Texas Rangers Considering 6-Man Rotation

With the imminent return of Yu Darvish, news has surfaced that the Texas Rangers are considering a 6-man pitching rotation opposed to the traditional 5-man rotation.

In an interview Friday, Texas Rangers manager, Jeff Banister, said he’s considering moving to a 6-man starting pitching rotation once Yu Darvish returns. Banister said the team will have the opportunity to test out this rotation in a portion of the upcoming schedule that has the Rangers getting Thursday off each week for four weeks starting on May 12th.

Yu Darvish is set to start his rehab stint with Double-A Frisco on Sunday in a 30-pitch, 2 inning outing. If all goes well in his rehab starts, Darvish conceivably could be back in the rotation by the 21st of May. According the SportsDay DFW, a 6-man rotation would allow Texas to keep AJ Griffin on the roster and in the rotation while getting starters extra rest. The Texas Rangers will play 37 games in 38 days in the time leading up the MLB All-Star Break. Following that, most expect Texas to return to a 5-man rotation.

Yu Darvish himself has been an advocate of 6-man rotations in the past, modeling it after the rotations used in Japanese pro ball where starting pitchers pitch once a week.

If the Rangers do go this direction, they will have to make sacrifices by reducing the bench to three players instead of four. This could cause an issue with the upcoming returns of Josh Hamilton and Shin-Soo Choo that have already caused concern about plans for the Texas Rangers active roster.

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Along with that, the Rangers will have to make adjustments to the bullpen to allow for a couple of multiple inning pitchers as opposed to just Cesar Ramos. This would be a new strategy to Texas but may accommodate the team the best considering the outstanding starting pitching they’ve received so far this season.

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