Predicting the Texas Rangers Opening Day Starter

It’s never to early to start to think about the Texas Rangers Opening Day and who will be the starting pitcher.  Recently I conducted a poll on Twitter asking fans who they thought would be the Opening Day starter.

Right now the Texas Rangers have Yu Darvish, Cole Hamels, Derek Holland, Martin Perez, Colby Lewis, Nick Martinez, and Alex Gonzalez who will probably be starters during the 2016 season.  Out of that list one of those players will likely be th starter for the Texas Rangers on Opening Day.

So starting with Yu Darvish.  Will he be the Opening Day starter?  The answer is mostly likely no, because he won’t join the Rangers until about May.  This comes from the General Meetings this past month where John Daniels talked about Darvish and his pitching program.

Basically Daniels said that the Rangers have a built in six week no throwing program in Darvish’s schedule.  This means he’ll get the winter break to go home back to Japan and get some rest prior to returning to the states to resume in January.  –  Adam Boedeker (NBC DFW)

Derek Holland could be the Texas Rangers Opening Day starter, but I doubt he’ll get the start after his appearance in the ALDS game 4 against the Toronto Blue Jays.  On the other side of this I could see Jeff Banister giving Holland a chance to take the big stage again if he has success during Spring Training.

Next, Colby Lewis, Martin Perez, Nick Martinez and Chi Chi Gonzalez are other potential starters for Opening Day.  In my opinion out of the four names there I think Colby Lewis is the most likely candidate, if the Rangers manage to re-sign him.  That’s because my guess is that the Seattle Mariners will send Felix Hernandez to the hill for the Rangers home opener.

I saved the best for last.  I think the most likely starter for the Rangers home opener will be Cole Hamels.  I think the Rangers will want to have him paired up with Hernandez to make a thrilling day.  Oh did I mention the home opener will be on ESPN.  It’s going to be on ESPN because they negotiated with MLB to have broadcast all games of teams who made the 2015 postseason.  I think Hamels will be a great option to go head-to-head against King Felix.  He did an amazing job with the Texas Rangers and was a key part in getting them to the postseason.  I’d love to see him start the season off by pitching in the home opener.  I think that will also get fans excited about the season.

Next: Former Texas Rangers catcher Geovany Soto signs with the Angels

So how did the fans vote for who will be the Texas Rangers Opening Day starter?  Here are the results below.