According to new Rangers beat reporter Kennedi Landry, Rangers manager Chris Woodward said three starting rotation slots are confirmed: Kyle Gibson, Mike Foltynewicz, and Kohei Arihara.

Curious why he didn’t mention Dane Dunning because it would be the biggest shocker in the world if Dunning wasn’t, a, in the rotation and, b, the best pitcher in the rotation.

Maybe he forgot about him.

Over the off-season, the Rangers front office traded away perhaps their best pitcher in the past decade, Lance Lynn, for Dunning. You’d think they would have told that to Woodward.

And you’d think Kyle Cody is a lock for the rotation. A 1.59 ERA should make people sit up and take notice, although he averaged fewer than four innings per start. So, that might put him in some sort of gray area where he starts, goes four or five innings, then has someone like Ian Kennedy come in for him for three or four innings. The piggy-back thing.

A lot of teams have made noise about six-man rotations or piggy-backing in order to compensate for how few innings starters threw in last year’s sixty-game season.

Barring injury, it would be hard to fathom a five-man rotation that doesn’t include Gibson, Arihara, Foltynewicz, Dunning, and Cody. While Gibson will probably be given the opening day nod because that’s how these things go, it would be hard to fathom any situation where he is the least effective of those five pitchers.

The rotation is taking shape. And, with a little luck, it could actually be in decent shape.