James Shields? Gone. Anibal Sanchez? Gone. Zack Greinke? Gone.
So what do the Texas Rangers do with their starting rotation, which currently consists of Yu Darvish, Matt Harrison, Derek Holland, a converted reliever/former starter Alexi Ogando and a mystery guest with Colby Lewis on the mend and set for a June or July return after arm surgery?
The list of possibilities is long and full of in-house candidates with a couple of trade candidates as well. The main trade option is knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who seems more and more likely to be re-signing with the Mets but has also been mentioned as a possibility for the Angels.
In house, there's Martin Perez who doesn't quite seem ready after a brief audition last season. There's similar guys like Justin Grimm.
Then, there's Robbie Ross who took the club by surprise last season when he barely made the team out of spring training and went on to be one of the team's best relievers and showed a rare versatility in roles.
Ross had 58 appearances last season, throwing 65 innings and posted a 2.22 ERA despite trending downward near the season's conclusion, showing just how good he was for much of the year. He has starting experience in the past and could probably do the job but would leave a big opening in an already gap-filled bullpen.
"He can do either one," Rangers GM Jon Daniels said in a conference call. "He wants to start. If he gets that opportunity, he'd be excited about it."
