Projecting the Texas Rangers Opening Day Roster

Opening Day for the Texas Rangers is now 17 days away and counting down. The second round of demotions was made on Saturday, March 11th and just who exactly will be on the roster is starting to take shape. Going forward, spring training games will feature more non-roster invitees trying to earn a spot on the 26-man roster. Lets go ahead and look into my crystal ball and see who will be on that Opening Day roster when the Rangers take on the Philadelphia Phillies on March 30th, one of the more anticipated days for baseball fans around the world.

The Starting Position Players

C: Jonah Heim

1B: Nathaniel Lowe

2b: Marcus Semien

SS: Corey Seager

3B: Josh Jung

LF: Robbie Grossman

CF: Bubba Thompson

RF: Adolis Garcia

DH: Mitch Garver

The only real question mark in this set of players is center field. Leody Tavares suffering an oblique strain throws into doubt his status for Opening Day. He will likely be re-examined later this week. The results of that will let the team know if he will be ready for Opening Day or on the injured list for Opening Day. Thompson will be able to handle center defensively. He likely will be batting eight or nine in the lineup. If he can just have good at-bats and get on base at a decent clip he will not be a huge negative in the starting lineup. 

Everyone else in the lineup had already earned their spot prior to coming to spring training. Garver at DH may be the exception as the team needed to see how healthy he was before giving him the DH spot. The question with Mitch Garver is how many games will he catch this season. I would expect that he catches once or twice a week and they try to keep him at around 50 games catching, with Heim getting 80, and then the third catcher gets the remaining 32 or fewer games.

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.

The Bullpen

7th,8th,9th inning guys: Jose Leclerc, Will Smith, Jonathan Hernandez

Middle Relievers: Joe Barlow, Brock Burke, Taylor Hearns, John King

Long Relief: Cole Ragans

The only issue with this list is the health of Jake Odorizzi. He would be in that long-relief role but as of today he is still not pitched in a game due to arm fatigue. It has been shocking to see how Cole Ragans has pitched. I believe in the absence of Odorizzi he has earned the long relief role. Will Smith signed late and will pitch late in games. He has been a closer throughout his career, but Leclerc will likely get first opportunities to close games. The last spot comes down to John King vs Josh Sborz. Right now John King probably gets the nod over Sborz.

The Josh Sborz Dilemna

The Rangers face a dilemna when it comes to Sborz. If they do not place him on the roster they likely will lose him. He is out of options and would have to be DFA'd to send down to Round Rock. Some team will likely claim him. Right now, there is no case for keeping him on the roster other than a fear of losing him. He was not good last season. He appeared in 19 games last season and allowed runs in eight of those 19 appearances and multiple runs in five of the eight appearances.

He does have good velocity, spin rate, and stuff. His velocity ranks in the 93rd percentile of pitchers and his fastball spin rate ranks in the 75th percentile. Both are considered great. Despite having that the results just have not lined up with his stuff. His control is very inconsistent. Mike Maddux has been working with him on that, but it has yet to show results in-game action. In his last two spring appearances, he has pitched one combined inning between the two and walked four batters, and gave up seven combined runs including one home run. The Rangers want to keep him, but they also want to win. Right now with how he is throwing it becomes one or the other. If he throws better between now and Opening Day the Rangers will keep him, but that is far from a certainty.