Matt Harrison appears to be on track

March 12, 2014 – Texas Rangers pitcher Matt Harrison appears to be on track Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Surprise, Ariz – Matt Harrison continues to show signs of improvement in spring training.  The Texas Rangers were without Harrison for pretty much the entire season last year.  Now after three surgeries, Harrison is trying to make his way back to the starting rotation.

Harrison returned to the mound for his first game action with the Rangers since April of 2013.  He pitched yesterday in a Rangers ‘B’ game against the Kansas City Royals.  Before the game, Ron Washington said that Harry would only go one inning and Washington kept to his word.  Harrison only needed 11 pitches to complete the inning.  He only allowed one hit and managed to get a couple of grounders and a fly ball to get the 3 outs.

After the game, Harrison commented about his outing

"“It went quicker than I thought,” Harrison said. “I like quick innings. My back feels good, so hopefully we’ll keep progressing. Everything felt great. The big thing is how I recover the next day, but I don’t expect anything bad. I feel good and I expect to keep progressing.” (MLB.com T.R. Sullivan)"

This is a very good news for the Rangers.  Joe Saunders made his Rangers debut today and it was way less than stellar.  Also, Tommy Hanson didn’t seem to impress today.  Ron Washington has said he is taking things very slow with Harrison and won’t push things.  It is speculated that the earliest Harrison could be back is mid-April.  In my opinion, the Rangers need Harrison pretty bad at this point.  There are a lot of moving pieces right now with the starting rotation, relievers and the closer.  Harrison is one piece of the puzzle that must fall into place soon to make this pitching staff stable.