30:07 I'd actually know I'd say the worst outing from any reliever this year
30:11 on the Rangers was the extra innings walk-off walk in Minnesota from
30:17 Jonathan Hernandez.
30:17 He's still got incredible stuff.
30:19 I still believe in him as a back-end reliever, but the Rangers going to
30:24 need that from him.
30:25 They're need a lot of these guys to step up.
30:27 They're going to need hopefully Gary Rodriguez to find some consistency.
30:30 Obviously, he's got a lot of premium velo premium gas.
30:34 Can he step up and be consistent?
30:36 That has been the question for him for years, or is it time to move on?
30:39 I don't think it's just yet, but the Rangers will find out the answer to
30:42 that question.
30:42 Probably pretty quickly during the season.
30:45 There's a lot of guys with some promise that could step up in the back
30:49 end of this bullpen and I'm excited to see who does it.
30:52 And if someone does it, because please, it's about time for someone to
30:56 step up in this bullpen.
30:57 It has been a rough couple years and that month-long stretch in October
31:00 may have been all of the magic goodness that was supposed to be doled
31:05 out throughout the last couple seasons from leavers.
31:07 But hey, I'd like a little bit of that magic improvement during the
31:11 regular season for this bullpen in 2024.
31:14 That's going to do it for today's show.
31:15 Thank you all so much for listening and subscribing and until next time,
31:18 don't forget to enjoy World Series Champion Texas Rangers baseball.
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