Matt Garza, Winner At Life

I’m not the biggest Matt Garza fan. I’m still not in favor of what Jon Daniels traded to acquire him.

But who gives a shit what I think?

Matt Garza was phenomenal on Wednesday night in his debut as a Texas Ranger, keeping his new club within 3.0 games of the division-leading Oakland A’s.

Garza finished the evening allowing 1 (unearned) run on 5 hits in 7.1 innings on the bump; he surrendered no walks (!) and struck out 5 Yankee hitters.

I’ll admit it, during the 6th inning or so I began to wonder what it would take to extend Matt Garza beyond 2013 (since he’s going to be a free agent, you know), projecting him into a stable featuring Yu Darvish, Derek Holland, and Matt Harrison — all whom are under contract through at least 2016;

The rational side of me, however, quickly nixed all the fun my brain was having. If Anibal Sanchez got 5 years and $80 million during the 2012 offseason, then you can be sure that Garza will use that as his starting point and try to leverage his position from there. As cute as it is that he is probably going to “love” his teammates, along with the “atmosphere” and “clubhouse” in Texas, the reality is his services will go to the highest bidder.

And the Rangers are not that team.

Yet.

As it stands, even without Matt Harrison and Colby Lewis, the rotation looks formidable. Darvish, Holland, and Garza all project as mid-rotation pitchers or better — with TORP upside — Alexi Ogando is no worse than a strong #4 when he’s healthy, and Martín Perez can assume the spot that currently reflects his talent level, as the #5.

Anyway, tomorrow afternoon Derek Holland goes against Hiroki Kuroda.

Enjoi.