The Texas Rangers have gotten a lot of starting innings from pitchers they didn't expect to see contributing at the big-league level this season.
Rookie pitcher Nick Tepesch won the No. 5 starter's job out of spring training, but only after prospect Martin Perez broke his forearm by taking a comebacker off the arm in a Cactus League game. Fellow rookie Justin Grimm replaced Matt Harrison in the rotation when the projected No. 2 starter was put on the DL with a back injury that later required surgery and will shelf him until at least August. Alexi Ogando also hit the disabled list, bringing up Josh Lindblom, a career reliever who the Rangers traded Michael Young for from Philadelphia, and also resulted in one spot start from Perez.
Since that loss Perez took in Arizona on Memorial Day, he's been cleaning house in Triple-A and appears poised to get another shot in Arlington with the hope he can finally show his potential and why he's been the Rangers' top pitching prospect for what seems like ages now.
That means one of the three — Tepesch, Grimm or Lindblom — is the odd man out.
Ron Washington already said Tepesch would get his next start despite being shelled in his last outing, and Grimm went five innings on Wednesday, giving up three runs on one bad pitch. Lindblom gets his shot on Thursday afternoon with a chance to win the series and pull within a game of the first-place A's, but it seems unlikely all three will hold off Perez from getting another shot at some point very soon.
