These 3 Rangers' arms are paving path to success for the league's best bullpen

Over 30 games into the season, there's something to be said about your bullpen leading the way in earned run average (ERA) across baseball. Even more wild when you consider three of it's major contributors have an average age of only 28.

Yes, the team has it's fair share of older relief pitchers getting the fair share of tough innings down the stretch, mostly Tyler Alexander, Jalen Beeks and Jakob Junis. Due to injuries of other proven veterans, Texas has turned to younger arms, including two that made their MLB debuts in April.

It's worked for them as Texas enters the series finale in Detroit as the lone bullpen with a cumulative ERA below 3.00, sitting at 2.63. The three we are about to discuss have a combined 1.02 ERA as a trio.

3 young stars helping light up Rangers' league best bullpen

Gavin Collyer, RHP

After shining in spring training this season, Collyer got his first chance at the big league level on April 15 with a three-pitch outing that resulted in his first career MLB strikeout. Now, 6.1 innings later, the 24-year-old has yet to give up a run and recorded his first big league win.

Once a 12th round draft pick out of high school in Georgia, he spent six full seasons in the minors, also starting out the year with Triple-A Round Rock. He got his opportunity following Luis Curvelo's injury during Texas's four-game series in Sacramento from April xx-xx.

There's no guarantee Collyer will outlast the incoming round of recalls once injured arms like Chris Martin return from the injured list, but he will certainly get his time's worth at this level.

Peyton Gray, RHP

Talk about quite the story to the major leagues for the 30-year-old Gray, he finally got to live out his dreams during Texas's most recent six-game home stand. Called up from Round Rock after XX went on the IL, Gray became the oldest Ranger to make his big league debut since since left-hander Hyeon-jong Yang in 2021.

An undrafted free agent in 2018 after a college career at three different universities, Gray signed with Colorado and over that time was released by the Rockies, Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds. After that, he spent three years in the Independent American Association, various Mexican league teams and the Dominican Winter League.

While his first appearance came in a low pressure 6-1 win over Pittsburgh. Since then, he's seen action in four games (six innings total) with five strikeouts and four hits. It hasn't all been pretty, also issuing five free passes, ballooning his WHIP to 1.50. He'll need to cut those down if he's hoping to stick with the big league club on a longer basis.

Jacob Latz, LHP

There's defintley younger pitchers on the roster outside of the two previous and Latz, take the 26-year-old Cole Winn for example, but it's hard to ignore Latz on this list. For the longest time he was none as a long relief arm and never even got a chance to prove it in his first two MLB seasons, playing only four games in 2021 and 2023.

After an emerging season in 2024, Latz bounced onto the scene as a trusted arm for just about any moment for Bruce Bochy last season. He spent plenty of time as a relief pitcher (25 games) but made a career high eight starts. Speaking of starts, he shined in those 39.2 innings of work with a 2.72 ERA, 34 strikeouts, 15 walks and a .206 opponent average.

To kick off the 2026 season, Latz has a 1.02 ERA in 17.2 innings with one start, 0.45 WHIP, 15 strikeouts, three walks and even three of his four career saves.

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