Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please come back soon, Yu Darvish. Please.

You never thought you’d miss Derek Holland. Until you saw who would replace him.

The pitching injuries in 2016 are a cruel reminder that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Because it’s like 2014 all over again. Remember that season we are all so deperately trying to forget? It’s back.

Derek Holland was lost before the season started. Martin Perez got in eight starts then was lost for the season. Yu Darvish’s elbow blew out in August.

So the Rangers had to do what no major league team with championship aspirations wants to do. Dip into the Ranger farm system for pitching.

In 2014, that yielded such gems as Justin Germano, Phil Klein, Phil Irwin, Alex Claudio, Ryan Feierabend, Spencer Patton, Ramon Mendez, Pedro Figuero, Seth Rosin, Ben Rowen, Matt West, Robbie Ross, Miles Mikolas and Tanner Scheppers.

2014 showed us what Rangers minor league pitching was made of. And it wasn’t major league pitching.

Jon Daniels took the rap for it, though. In magnanimous fashion, he explained, “I left the farm system exposed.” When his front line starters went down, he had nobody worth a major league start waiting in the minor leagues to fill in. The real talent, he claimed,  was couple of year away.

Look who’s here: a couple years later.

So, who are those pitchers that were a couple of years away? More important, where are they?

Chi Chi Gonzalez? Nick Martinez? Nick Tepesch? Luke Jackson? Alex Claudio? Phil Klein? Michael Roth?

It’s just a conveyor belt of prospects being called up, failing, being sent back down, then being called back up, in an endless loop of futility.

Where is the help?

Be patient. I read yesterday that the minor league pitching salvation for the Rangers is coming. It’s just a couple of years away.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

A.J. Griffin (3-0, 2.93) vs. David Price (8-5 , 4.74)
Game time: 6:10 pm

How the Rangers hit against Price.
How the Red Sox hit against Griffin.