Jeff Passan pitches sneaky-good solution  to Rangers growing rotation problem

ESPN's senior baseball analyst, Jeff Passan, has been busy lately, with us just a few weeks from the trade deadline. In his latest piece, he gives each playoff contender a "best match" deadline candidate who addresses a position of need. He believes the Rangers need back-of-the-rotation help since Jack Leiter went on the IL, and Kumar Rocker has delivered a mixed bag of results over the first half.

Passan posits that Baltimore Orioles' veteran lefty Trevor Rogers would be the ideal solution for Texas and its glaring weakness. We tend to agree, and though Rogers' season numbers are far from eye-popping, he has found his groove since May and looks like he could be a dependable option to add to a rotation of Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, and MacKenzie Gore. The way Gore has looked recently, he could easily supplant him as the team's third starter.

Making the case for Jeff Passan matching the Rangers with southpaw Trevor Rogers

If you look at Rogers' season totals, you're going to initially say there's no way that Chris Young swings that deal and gives up even more prospects for an overvalued left-hander. He is 6-7 with a 4.48 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. But if you look closer, you see a pitcher who has gotten hot over the last six weeks.

Since the calendar flipped from May to June, Rogers has been phenomenal, posting a 1.73 ERA and dropping his overall ERA by a full run-and-a-half. The southpaw has allowed 3 runs or fewer in his last seven starts and has not given up more than 3 earned runs in any outing since late May. He is also throwing with more velocity than at any time during his five-year career, hitting over 97 mph in one of his most recent outings.

Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker have been disappointing in the first half. Rogers is a proven commodity who went 9-3 last season with a 1.81 ERA and 0.91 WHIP over 109 innings. He put up a single-season bWAR of 5.4.

Jordan Montgomery is ramping up quickly in the minors and should be making his debut right after the All-Star break. So Rogers would give Skip Schumaker and Jordan Tiegs another left-handed option to use if the poor performance of Leiter and Rocker continues, or if Monty needs time to find his footing against major league hitters.

There is no help coming from within the organization in the way of farmhands, so if Monty doesn't pan out or if Cody Bradford is unable to return on schedule and be effective, Rogers would give the team a reliable left-handed arm with the hot hand to flip the rotation.

We're not saying that Passan's opinion is gospel, but this particular opinion makes a lot of sense as the Rangers battle for a postseason berth over the second half.

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