Rangers Bruce Bochy: Spring Performances Set Pitching Roles

ARLINGTON — Bruce Bochy is in no hurry to declare much about his 2024 Texas Rangers club.

Bochy begins his second season with the team when spring training gets underway on Feb. 14 when pitchers and catchers report to the Rangers' spring complex in Surprise, Ariz.

The biggest looming questions about his club involve pitching, including how the bullpen roles will be allocated and which starting pitchers will make up the team's rotation through the first three months of the season

"I don't know if I'll get penciled in on that one, to be honest," Bochy said when asked who his closer would be. "It's always great to have guys that can pick each other up, keep everybody fresher, and keep them involved. I think they all want to help out and pitch important innings. They're in the bullpen to help us win a ballgame."

Jose Leclerc, Josh Sborz, and David Robertson, whom the Rangers signed last month, are the top three closer options entering spring training. 

"These are things that we'll talk about in the spring and see where we're at when we break camp," he said. But I'm just staying open-minded about how we're going to work things. Mike [Maddux] and I will talk about it. We'll communicate with the relievers, so they have a pretty good idea of what we're thinking and a decent idea of what the roles will be."

Leclerc and Sborz came up huge in the postseason to help the Rangers win their first World Series championship.

"They showed me they can pitch under pressure. That's the biggest thing," Bochy said. "They have great stuff, and they have really handled themselves so well in such a pressure situation. So that's what was impressive. And you love the confidence that they both had there at the end. They just grew as players in the bullpen, and we needed it at the time to have those guys help us out. And we pretty much rode them, to be honest. And it helped bring us a championship."

Does he enjoy the challenge of trying to piece a rotation or bullpen together? Or does it just make the job more stressful?

"I think you have to enjoy it. That's why we're here," he said. "I try not to get stressed out about what we're doing. My job is to make it work with whatever resources we have, and we have a lot of resources."

Bochy was careful to respect the job general manager Chris Young did by adding valuable arms at the trade deadline and the money spent by ownership.

"So I'm very grateful, trust me, with the resources that came in and we have some injuries right now," he added, referring to the starting rotation. "But now those guys are on the way. So we'll get help as the season goes. But meanwhile, I'd love to make it work until then."