Commentary

Rangers' rotation in a world of hurt

For several years, Houston's Minute Maid Park has served as Major League Baseball's healing waters -- a place for visitors to come and pronounce themselves well, not to find out the diagnosis is drastically worse than anticipated.

That's what happened with the Rangers in a matter of hours Wednesday. And this was before they lost, 5-4, to drop a series to the American League's worst team.

Martin Perez, the talk of baseball three weeks ago with his 26 consecutive shutout innings, has the dreaded torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. He may sit idle for three months and try to return but, most likely, he will join the list of quality pitchers sidelined for a year or more by Tommy John surgery.

And the news with Matt Harrison is worse. Maybe much worse.

After two disk surgeries sidelined him for all but two starts in 2013, Harrison returned to make four starts this season but left Tuesday's game in Houston in the second inning with back problems. On Wednesday, the Rangers learned he was suffering from a spinal condition they knew was a potential byproduct of last year's surgeries.

In effect, spinal fusion could be required, but there are no real indications that a successful procedure will send him back to the pitcher's mound. At any point in time.

General Manager Jon Daniels said there's only so much a team can take. And that was when I spoke to him on Monday.

In a conference call Wednesday, Daniels, while expressing the hope for the best that you would expect from a general manager, said, "The sheer number of injuries we've had is startling."

Can a team be pronounced dead at the one-quarter pole, even when it's hovering around the .500 mark? In fairness, the answer is no, not in the American League West.

Even with all the pitching woes this team has suffered (we haven't even mentioned the fact they do not have a hitter with five home runs), the Rangers were 20-21, five games behind Oakland.

With three-quarters of a season to play, there's ample time for Adrian Beltre, Prince Fielder and Alex Rios to heat up in the heart of manager Ron Washington's batting order and make this at least a viable American League offense. The Rangers began play Wednesday night ranked 11th in the AL in runs scored.

But if the offense is just a few hot bats away from getting where it needs to be, what can one say about the Rangers' pitching?

With no Perez or Harrison for months and Derek Holland still not close to making rehab starts to return to the rotation after his off-season knee surgery, the rotation looks like this (in approximate order of credibility):

Yu Darvish. Colby Lewis. Robbie Ross Jr. Nick Martinez. Nick Tepesch.

You can flip the Nicks around if you like. One of them might even move rather quickly ahead of Ross, who clearly needs to be returned to the bullpen as soon as possible. In his last five starts, Ross has surrendered 23 earned runs in 26 2/3 innings.

Keep in mind that Lewis is currently penciled in as the No. 2 starter, and he went 21 months without pitching in a major league game before returning last month following radical "hip-resurfacing" surgery.

That's why the Rangers are keeping a close eye on the very marginal rehab starts of journeyman Joe Saunders. If he isn't the answer, or if Holland fails to make the speedy recovery he has suggested he could make to return in June, then the Rangers don't really have any answers for fixing this rotation.

Normally, you would say it's too early in the season for Daniels to be shopping for starting pitchers. And I'm positive this team doesn't want to start sending out its prized Class A prospects such as third baseman Joey Gallo or catcher Jorge Alfaro in search of short-term pitching solutions.

But what this team learned in one 24-hour period Wednesday was nothing short of devastating. Perez won't be back for months and probably for the rest of this season. Harrison may not be back in a Rangers uniform again.

You don't receive that kind of news and march steadily on into the long season.

Leaving a series with Houston, you always know the baseball part is about to get tougher. But, for the Rangers, the news can't possibly get any worse.

Sports on 05/16/2014

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