During the Q&A, Grant fielded multiple questions about the bullpen and how he sees things playing out for Texas. Below are the highlights of his answers, edited lightly for clarity.
What’s an underlying trend you see in the bullpen, either good or bad?
Evan Grant: Again, for me, it’s not so much trends, it’s just it’s unproven for a lot of these guys how much workload they can handle, and that is going to only play out over time. I think the Rangers are trying to do what they can to get guys rest. But you had a rash of injuries out there with [Chris] Martin [Luis] Curvelo, Carter Baumler and, most recently, Robert Garcia. And you’ve also got some guys, Cal Quantrill wasn’t available for a couple of days after he pitched three innings. Jakob Junis occasionally needs a day off. You can’t pitch Jacob Latz three days in a row all season long. So I think that’s the thing that I’m watching most, is the usage of these guys and how frequently the Rangers can get to them. I’ve liked what I’ve seen again out of Latz. I’ve liked what I’ve seen out of Gavin Collyer. Cole Winn has not been as effective against right-handers as he was last year, when he was second only in the big leagues to to Sean Armstrong. So we’ll see what’s going on there with Cole. And I think Cole Winn is getting a few more leverage-type innings than he did last year. Because, in essence, he was so good against right-handers last year that, in essence he’s kind of replacing the role that Sean Armstrong had going into the year, which is higher leverage, multiple innings and that kind of thing. And so far, he’s struggled a little bit with it, not overly, but he has struggled.
Will one closer settle in for the Rangers from within?
Grant: I think that the the bullpen has done Yeoman kind of work so far. I do think that nobody has stepped forward as the closer. I’ve been very impressed with what Gavin Collyer has done [so far], but I’m certainly not going to hand over all the leverage innings to Gavin Collyer at this very moment. Jacob Latz is doing a great job out there, and Tyler Alexander has really kind of flown under the radar, but he’s been really effective. But to all of that, I still think that there’s some level of, uncertainty is not the right word, it’s just scrambling, because there’s no definitive closer. I don’t know that unless everything went right, unless you went into the season with with Chris Martin and Robert Garcia, they had seized it from the very beginning and held on to it. I just don’t know that I would have expected anybody to really cement their roles in concrete three, almost four weeks into the season, I do think that there have been some bright spots, and I do think that Jacob Latz and Gavin Collyer are going to continue to get opportunities. I think the Rangers will protect Gavin Collyer a little bit more as he continues to get some time, but he certainly has shown the ability to be a late inning kind of weapon. But I think that’s going to evolve a little bit more as we go along. And yeah, I think that at some point in time, if this team is serious about contending this year, and if they play well, they’re going to need to add another reliever or two, they knew that going into the season. I just hate to think that, not having the relievers, the extra relievers going into the season might cost them some games at the outset that puts them not in a position to add at the trade deadline. Try to wrap your head around that for a moment, but I do think that so far, most of the guys out there have been doing really good work. There’s just not a closer. And to your point, Edwin Diaz is out for what, at least four months after signing a really big deal with the Dodgers, and there have been some other guys who haven’t had a lot of success early on. As the season goes on, you would like to think that fixing the bullpen, while never easy, is the easiest area to address as the season progresses, and so that’s what we’ll look for.
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