You have to give it to Chris Young. Forced to rebuild a failed bullpen over the offseason on a shoestring budget, he created one of the best bullpens in baseball.

He added Chris Martin, Hoby Milner, Shawn Armstrong, Robert Garcia, Luke Jackson, and Jacob Webb. Only Jacob Latz and Cole Winn were with the Rangers prior to 2025.

While the rotation has been getting all the praise, the bullpen has been just as good, and in some ways better, because a failed bullpen leads to shattered confidence and perpetual disappointment.

Over the past twenty-five innings, the Rangers bullpen has been almost airtight. Their ERA is 1.08, allowing just four earned runs. 

The bullpen arms are going to be more important than ever since, at present, the Rangers have only a four-man rotation of Jacob deGrom, Tyler Mahle, Patrick Corbin (another bargain barrel gem Chris Young plucked out of the dustbin this offseason), and Jack Leiter. That’s why they went with a bullpen game in Washington, why they went with one last night, and why they are going with one Sunday. Not only are they short one rotation arm (who knows when Nathan Eovaldi is returning, or Cody Bradford or Jon Gray for that matter), they’re trying to give the arms they have extra rest to coax an entire season out of them. 

But, back to the bullpen. The only weakness is no real closer. Luke Jackson was handed that role, and he couldn’t handle it. It looked like Chris Martin was next in line, then weird popping in his shoulder and elbow limited him to one pitch each in two consecutive appearances. Now, it appears that job falls on Robert Garcia, whose every outing appears to be sponsored by the Arlington Heart Clinic. 

While the Rangers are playing music chairs with their closer, maybe the guy who ends up with the job is Cole Winn. He has yet to give up an earned run this season.

That’s in 23.1 innings in Triple-A and ten innings in the major leagues. It should be noted that no pitcher in the entire history of baseball has had a better ERA than Cole Winn’s 0.00.

One of manager Bruce Bochy’s strengths has always been his mastery of the bullpen use. He’s wielding his magic again this season. 

This duct taped and paper clipped together bullpen has been fantastic. Bochy has been able to get the most out of them.

With the fragile arms in the rotation being driven coddled, they need a bullpen this solid. 

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