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The Finish-Out: Texas Rangers Likely To Add Jason Jennings To Roster Today; He Will Pitch As A Reliever

SURPRISE, Ariz. – Before the Rangers skip out of their 40-day sojourn in the Arizona desert, they are likely to add RHP Jason Jennings to the 40-man roster today and place him in the bullpen to start the season, general manager Jon Daniels said.

Jennings, who could take free agency if not added to the roster today, all but locked up the spot Tuesday with three solid innings of relief against San Francisco, allowing one hit and one run. His 64-pitch outing, which included a number of 89 mph fastballs (the upper side of his range), came on just two days rest after he went 3.2 innings of relief.

In other words, it was a dress rehearsal for the role in which the Rangers would use him to start the season. Not a bad two-day pitching line: 6.2 innings, four hits, one run (earned), one walk and eight strikeouts.

And Jennings, a sinkerball pitcher, felt better on Tuesday than he did Saturday. That’s not unusual for sinkerballers, they often have better results on short rest because they don’t have to try as much to get the ball to sink.

“I felt a little sharper than I did the other day,” Jennings said. “The ball just came out of my hand nice and easy. I was surprised at how good it felt.”

The addition of Jennings will all but finish off the pitching staff. The Rangers still have to formally add non-roster players Eddie Guardado and Kris Benson, but Guardado’s spot, providing he was healthy, was all but assured from the start of camp. On Monday, manager Ron Washington said Benson was, in his opinion, one of the team’s five best choices for the starting rotation.

What the Rangers will end up with is a staff that looks like this:

Starters: RHPs Kevin Millwood, Vicente Padilla, Benson, Brandon McCarthy and LHP Matt Harrison.

Relievers: RHPs Frank Francisco (closer), Warner Madrigal, Josh Rupe, Scott Feldman and Jennings, LHP’s C.J. Wilson and Guardado.

It also gives the Rangers some flexibility in other areas, too:

•  Starting rotation: The club essentially has a seven-man pool in the majors, including Jennings and Feldman, from which to construct a rotation before it has to dip down to the minors for top prospects LHP Derek Holland and RHP Neftali Feliz. It is becoming a more common practice throughout baseball as teams stockpile seven- or eight-man rotation candidates who could potentially help them before turning to unproven prospects. The Rangers had to turn to those unproven prospects earlier than they would have liked last year.

Conventional thinking is that Holland might be ready in as little as eight weeks or perhaps by the All-Star break. That’s about the time Benson typically starts to struggle. For his career, he is 40-37 with a 4.27 ERA through June; 28-36 with a 4.41 ERA thereafter.

If a starter struggles or gets hurt early in the season, Jennings or Feldman are likely to be the first options with Derrick Turnbow (who accepted an assignment to the minor leagues Tuesday), Dustin Nippert (expected to start the season on the DL) and Willie Eyre as replacements. If something happens later, it’s likely that Holland would go straight into the rotation.

• Bullpen: The ability of Feldman, Jennings and Rupe to all pitch multiple innings, gives the Rangers a mini-rotation of long relievers in the bullpen. It should help to keep all three fresh while also giving Feldman and Jennings the ability to have long enough outings to keep their arms in shape to move into the rotation if needed.

By adding Jennings, the Rangers will be at a full 40-man compliment on the 40-man roster. There are still five other players expected to be added: Benson and Guardado for the pitching staff, SS Elvis Andrus, OF Andruw Jones and INF Omar Vizquel. They will or in the process of running recently-claimed 1B Joe Koshansky through waivers  to clear one spot. Two others will be created by placing RHPs Joaquin Benoit and Eric Hurley on the 60-day DL and another spot will be handled by either adding Jones and trading or releasing DH-OF-1B Frank Catalanotto or keeping Catalanotto and releasing Jones. The club will have to make one final roster move involving the exposure of a young player to waivers in order to complete their opening day roster.