The Impending Reign Of “The Chosen Three”

The Texas Rangers came into the 2016 with the expectations of one of the best bullpens in baseball and despite a couple of hiccups, those expectations have held true.

With a closer that was among the best last season, and having acquire two key pieces at the trade deadline, the Texas bullpen was poised to be solid this season. Shawn Tolleson took the MLB by storm last season by going 35-37 in save opportunities last season. Jake Diekman and Sam Dyson, mid-season pickups, revolutionized the back end of the bullpen in a way that Arlington had not seen in many years.

More from Texas Rangers News

• Early 2023 MLB mock draft has Texas Rangers selecting an Ohtani-lite
• 3 Texas Rangers outfield trade targets not named Bryan Reynolds
• Did Jacob deGrom really mean what he said at his Texas Rangers press conference?
• Martin Perez accepting the qualifying offer looking like solid deal for the Rangers
• 4 outfielders the Texas Rangers can still pursue this winter

We’re now two weeks into the 2016 Major League Baseball season and the Texas Rangers have seemed to develop their game plan when it comes to close games in the late innings.  Dyson, Diekman and Tolleson. The proverbial, 1..2..3 punch. So far this season, these guys have done exactly what is asked of them by locking down tight games in the late innings. Besides a rough outing for Tolleson, there have been few problems for the bullpen.

The past two games against the Astros, the Texas Rangers have utilized this strategy throwing Diekman and Dyson is the seventh and eighth innings before moving to Tolleson in the ninth. Diekman now has three holds this season and Dyson has amassed six in just fifteen games.

The Chosen Three

Dyson has posted a 1.23 ERA so far with the only mar on his record being a loss back on April 7th against the Angels where he gave up just one run in 1.1 innings. Dyson’s ability to locate his pitches is evidenced by his three walks to eight strikeouts and only four hits allowed in his seven appearances.

Jake Diekman is one of the hardest throwing lefties in the game save Aroldis Chapman, and has shown that he’s more than a normal lefty specialist. Diekman has yet to allow an earned run in 2016 and has given up an impressive single hit in seven appearances. He’s the perfect compliment to the location work of Dyson.

Rounding to the three is Texas Rangers closer, Shawn Tolleson. Pay no attention to the ERA which is heavily inflated from a bad outing on April 6th against Seattle where he was unable to record an out and gave up five runs. Besides that incident, Tolleson has been lights out. In his six games, not including the Seattle game, he’s given up one earned run and only three hits.

Their Impending Reign

Based on these stats, in combination with their recent play, it’s not far-fetched to guess that this trio may become household names in the baseball realm. The Texas Rangers are a team that generally puts themselves in a place to win baseball games which means these guys will get a decent amount of action. The Ranger have shown that these are the pitchers they entrust their close games to when it’s on the line.

As they settle into a groove, building and maintaining consistency should be no issue for the experienced players. Dyson and Diekman are practically interchangeable regarding who pitches the seventh and who gets the eighth and nobody feels uncomfortable handing a tight game to Tolleson in the ninth. I fully expect these three to become nearly automatic and being the difference in a number of baseball games for the Texas Rangers moving deeper into the season.

More from Nolan Writin'

• Framework for a potential Max Fried trade to the Texas Rangers
• Early 2023 MLB mock draft has Texas Rangers selecting an Ohtani-lite
• 3 Texas Rangers outfield trade targets not named Bryan Reynolds
• Did Jacob deGrom really mean what he said at his Texas Rangers press conference?
• Where do Texas Rangers prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker stand after the DeGrom signing?