The Rangers are hoping for the Andrew Cashner who pitched to a 2.55 ERA in 2014 for the San Diego Padres.

The Andrew Cashner era starts today.

Cashner joins the Rangers rotation after splitting the season with San Diego, then Miami.

With the Padres in 2016, he was 4-7 in sixteen starts, with a 4.67 ERA. He was traded to the Marlins, where he went 1-4 in twelve starts, with a 5.98 ERA and a WHIP of 1.747.

Those are numbers that usually get you into the Witness Protection Program. But they got Andrew Cashner a ten-million-dollar contract mainly on the strength of Rangers’ pitching coach Doug Brocail’s proclamation that he could “fix him.”

Cashner is a thirty-year-old, 6-foot 6 right-hander from Conroe, Texas, who played college baseball at TCU.

He’s a Texas kid. Now he’s a Texas Ranger.

He was on the track to being an ace when he was derailed by injury, a drop in velocity, and inconsistent control.

Now he’s ready to take the mound in the Rangers rotation that currently has the sixth-best ERA in baseball, at 3.10.

Let’s hope Brocail is quite the handyman.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Andrew Cashner (0-0, -.–) vs. James Paxton (1-0, 0.00)
Game time: 8:10

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