Texas Rangers: The quiet success of Andrew Cashner

Don’t look now, but Texas Rangers starter Andrew Cashner has put together a very nice season and not many have noticed.

Take a look around the web for Texas Rangers content and you’ll see plenty about Yu Darvish, Ivan Rodriguez and Adrian Beltre. Granted, they all deserve a lot of the talk right now with the trade, the baseball hall of fame induction and 3,000 hits. But under the radar, local guy Andrew Cashner has put together a really good season, so what should be done about that this offseason?

Starting strong

Prior to joining the Rangers, Cashner had done pretty well. Considering he was jumping from the National League to the American League and coming off an injury, preseason expectations remained fairly low. But with over 2/3 of the season done with now, Cashner has proven himself to be a pretty valuable asset for this team.

His 7-8 record doesn’t really tell the full story of what he’s done. Following his solid six inning performance Wednesday night, which marked his fifth straight quality start, Cashner’s pitched 107 innings in 18 starts.

He’s averaged nearly six innings per start and has pitched to the tune of a Globe Life Park-friendly 3.36 ERA. Just to show how consistent he’s been this year, consider that two-thirds of his starts have been quality starts. Compare that to the rest of the league, where the average pitcher accomplishes a quality start about half of the time and you’ll see the value to what he’s done.

Staggering splits

More from Texas Rangers

• Texas Rangers hitting the reset button with Jonathan Hernandez
• Texas Rangers lose Jacob deGrom to Tommy John: Next steps
• Grant Anderson gives the Texas Rangers their missing ingredient
• Texas Rangers: How Adolis Garcia started putting up MVP numbers
• Why Kumar Rocker is still a successful pick for the Texas Rangers

Cashner has really flexed his muscle against left-handed hitters, holding them to a .237 average. Remember, he’s a right-handed pitcher. That’s pretty unheard of, but he’s shown that he can face any hitter and have a chance against them.

When you account for Globe Life Park, he’s been pretty consistent between home and road starts. The ball obviously travels a little better in Arlington, which is why the slugging percentage against him is 70 points higher at home. However, that home slugging percentage allowed is still just .403. That’s good at almost any ballpark for any pitcher.

And even though hitters have made better contact against him at home, they’re not scoring off of him. In eight home starts, he has 49 innings pitched with an impressive 2.20 home ERA. Again, that’s at a very hitter-friendly ballpark. He makes outs and he keeps runners that get on base right where they are — on base.

Love talking about the Rangers? Join the team and write a weekly column!

Second half success

The second half of the season isn’t very old. But still, Cashner has seemed to progressively improve as the season has gone on. For a guy I, myself expected to finish with an ERA north of 4.50 this season, he’s been outstanding. Cashner’s won three of his four starts since the All-Star break and has just a 1.091 WHIP during that time.

He turned in a month of July that finished with a batting average against him of just .194 and he’s continued that trend into August with the nice performance Tuesday night. His only month with an ERA above 3 came in June, where he had three really bad starts. However, he dealt with an injury during that time and has seemed to recover very nicely.

The Rangers still have a dim shot at the playoffs, but will have to fight to even finish above .500. With that, the focus turns to assessing their current talent and deciding who to keep and who to cut loose.

Next: Rangers attention shifts to youth

Based on his first 18 starts this year, Cashner needs to stay. He’s from here and he pitches well here and he has an epic beard. He deserves a nice three or four year deal in the winter. If Texas can lock him up for a few decently-priced years, they’ll get a bargain and he’ll assure them that there’s no place like home.