Martin Perez was all set to be named the fifth starter in the Texas Rangers' starting rotation coming out of spring training. Justin Grimm has fallen flat on his face in every outing so far, including on Sunday -- the same day Perez broke his arm and was shelved for at least two months.
Robbie Ross is looking pretty good in spring training, but he's such a valuable piece to the team's bullpen. Randy Wells has turned in some mixed results and Kyle McClellan suffered a bit of an injury setback.
So what is going to happen now? Well, Kyle Lohse is still free out there with his infamous agent, Scott Boras, still trying to get the last bit of anything possible out of whoever ends up signing his client, who had a great year with the St. Louis Cardinals last season.
The Lohse signing just doesn't make much sense for the Rangers, who would give the Cardinals their first-round pick in June's draft if they sign the free agent righty. And we saw last year what happened when a dominant-ERA guy from the National League came to the AL, and not only the AL, but Texas.
The wild card in all of this is that bulldog starter Colby Lewis, who is such a beast, is well ahead of expected pace in his rehab and could be ready to roll in early May after undergoing surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon in his pitching elbow last summer.
Being the fifth starter usually means you only need to make about three starts in the first month of the season as the schedule sets up to skip the fifth starter a few times during the opening month. So why would the Rangers go sign Lohse, who might not even pan out in Texas, give up their first-round draft pick and maybe have him three starts, not to mention the fact he's missed the first two weeks of spring training and we're less than a month away from the start of the season.
It just doesn't make a lot of sense, but national writers like Jon Heyman and Ken Rosenthal are saying the Rangers are back in the Lohse race after the Perez injury. Time will tell, but we should know pretty soon.
