If the Texas Rangers don’t end up winning the AL West, it certainly won’t be because their GM Jon Daniels didn’t do his part.
After paying up two nice packages in order to beef up the team’s bullpen at the standard trade deadline, procuring Koji Uehara and Mike Adams, Daniels decided that it still wasn’t enough and went out at the waiver trade deadline to bring in yet another reliever. This time it was lefty Mike Gonzalez being acquired for a minor league reliever Pedro Stop.
At first blush, it might seem like Daniels is perhaps being a bit overzealous in his desire to beef up what was once a rather shaky middle relief corps, but given what has happened to his rotation the last several weeks, Daniels is actually quite smart to bring in all the capable relievers he can get his hands on. For the first half of the season, the Rangers had been enjoying unexpectedly good performances from starting pitchers like Alexi Ogando and Matt Harrison who posted ERAs of 2.92, 3.04 and 3.56, respectively, prior to the All-Star break. Since then though, Ogando and Harrison have regressed quite a bit, posting ERAs of 5.01 and 4.74. Add to that Derek Holland alternating great and horrific starts and suddenly what had once been a strength is quickly turning into a Texas team that just can’t seem to shake the Angels in the AL West.
Seeing that his rotation’s fortunes are reversing and not really having many obvious upgrades available on the trade market, Daniels is doing the next best thing by turning his rickety bullpen into what might now be the deepest relief corps in the majors. The Rangers have always had the All-Star Neftali Feliz at closer, but now leading up to him they have Mike Adams and Uehara, two of the top setup men in baseball this year, from the right side. Now from the left side they add Mike Gonzalez, who hasn’t had great overall numbers but is death on lefties, to the ageless but still excellent Darren Oliver. And I haven’t even mentioned fireballing Mark Lowe, who is quietly having a solid season. With that crew, the Rangers barely even need their starters to go six innings before handing it over to any of their now five rock solid relievers. Considering that much of the blame for Ogando and Harrison’s recent struggles has been cast on their lack of durability for a long season, the more innings that the bullpen can save them, the better the chances that they can keep their young starters fresh enough to be effective in the post-season.
And it seems like the idea of having a deep bullpen is one Daniels repurposed to his position players as well. In a more minor deal, Texas also brought back catcher Matt Treanor to give the team some additional bench depth. Treanor is hardly an impact player, but his presence gives Texas enough depth to move players like Mike Napoli, Mitch Moreland and Michael Young around the field as the Rangers try and cover up for the recent injury to Nelson Cruz while also covering their butts in case Adrian Beltre, who is set to come off the DL today, re-aggravates his troublesome hamstring.
Depth, it is the kind of thing division titles and maybe even World Series titles are made of.
