Opening day (April 6th) is right around the corner and the Texas Rangers will get a chance to right the wrongs of last year. The season in which the Rangers ended up 67-95, last in the American League, 3rd to last in the entire MLB, and in search of a new manager. This coming just a few seasons after being within one out of winning the World Series.
Rangers’ fans should have some high expectations this year, because last season was seemingly a fluke due to injuries. The big free agent that was signed prior to the 2014 season, Prince Fielder, only played 42 games after being shut down, because of a neck surgery to repair a pinched nerve.
Adrian Beltre held down the fort with another great season, but with the help of Fielder’s bat, the Rangers will have a powerful 1-2 punch. Mitch Moreland will also be returning from an ankle injury that required surgery and limited him to 52 games. GM Jon Daniels is hoping that the return of these bats and resurgence of Elvis Andrus will give the offense some more production.
Another glaring issue in 2014 that should be fixed was the pitching rotation that was decimated with injury. Shin-Soo Choo and Yu Darvish
are looking to get back on track and stay healthy. Thus far Darvish has been on the disabled list at some point in each of his seasons, and Choo played with ankle and elbow injuries all season before undergoing surgery. If they can stay healthy, the rotation will be solid with Yovani Gallardo and Derek Holland
backing them up.
The worst part about the injuries last season was the players that the Rangers had to call up from the minor league system. Most of the players were just not ready to play in the big leagues yet, and ended up struggling and hurting the team instead of helping them. This time around most of players in the minor’s are ready to go if their number is called, so they will be able to help out if someone goes down.
Although the Rangers and their fans will miss Ron Washington, new Manager Jeff Banister should provide some of the same success that Wash had a few seasons back. The difference is that Banister will stick with the younger players longer, while Wash was harder on the rookies and younger players. The players seem to like him, so far, so we have to stay tuned to see how that works out. As of now we just don’t know how Banister will pan out as the new manager trying to right the ship immediately.
We have 10 more days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training, so we will be able to get a picture of what to expect this season very soon. I think every Ranger’s fan is on the same page with me in that it is time to get back to playing winning baseball.