The bullpen is always an important part of any baseball team. The Texas Rangers pen is no exception. Production has not been their strong point the past few seasons. While the pen has had some bright spots, overall it has been one of the reason they have not been a winning team. Looking at the players for 2021 doesn’t breed confidence; nor did we expect it to. Here are my predictions for the 2021 bullpen, sure to be wrong.
The Front End of the Bullpen
We will begin with long relievers and clean up pitchers. Jordan Lyles is going to be the Rangers main long reliever. Makes perfect sense seeing that he was a starter for the club in 2020. He should be able to handle to duties of cleaning up if the starter has trouble early on. More early inning guys could include Wes Benjamin, if the Rangers decide to put him in the pen. Other early inning guys could include Demarcus Evans and Brett Martin.
The Back End of the Bullpen
Closer is going to be an interesting situation in 2021. Jose LeClerc was injured in 2020 and Rafael Montero did the closing for the most part. Montero is now gone and the Rangers have signed Ian Kennedy. With 30 saves and an ERA of 3.41 in 2019, Kennedy has to be considered for the roll if he can make the team. I think he will make the team. LeClerc could still be the closer of course. It could also be closer by committee.
The rest of the pen should include Jonathan Hernandez, Bret De Geus and Taylor Hearn. This leaves out several guys who have a good shot. Josh Sborz, Hyeon-Jong Yang, Justin Anderson and Joely Rodriguez to name a few. The bullpen is always different than we think it will be at this point, seeing that no one has thrown a pitch yet. Lots of battles to keep our eyes on here, should be entertaining.
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