Texas Rangers first half report card
Middle relief
Perhaps the gem of this Texas Rangers pitching staff resides in the middle innings. Several times this season, the mid-relievers have had to answer the call in some tough games, and they’ve answered it well.
Claudio
Lefty Alex Claudio is the biggest surprise of the group, if not the entire pitching staff. With just nine fewer innings pitched this season than he had all of 2016, he has an ERA that’s slightly lower and has lowered his WHIP and H/9 numbers this season. He’s on pace to throw about 30 more innings than he did last season and he’s given the staff a bevy of quality innings.
Kela
Then, there’s the “prodigal son” of this pitching staff. After getting demoted to AAA because of clubhouse issues for the first 12 games, Keone Kela came back with something to prove.
He’s striking out hitters at a pace of 12.3 per nine innings and they’re batting just .133 against him with an OBP of .235. Kela’s pretty much on pace to match his workload of his fantastic rookie season in 2015. Although he’s allowing a few more walks than he did that year, he’s still upped his strikeout numbers, meaning he’s working hitters a lot more than he did previously. Whatever happened in the minors was magical, because maybe a few other Rangers arms could use it.
Leclerc
Jose Leclerc has also turned some heads with his performance this season. He hasn’t pitched as many innings as Kela or Claudio, but he’s still put in fantastic work.
Say what you want about how the closers and starters have under-performed, but the middle relievers have been great. They certainly haven’t played perfectly, but they do not deserve much blame for the sub-.500 first half. If the Rangers want to make a serious run for the wild card berth, they’ll need to continue to see these kind of numbers from this ‘pen.