The Texas Rangers have had a fairly quiet off-season so far, much to the disappointment of the fan base. But I am not so sure that the Texas Rangers are doing all that bad this off-season after all. The signing of Yovani Gallardo and Carlos Corporan is a big step in my opinion in getting this team healthy and back to being relevant after on season of being far from.
Before the addition of Yovani Gallardo, the Rangers rotation was looking pretty grimm behind Yu Darvish and Derek Holland. You had an aging Colby Lewis, and then the Nicks, Nick Tepesch and Nick Martinez as your four and five guys with Martin Perez returning at some point late in the summer. Not really the rotation that makes you think that the Rangers are going to jump back into the spotlight and win a lot of games.
The addition of Yovani Gallardo as the number 3 man makes a huge difference in my opinion. His numbers are pretty impressive. He has a career 3.69 ERA (3.51 last season), he struck out 146 last season (his high is 207 in 2011) while walking just 54. He has pitched at least 180 innings per season every season since 2009, and he brings experience to a rotation that was lacking that before the trade. Gallardo is also a Texas boy, living in Ft. Worth, which means the Rangers have a good chance of signing him long term.
Now with the top 4 of Darvish, Holland, Gallardo and Colby, the Rangers can play a little bit with that fifth spot and be okay. Tepesch and Martinez will get a chance, as well as other guys through out the season. I will feel a lot more confident about the young starter since it is not going to be the young starters.
This was a great move for Jon Daniels and the Texas Rangers, and I think that the team will be better than people are going to expect with Prince Fielder and Mitch Moreland being healthy and with Yovani Gallardo added to the rotation. They still have Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus, Rougned Odor and a flurry of young talented outfielders that should be a year better than they were in 2014. Is it baseball season yet?
