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In news that doesn’t exactly surprise me, Alexi Ogando has ligament damage in his pitching elbow, and accordingly, will be shut down for at least three weeks.

The Rangers are saying, for now, that surgery will not be necessary, but after seeing the way injuries to pitchers, specifically elbow injuries, have ended the seasons of many Major League pitchers, I’ll be legitimately surprised if Ogando is able to contribute anything of value to the Rangers in 2014.

Beyond the surface of his 2014 struggles, Alexi has lacked the fireball velocity that once made him one of the most unhittable relievers in baseball. A healthy and locked in Alexi Ogando is a piece worth having, but if some long-term rest, and dare I say, surgery, would get him back on the right track, that would seem to be the most prudent course of action.

I’m heavily speculating that surgery might even be an option at this point, but I don’t think it’s too far out of the realm of possibilities either. In any case, Texas will essentially get Tanner Scheppers back in his place, so perhaps the net tradeoff, given Ogando’s struggles, might actually help the bullpen for now.

After allowing 2 hits in a third of an inning last night, LHP Aaron Poreda has been optioned back to the minor leagues. The Rangers have activated Tanner Scheppers to assume his spot on the 25-man roster. 

Behind an upper-90’s fastball, Aaron Poreda has been a pleasant surprise in 2014, posting a 3.29 ERA (3.70 xFIP) in 13.2 innings. Though Jon Daniels is burning through Poreda’s options right now, the tall lefty has the type of upside to be in the major league bullpen long-term. 

Scheppers, meanwhile, hasn’t pitched since April 17th — almost two months — where he made his final start of what could be considered an underwhelming stint as a starting pitcher. In 18.1 IP he allowed 20 runs (all earned) on 27 hits, with a K/BB ratio of 13:8. As someone who was behind the front office’s decision to experiment with Scheppers as a starter in a why the hell not? sort of way, I can now admit it was probably too ambitious of a dream. 

Tanner figures to work out of the bullpen exclusively from this point forward.

1. The Rangers playoff odds are as follows: 14.1% per FanGraphs; 14.2% per Baseball Prospectus; 12.3% per ESPN. One-in-seven to secure a WC spot, basically.
2. The team’s run differential is -28; in the American League only Houston (-40) and Tampa Bay (-41) have a worse +/- than do the Rangers, and they combine for a record of 48-70 (.407). At 29-29, Texas is still only a game out of the second wild card spot.
3. The position players have produced a mere +4.7 fWAR in over 2,100 plate appearances, which ranks 23rd in MLB, and tied for 11th in the AL with the White Sox and Yankees. The Angels and Athletics, for example, rank 1st and 2nd, respectively, at +13.2 and +12.4 Wins.
4. According to FIP-wins — pitcher fWAR — the Rangers’ pitching staff is among the best in baseball, ranking 4th in MLB with +7.2 Wins, in spite of having the 3rd-highest ERA (4.29) in the AL. Yu Darvish (+2.7 fWAR) and Joakim Soria (+1.1 fWAR) have been exceptional, but aside from them it’s been a revolving door of inconsistency. Texas’s rotation currently features Nick Tepesch, Nick Martinez, Colby Lewis and Joe Saunders. Alexi Ogando has a 6.84 earned run average in the bullpen; Neal Cotts’s is 3.63 after posting a 1.11 ERA in 57.0 IP last season, so he too seems drastically worse than most think he ought to be, even if what he is now is probably closer to his true talent level.
5. Mitch Moreland has been acting as the team’s de facto first baseman/number three hitter, and on the season he’s hitting .268/.311/.389 (88 wRC+), and at -0.2 fWAR he’s essentially what he always has been: The definition of a replacement-level player. I swear he could play here at least another year and some people are still going to say he’s going to turn into Chris Davis someday. Sadly, the fond memories they remember — where he hit a brilliant .348/.400/.550 during the Rangers’ 2010 World Series run — came in a BABIP-aided 51 plate appearances. That’s not the guy Mitch was supposed to become.
6. As a collective, the Rangers’ starting outfield has been worth +3.7 fWAR in 2014. With Choo being an OBP machine, Martín growing into one of the better center fielders in baseball, and Alex Rios, who’s solid at everything without being great at anything, I hope this isn’t the last year we get to see this group together. Rios will be down to a $13.5 million option in 2015, which at the very least I assume the Rangers will pick up, but I won’t be surprised to see Jon Daniels offer him an extension at some point during the offseason. If the Rangers could sign him to something like 2/24 with some sort of vesting option for 2017, it would be a bargain for a meaningful contributor to a championship team. 

