The Texas Rangers have one of the American League’s best records, and after a surprise trip to the playoffs and nearly a berth into the League Championship Series last season are hoping to capitalize on a wide open conference with no clear leader.
According to reports, Texas hope to reinforce an already stellar pitching staff with two of the baseball’s best hurlers this season: New York Yankees left-handed reliever Andrew Miller and Oakland Athletics left-handed starter Rich Hill.
They also seem to be interested in three Tampa Bay Rays starting pitchers — Jake Odorizzi, Matt Moore and Drew Smyly — who all are good but have had varying degrees of up-and-down success this season.
Hill has been one of the best stories in the game this year, going 9-3 with a 2.25 ERA entering Sunday, though he left Sunday’s start after five pitches due to an ongoing blister issue. Miller, an All-Star this season, is one of the premier relievers in baseball and part of a dominant trio of Yankees relievers that includes fire ballers Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman.
Texas had one of the worst records in baseball in 2014 and started off very poorly in 2015 before catching fire. Their midseason addition of All-Star southpaw starter Cole Hamels from the Philadelphia Phillies pushed them over the hump before losing in a decisive Game 5 of the Divisional Series to the Toronto Blue Jays.
The team has been riddled with injuries to its pitching staff this year, though, but recently regained ace Yu Darvish. Adding Hill and/or Miller would would help fortify both ends of the game for an already scary contender, while adding one of the Rays starters helps the back end of their rotation and provides a project for the future.
Texas leads the AL West by 4 1/2 games. Of the three teams with players the Rangers reportedly have interest in, the closest team to first place is the Yankees, who sit 8 1/2 games out of first place.
Thumbnail photo via Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports Images
