Welcome to the 2016 Season. It has been a while since I have wrote about the Rangers. That is what having a full-time job and a pregnant wife will do to you is give you less time to write and think about baseball. Here we are though and we are now 1 month away from Opening Day 2016. Hopes are high for the defending AL West Champion Texas Rangers. They return the core of a team that shocked everyone last season and rallied from last place in May to first place in October. The 2015 season was quite the ride and now as we head into the 2016 season the Rangers attempt to build on that success. It will not be easy though as the Houston Astros seem primed to take that next step in their rebuilding process and win the division. The Seattle Mariners, who were the one team in the division that the Rangers struggled against, will look to rebound from a very disappointing 2015 campaign. Just like any other baseball season it promises to be a season of highs and lows and as a fan I can’t wait to see where it takes us.

We are now one week into the full squad workouts and two games into the exhibition season and things are looking good. They signed former Washington Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond to fill their hole in left field. He is a right-handed bat that has power and could go a long way toward helping the lineup not be so left-handed heavy as it was last season. He also is someone the team can rely on to be in the lineup day-in and day-out. He signed for 1 year/8 million and so he will play this season and then the team will be ready to hand left field over to one of the Nomar Mazara/Lewis Brinson/Joey Gallo trio. I expect one or all of them to be on the major league roster next season in a full-time capacity. He will see his first game action today as the Rangers face the LA Dodgers in game 3 of the Cactus League season.

In other news Yu Darvish continues to progress in his journey back from Tommy John surgery. He has advanced from throwing on flat ground to throwing off a half mound, and on Monday he threw off a full mound with no pain. He has not experienced any side-effects in the days since. He still continues to be on track to make his debut in mid-May to early-June. The plan is to continue to bring him along slowly so that the innings count is not an issue come September and hopefully October. That will be a big addition to the team and will help strengthen their rotation.

Finally, in actual game action the Rangers won their first two Cactus League games. They beat the defending champions Kansas City Royals in both games. They won the first game 6-2 and then beat the Royals again yesterday 10-0. The star of both of games has been outfield uber prospect Nomar Mazara. He has a hit in 8 of his first 9 plate appearances combined between the two games against the Royals and the Rangers intersquad scrimmage earlier this week. He likely will not be making the team out of Spring Training as the Rangers want him to continue to develop in AAA Round Rock, but if he continues to hit a good clip he will make it very hard for the Rangers to send him down. It still is very early though as pitchers are nowhere near ready to start the season. It is to be expected that hitters would have the upper hand at this point. Manager Jeff Banister was asked about Mazara’s chances at making the team after the first game and all he had to say was that Mazara had a good day. Baseball is not about having good days. Baseball is about stringing together several good days and being able to learn from the bad days. It is a marathon and not a sprint and while the organization may not have many competitions going on this spring, a lot could happen between now and Opening Day.

The competitions that I will be keeping my eye on this Spring is who will be the number 5 starter, who will be the utility infielder, who will be extra outfielder that the Rangers will carry, and who will the backup catcher be. The Opening Day rotation will look like this in no particular order: Cole Hamels, Colby Lewis, Derek Holland, and Martin Perez. The 5th starter competition consists of Chi Chi Gonzalez, Nick Martinez, Cesar Ramos, Jeremy Guthrie,  and Nick Tepesch. A lot of viable candidates in there. I am sure the team would love to see Chi Chi really claim that spot, but they will not give it to him if he doesn’t earn it though. As far as the utility infield spot it is Hanser Albertos to lose. He has the most experience but other guys like Doug Bernier, Drew Robinson, and even Jurickson Profar will all be trying to take that spot. Profar who hasn’t played in a MLB game since 2013 is finally healthy and able to throw. The plan is to work him slowly along and have him start the season in AAA Round Rock and then maybe bring him up later in the season. He could speed those plans along though if he plays well here in Arizona. The extra outfielder will be a competition between Jason Jones,