Yesterday was an off day, so there hasn’t been a whole heck of a lot going on, and while I had wanted to write something a bit more substantial than this on Yu Darvish, the underlying point remains: Yu Darvish is a bad, bad man.

So, with that out of the way, here are some things that are out there this morning.

• The Rangers will host Baltimore for three games starting this evening, which will mark the first return of Nelson Cruz to Arlington since he left in the offseason. Unfortunately, in the first game of the series, Joe Saunders gets the ball for Texas, and I can’t imagine him faring as well as he did last time out.

• Speaking of the return of Nelson Cruz, it’s all the rage right now in the media. Gerry Fraley has an article up in which he asks what might have happened if Cruz was never suspended.

• Jeff Wilson has his own “what-if” piece up, as well.

• This one feels like it needs a separate post, but here it is anyways. Randy Galloway’s protege, Mac Engel, has a piece up in which the premise is, if you booed Josh Hamilton, you should do the same for Nelson Cruz. The sticking point of the whole thing was that Cruz, by accepting a suspension, “killed a team’s offense that needed his bat.” Of course, that also ignores that with Cruz, the offense had an OPS of .737 through August 4, and between August 5 and September 29, prior to his return in the one-game playoff against Tampa Bay, the offense had an OPS of .734. It’s not like the whole ship suddenly collapsed, especially when you consider that the team had a 20-7 record in August and won 7 straight to close out the regular season to force that playoff against the Rays.

• This has nothing to do with the Rangers, but seemed worth putting up. Japanese pitcher Kazuhito Tadano threw an eephus pitch that was so crazy, even the umpire didn’t know what to do with it. Well, don’t take my word for it. Just watch the video.

Watch the original video

For awhile it looked like a typical Yu Darvish start, because heading into the 7th inning the game was scoreless. But after a botched hit-and-run attempt with no one out, Leonys Martin sprayed a laser over the wall in right to give the Rangers a one-run lead, which was ultimately enough for Darvish, who was particularly stifling on Sunday. Texas tacked on an insurance run in the 8th on a Donnie Murphy single, and Joakim Soria was his usual brilliant self to cap off a 7-4 road trip.

What more can we say about Yu Darvish? After missing a start with an apparent neck issue, today the Nationals offense never really stood a chance, as Darvish punished them with an array of cutters and splitters down in the zone. In 8 innings he induced 12 punch outs — on only 102 pitches — and, had the game not been played in an NL park where pitchers still swing bats for some reason, Yu could have pocketed a complete game shutout to boot. But that’s really just icing on the cake.

The win propels the Rangers back above .500 by a game, assuring themselves a winning record as they embark on a 9-game home stand. 

For Darvish, the win continues what has been an impressive string of starts since May 4th in Anaheim: In five appearances spanning 38.0 innings, he’s carrying a 1.66 ERA with a dominant 48:11 strikeout-to-walk ratio, while opponents have produced only 25 hits. More importantly, though, is he’s made it through seven innings in four of his last five outings, and gone at least eight innings in three of his last four. We know Yu Darvish has been an ace in Arlington since day one, but it’s still a mystery of just how good he will become. He has improved in three successive seasons, is still only in his age-28 season, and has enough weapons in his pitching arsenal to succeed even when his fastball velocity starts diminishing, which won’t happen until he’s well into his next contract. 

Anyway, I’m on a Yu Darvish high. 

The Rangers will spend the next 10 days in Texas; after an off-day Monday, they’ll take on Baltimore, Cleveland and Miami.