The Rangers have officially announced their Opening Day roster, according to several reports, including TexasRangers.com writer T.R. Sullivan, which essentially means it's coming straight from the club.
According to Sullivan's report, the roster didn't have any really big surprises.
Here are some Texas Rangers roster bullet points:
- Chris Davis was sent to Triple-A Round Rock. This is no surprise to the logical baseball mind. Despite his torrid spring with a .362/.387/.741 line, although he's dropped off pretty dramatically in the last week or so. Along with Davis, Craig Gentry and Taylor Teagarden were optioned, leaving, as expected, two catchers on the big league roster (Yorvit Torrealba and Mike Napoli).
- Veteran pitcher Brett Tomko was also optioned to Round Rock. His contract says if he's not on the big league roster by June, he's free. It's a little surprising to see him go down with the shakiness in the bullpen right now.
- Mark Lowe, Pedro Strop and Mason Tobin will all be in the bullpen. Strop has been the pitching version of Chris Davis, lighting up the minors but not being very effective in his major league stints. He was nearly unhittable this spring with 16 Ks and two walks in 11 innings of work. Lowe had a spring ERA of 12.00. Yuck. Dave Bush will be the long man in the bullpen and Alexi Ogando will be a "temporary starter" until Tommy Hunter returns from injury, at least that's the plan now.
- That means your Rangers bullpen is: Neftali Feliz, Darren O'Day, Arthur Rhodes, Darren Oliver, Mason Tobin, Pedro Strop, Mark Lowe and Bush. That's eight, which was was the plan after freeing a roster spot with the Matt Treanor trade on Monday.
That's pretty much it. The highest profile story here is Davis not making the big league roster, but the most perplexing one, perhaps, is Lowe making it.
Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
