It was the talk of the offseason when the Texas Rangers added four starting pitchers to fill three spots: Jake Odorizzi, Jacob deGrom, Andrew Heaney and Nathan Eovaldi represented a full makeover for a rotation that finished 26th out of 30 in fWAR in 2022, at 5.8 (by contrast, the Astros starters were best in the league at 19.4 fWAR last year).
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But with each new starting pitcher added to the roster, there was a domino effect. Last year at this time, Dane Dunning, Glenn Otto, Spencer Howard, Taylor Hearn and — though perhaps not for Opening Day — Cole Ragans each had hopes of securing a job in the rotation. Those guys (and Odorizzi) now represent something else the Rangers haven’t had in quite some time: considerable starting pitching depth (with more on the way in the form of Jack Leiter, Owen White, Zak Kent, Ricky Vanasco and others).
For all the ways in which team sports serve as a microcosm for the rest of our lives, there is one distinct way in which they can be counter-intuitive: to a man, the guys who were pushed down the depth chart by the new additions insisted they didn’t feel pushed out or de-valued. Instead, the response was unanimous: good.
“I was excited when I saw all these transactions take place,” Otto said Wednesday morning. “Because I know that puts the team in a lot better spot. Obviously, we’re looking to win right now; that’s fun to be a part of. Everybody in this clubhouse would agree: it’s time to go.”
“I kinda come in with the same mindset I had before. Obviously, we went out and signed some unbelievable pitchers,” Ragans said. “Some of the best in the game. Some of the best of our generation. I get to sit back and watch how they go about their day, learn from it, and go from there … (I just want to) come in and help the team in any way I can.”
“It kinda came as a surprise, a little bit,” Dunning said about the series of acquisitions. “I knew we were hunting arms, but I didn’t know how many arms we were hunting for. But I look at this as a great opportunity for me. We just brought in so many elite pitchers, and I’m going to be able to pick their brains. I’m going to be able to learn from them and (have) more motivation, another challenge, another step … When the news first dropped, it was like ‘Wow, we did it.’ But after that it was like ‘Back to the grind; here’s the challenge, let’s get back to it.”
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Hearn is in a slightly different position from the others on this list. He struggled as a starter last season and made a successful transition to the bullpen. The acquisitions this winter likely did very little to change his standing on the roster: he’ll be a multi-inning reliever, a transition he said was made easier by having done it before in 2020.
The same can’t necessarily be said for the other guys on this list, though it’s still possible a similar role change could be in the works for one or more of them.
“Yeah, I think absolutely,” general manager and president of baseball operations Chris Young said Wednesday. “We’re trying to put together the best staff in terms of quality and depth, and I think those guys have different roles that they could fill on the team, and we certainly think the focus is going to be to build (at least) Dunning and Otto up (from a workload standpoint) and then evaluate as we get into the middle of camp what the needs are, and what the best fit is.”
Howard and Ragans, on the other hand, might still have a shot at making the team out of the bullpen with a strong spring, for a couple of reasons. The first is that they are a bit further down on the depth chart. It’s easier for an organization to replace a 10th starter than it is to replace a sixth starter, and a bit further down the depth chart, there is no shortage of guys who can step into that role — White, Cole Winn, Kent and Vanasco among them.
But also, there is the question of stuff and repertoire. It’s one thing to move Hearn — a southpaw whose fastball averaged 94.4 mph as a starter and jumped to 95.3 mph as a reliever — to a role that allows him to “air it out” for an inning or two at a time. It’s a different proposal when you’re talking about a right-handed pitcher whose fastball averages 87.1 mph (Dunning’s cutter) or 92.1 mph (Otto’s four-seamer). Would bumping those up to 89 mph and 93 mph really do much to make them a weapon out of the bullpen?
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“If you can pitch, you can pitch,” Young said. “Whether you’re pitching the ninth inning, the sixth inning, the first inning — you’ve gotta make pitches to get major-league hitters out. They each have unique qualities that allow them to be successful major-league players, independently of velocity, and I think that’s how we evaluate them.”
The same is-that-the-best-fit question could be asked of Ragans, though left-handers do have a bit more leeway on this front. Ragans isn’t likely to become a back-end lockdown reliever, but could conceivably fall into a similar-but-mirrored role as Odorizzi or Hearn — long relief.
Howard, on the other hand, could be an interesting name as the Rangers look to fill out their bullpen. His fastball averaged 94.4 mph last season — precisely the same as Hearn’s — and is creeping into the range that could benefit from a shorter assignment. Despite an unsightly 2.9 HR/9 last year, Howard struck out 32 in 37 2/3 innings. He also walked 15 batters, an issue that he says he believes came from an unwitting adjustment to his arm slot that caused a rotator cuff impingement that bothered him all season.
“(It) kinda leaked into my stuff, trying to over-throw, because I’d look up and I’m not throwing as hard as I should be,” Howard said. “That had never really been an issue in the past. So it was like ‘S—, is my identity throwing hard, or finesse?’ And I think it’s a combo of both. … I think what caused (the problem) was obsessing over the vert(ical movement on) the fastball and just climbing, climbing, climbing with the arm slot. And then once I got up (to a high arm slot) everything was all shoulder. So I went the complete opposite direction (this offseason). I just started slinging it like I was an infielder. And then once I got off the mound, I realized that’s not necessarily what I’m supposed to do, but it got the feeling of not being (holding arm straight above head) up here.”
Even if one or more of the starters ends up in the bullpen, it’s worth keeping in mind — as we were reminded shortly after camp opened, when it was announced that deGrom’s first bullpen session would be delayed due to “tightness in his left side” — that of the four projected starters, only Martín Pérez would appear not to be an injury risk. The likelihood of one of the starters missing at least a little time this season is, unfortunately, pretty high. So it stands to reason that Dunning and Otto, at least, would start the season in Triple A, remaining stretched out as starters in case they’re needed.
It’s not the open-door opportunity they had last year, but neither are they being relegated to the trash heap. In the meantime, they seem unanimous: They’ll do whatever they can do to help the team win, and they’re happy for the opportunity to learn from the quintet of starters currently ahead of them on the depth chart.
(Photo of Dane Dunning: Tim Heitman / USA Today)
