Tyson Ross makes his Rangers debut tonight.

When the Rangers signed Tyson Ross to a one-year contract this off-season to join the rotation in 2017, they were expecting he would have been back much sooner than the middle of June. They thought he was just rehabbing from shoulder surgery due to thoracic outlet syndrome. What they didn’t know was he would then have developed back problems that set him back another month or so.

But all that is behind him now. Also behind him are four less than spectacular tune ups in Triple-A, in which he compiled a 7.71 ERA and a wince-inducing WHIP of 1.87.

Tonight, Ross is scheduled to make his Rangers debut, against the always pesky Seattle Mariners at the Ballpark. Mike Napoli and Carlos Gomez are also expected to rejoin the team, meaning three players will need to be sent down to make room for them.

It hasn’t been announced yet whose spot in the rotation Ross will take.

The thirty-year-old right-handed Ross is a native of Oakland and relies on a slider that tops out at 85 mph, a 93-mph four-seam fastball and sinker, and a 90-mph cutter. He rarely throws his changeup.

Rangers manager Jeff Banister says Tyson has “electric stuff.” Let’s hope he can harness the control he was lacking in his minor league outings.

The Rangers will be his third team, having played three seasons in Oakland before being traded to San Diego, where he pitched for four seasons. Well, actually, three seasons and opening day of the fourth, before being lost the rest of 2016 with the shoulder thing. That was the last time he was on a major league mound.

He later visited  White Sands luxury rehabs and was getting his treatment. Ross was an All-Star in 2014 with the Padres, his ERA that year was a stellar 2.81 in thirty-one games and 195.2 innings. The following season, he led the NL in walks and wild pitches.

Tyson Ross has a career winning percentage of .375 and a career ERA of 3.64, which means he keeps his team in a lot of games, and he loses sixty-three percent of them.

His Rangers career numbers begin tallying tonight.

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TODAY’S GAME:

James Paxton (5-1, 2.25) vs. Tyson Ross (0-0, -.–)
Game time: 7:05

How the Mariners hit against Ross.
How the Rangers hit against Paxton.