Yu Darvish has long been a proponent of MLB teams using a six-man pitching rotation instead of the customary five-man rotation. He believes it's the best way to manage arms after he was in a six-man rotation in Japan and thinks the five-man workload is a reason for the abundance of Tommy John surgeries, which Darvish will now become the latest casualty on Tuesday.
While the Rangers won't toy with the idea of a six-man rotation without Darvish in 2015, they might use some unorthodox methods of their own to help get by without Darvish's help this season.
“We’ve talked about [a six-man rotation], but we’re not going there,” Daniels told the DMN. “Could there be situations where we spot somebody in the middle of those long stretches? Maybe. But we’re not looking to reinvent the wheel.”
The idea is that the Rangers legitimately have about 10 arms who can start for them this season, with three of those — Derek Holland, Colby Lewis and Yovani Gallardo — being locks and Ross Detwiler basically being assured of the No. 4 spot. With the remaining six, which include Chi Chi Gonzalez, Anthony Ranaudo, Nick Tepesch and Nick Martinez, the Rangers can spot one of them during long summer stretches to give other guys a break with a skipped start from time to time.
The Rangers actually did this from time to time in 2011 when they lost an unprecedented low number of missed starts by their original five-man rotation, as no one was injured and the only missed starts were giving guys a breather in the summer dog days.
It'll be interesting to see how the Rangers play this, and if they can actually stay healthy with the exception of Darvish.
