Matt Harrison is about two weeks away from the Rangers having to make a decision, as July 2 is the day they must figure out what to do with him. Harrison has been at AAA Round Rock rehabbing and by all accounts is coming along well. Although is fastball has lost velocity from 91-93 down to 89-91 mph, it appears his mechanics are coming along nicely. According to reports he thinks he is ready to return just a year after one of the most complicated back surgery’s there is. The fact that no player has ever come back from this kind of surgery is all brand new territory for everyone involved. In fact, most had written him completely off as ever playing again.
I am extremely excited for Harrison, he is a great guy, and was one of the key guys for the Rangers. I certainly want him to succeed and do well, both personally and professionally.
The conundrum is that the team just set a franchise record for most consecutive quality starts in franchise history with 12 in a row as of yesterday. The five starters the team is using are clicking on all cylinders and it would be a travesty to break that up because we have seen the positive results in the win column. The bullpen still has some major warts, but the combination of Gallardo, Lewis, Martinez, Rodriguez, and Chi-Chi Gonzales are doing very well. In fact, the starting rotation is ranked 7th in all of MLB through June, and that includes that terrible month of April. Which begs the question, what do you do with Matt Harrison?
The bullpen is still ranked 27th in all of MLB and needs attention but moving him there seems wrong until you think about it a minute. Harrison will need to continue to build up strength, and while AAA pitching is more difficult, it is not big league pitching against big league hitters. I would think that he needs another month of work at least, time to build up arm strength and solidify himself mentally and physically. On another note Martin Perez has a setback as did Derek Holland, but the Rangers can afford that now because the five in the rotation are doing great work!
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Calvary arriving. What if they do and we are doing just fine without them? That is a nice problem to have, but there are a couple of guys in the bullpen I could see upgrading, but all of those three soon to be available are starters. Not only that, but all of them could be considered, before injury top two talent. Darrell Royal, former football coach for the Texas Longhorns had a saying for just about everything. One of those quotes was “dance with you brung you”.
I think the team needs to go with the guys that are doing it for you now, and they are just going to have to wait to figure out what to do with those other guys. However, that might be problematic because once rehab runs out, and the player is not on the DL, the player has either to be activated to the club, or assigned to the minors. If a veteran goes to assignment, that means another team could pick him for nothing going through waivers. Harrison has a long contract left, and I know the team would hate paying a guy that was not on the team. They cannot afford to lose him so that is not an option.
What John Daniels did say on a local Dallas radio show is this: “That’s not something we’ve talked about at this point. We’ve talked about a couple of different scenarios. Either the possibility of a period of time with six starters. I don’t know how long we’d do it if we did. We’re bringing both of those guys back preparing them as starters. We haven’t really discussed relief at all.”
What an interesting dilemma for a team, they could potentially have eight starting pitchers fairly soon. To go with that, is the other issue of what to do when Josh Hamilton, Adrian Beltre, Delino DeShields, and Ryan Rua all come back, when balanced against the play of Joey Gallo and others. Again, this is what Daniels had to say: “You’ve got to think about all of the possibilities with that. I think the next time a team has had too much talent and too many good players will be the first. Those are problems that I hope we have to deal with. Regardless of how you shake out from there it’s going to be a good scenario. It’s certainly possible if DeShields comes back, Josh [Hamilton] comes back, Adrian [Beltre] comes back and the guys that are up here stay healthy, plus Ryan Rua on the mend; you don’t have spots for everybody, you certainly don’t have at bats for everybody, but let’s get there first.”
Based on his responses, it appears Daniels thinks it is like having too much money, there is no such thing. The reality is that there are only 25 spots on the team until September call-ups get here, and that means somebody with options has to go back down to the minors. I would not rule out a trade for bullpen help with some of this decision-making either, as you have to believe every team in baseball must be salivating to get their hands on the Ranger talent bonanza!
Well that’s why John Daniels gets the big bucks, but for my money, I would replace Ross Detwiler with Matt Harrison, and then replace Anthony Bass with Feliz when he gets well. Whatever the case, it will be interesting to see what they do, because that clubhouse right now is about as solid as it could be, and when the clubhouse is right about the only thing that can mess it up is management. The team is sure heading in the right direction, let’s all hope they make the right moves to keep them going that way.
