Texas Rangers release ALCS roster

The ALCS starts Sunday night and as such the teams had to submit their official rosters by 10am Sunday morning. Texas had two players whose status was still up in the air on Saturday. Max Scherzer had all but declared himself ready to go after his last bullpen session on Friday. Jon Gray was still a question mark.

The Texas Rangers 2023 ALCS Pitching Staff

Gray did throw a bullpen session on Saturday in front of Mike Maddux and Bruce Bochy. It had been determined that Scherzer would come back as a starter and Jon Gray as a bullpen pitcher if they were on the roster. The Texas Rangers had their meetings all week and took the information from the workouts and this was the roster they came up with.

The Texas Rangers announced that both Max Scherzer and Jon Gray will be on the roster for this round. Bochy has not announced his rotation past game two, but I would expect Scherzer to start game 3 in Arlington. I would expect Jon Gray to get opportunities to potentially pitch in some high leverage situations in the late innings. Bochy might use Gray to pitch one or two innings either late or early.

The players Gray and Scherzer replaced are Matt Bush and lefty Brock Burke. Bush had warmed up a few times this postseason, but had yet to get into a game since being called up from Round Rock. Burke had made one appearance in game two of the ALDS. He came in for the ninth inning in a 11-5 game and proceeded to get just one out and gave up one hit and a walk. He was then removed for Jose Leclerc. That led to Aaron Hicks getting a three-run home run. Leclerc was then able to close it out.

The Texas Rangers ALCS Offense

The saying goes if it isn't broke then don't fix it. The Rangers offense is clearly on a roll since the beginning of the postseason and so Bochy and the front office have decided to keep with the status quo. Austin Hedges is still on the roster as the third catcher, Jankowski and Smith are the other players on the bench. Grossman is still on the roster and might get a start in game 2 against lefty Framber Valdiez.

i do not expect any changes to the lineup. Garver still will be hitting third, Carter fifth and then Jung and Taveras eighth and ninth. It has been a lineup that has been working and so why change it.

Action gets underway tonight at 7:15pm in Houston on Fox for game one of this series. We have rosters now. All that we need is for this series to start and see who will be advancing to the World Series.