The Rangers rotation has taken a beating of late. It started in 1972 when the Washington Senators moved to Arlington…

Wait, fast forward to the present tense Rangers rotation problems. The Rangers’ inability to develop quality pitching in their system (with the exception of the one really good one who is pitching with the Cubs due to the inability to make a good trade for pitching) is coming back to haunt them.

With two bonafide quality starters in their rotation they didn’t develop in Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish, one questionable one they did, in Martin Perez, the Rangers rolled some pretty big dice on two Padres rejects, Andrew Cashner and Tyson Ross.

Ross is coming of major surgery and won’t be ready until maybe June. That’s if he is ready at all. Not many pitchers have successfully come back from thoracic outlet syndrome.

Cashner is coming off a few seasons where he has simply been awful. But Rangers pitching coach Doug Brocail said he could fix him. Except now Cashner’s shoulder is acting up. Unless Brocail is a surgeon, there might not be anything he can do. Of course, nobody has said Cashner is going to need surgery. Which is exactly why the odds are he will. In the vernacular of a former Ranger manager, that’s how baseball go, or at least baseball injuries go.

Cashner is a trainwreck just waiting to happen if he isn’t injured. He averaged five inning per start last year, had a 5.98 ERA with the Marlins, and hasn’t looked good since 2014. Any injury to Cashner might just improve the Rangers rotation.

Then again, when you look at the candidates to replace him, maybe not.

A.J. Griffin is being kicked around in three spring training outings. Spring doesn’t matter, but eventually you have to instill confidence in your manager.

The other usual suspects are Nick Martinez and Chi Chi Gonzalez. They instill all the confidence of your brother-in-law doing your taxes. They have had very limited success in the major leagues, mostly heart ache.

So the Ranger go into the final three weeks of the spring with a three-man rotation. Really, with Perez, a two-and-a-half-man rotation.

I am wondering if they still have Colby Lewis’s phone number.

*****

THE FIRST ANNUAL RANGERS ROUNDING 3RD.COM DAY AT THE BALLPARK.

Saturday, June 3, 2017, 6:15 versus the Astros. Tickets are $40 each, in the Cholula All You Can Eat section. Limited tickets are available and they are going fast.