Mike Adams, the former San Diego Padres set-up man who was acquired on July 31 at the trade deadline to shore up the Texas Rangers' bullpen, overcame a shaky start in the American League to finish with a good 2.10 ERA in his time in the AL.
After the bullpen/starting rotation overhaul that will send Neftali Feliz to the rotation with the signing of veteran closer Joe Nathan, Adams is set to again be the primary set-up man, assuming Alexi Ogando stays in the starting rotation.
But the Rangers got a scare recently when Adams decided to have surgery to fix a hernia on Wednesday, which will likely cause him to miss the start of spring training, which begins on Feb. 22 for ptichers and catchers.
With Opening Day set for April 6, Rangers GM Jon Daniels said Adams will most likely be ready for the start of the season barring any setbacks. But you don't want such a key part of your bullpen getting a late start on things and still trying to sort out his stuff when the regular season kicks off.
Daniels added that if Adams would've suffered the injury in the middle of the season he probably would have played through it but decided to fix it in hopes of returning for spring training.
The Rangers can take solace in the fact that if for some reason Adams isn't ready to go on April 6 they have Ogando in their back pocket after the reliever-turned-starter went back to the pen in the postseason and picked up where he left off in 2010 as a dominant reliever.
