The Texas Rangers' Opening Day rotation looked pretty formidable on paper.
Matt Harrison, Yu Darvish, Alexi Ogando, Derek Holland and rookie Nick Tepesch — that group was said to be one of the strengths of the Rangers' squad that was set to have a new-look lineup without the likes of Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli.
That was a long time ago.
Matt Harrison had back surgery, Nick Tepesch is on the disabled list and Darvish and Ogando are currently on the DL leaving Holland, now an injury replacement in the All-Star Game, as the only original starter not on the DL right now.
With the all-star break ending for the Rangers when they open a home series on Friday against the Baltimore Orioles, the team has set their post-break rotation under the assumption that Darvish and Ogando will be ready to come back.
Unless Holland pitches in the All-Star Game, which is fairly unlikely, he'll be set to go in Friday's opener against the Orioles with Martin Perez pitching Game 2 of the series and newly-named starting pitcher Ross Wolf pitching Sunday's series finale after a really solid spot start against that same Orioles team last week. Wolf has been tabbed to replace the struggling Justin Grimm in the rotation, at least for the time being.
Darvish is penciled in to start Monday's series opener against the New York Yankees, and assuming all goes well with his final rehab start this week, Ogando will be the starter on Tuesday before the rotation turns back over with Holland on Wednesday.
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All of this, of course, hinges on the fact that the Rangers are expected to be big in the buyer's market when it comes to starting pitching and are listed as perhaps the front runner in the Matt Garza sweepstakes, as the Cubs righty is expected to be dealt over the break. If that happens, then all these plans will be thrown on their side.
