Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS projections are a good measure of what to expect from players in the upcoming baseball season. We'll take a look at the Rangers' projections on a position-by-position basis. Szymborski can be found on Twitter at @DSzymborski.
Today we'll look at the projections for the Rangers at setup man, a role which the Rangers hope will be reprised by Tanner Scheppers.
Scheppers: 47 1/3 innings, 38 strikeouts, 15 walks, 6 home runs allowed, 4.18 ERA, 7.23 K/9 innings
Scheppers is coming off a bit of a lost season, which included a failed attempt at the starting rotation (still the most perplexing of all the Rangers' relief-turned-starter attempts) and subsequent arm trouble that shut him down in May.
Back in 2013, if you can remember after last year's disaster, Scheppers was a dominant force in the back end of the bullpen. He posted a 1.88 ERA in 76 2/3 innings of relief as the Rangers' setup man, and did it with a low K/9 innings rate.
The Rangers are crossing their fingers he can do the same this year to give them two established vets in the back of the pen with several talented, yet unproven arms in the bullpen other than Scheppers and Neftali Feliz.
