Projecting the Texas Rangers Opening Day Roster

The Starting Rotation

1. Jacob deGrom

2. Martin Perez

3. Jon Gray

4. Andrew Heaney

5. Nathan Eovaldi

The only complication here is the order in which these players will pitch. deGrom is hopefully in line to make his first start of spring training this week. He would still have time to get three starts in before Opening Day. That should be enough time to build up to being able to pitch five to six innings in that first start. Bochy has not said publicly, but it would be shocking if a healthy Jacob deGrom is not the Opening Day starter. Martin Perez is healthy and pitching outstanding this camp. He made his first start of the World Baseball Classic on Saturday night and shut down a mighty Dominican Republic lineup. He pitched 3.1 innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits, and had 4 strikeouts. Jon Gray pitches third to break up the lefties. Then Andrew Heaney is fourth and Eovaldi fifth. If Eovaldi was healthy and taking his regular turns then I might have put him second. He has been out of action now for almost two weeks dealing with left side tightness. The Rangers can take it slow with Eovaldi and not rush him back until he is 100% ready to go.