SURPRISE, Ariz. — I would have said that Chris Young orchestrated the entire thing except for the fact he had no idea what I wanted to talk about when he greeted me in his team president’s suite after three innings Tuesday. The bullpen … what are the Texas Rangers going to do about another potentially awful bullpen? As we worked through other topics to begin talking bullpen, a funny thing ...

Texas Rangers pitcher Cole Winn throws in the outfield with teammates during a spring training workout at the team's training facility on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Surprise, Arizona.

Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

SURPRISE, Ariz. — I would have said that Chris Young orchestrated the entire thing except for the fact he had no idea what I wanted to talk about when he greeted me in his team president’s suite after three innings Tuesday.

The bullpen … what are the Texas Rangers going to do about another potentially awful bullpen?

As we worked through other topics to begin talking bullpen, a funny thing happened down below at Surprise Stadium. Gavin Collyer, potential future closer who had eight saves at Frisco last year, mows down the Guardians in the fourth. Jakob Junis, able set-up man for the Brewers, Reds and Guardians the last two years, gets the double play grounder he needs for a shutout fifth. Cole Winn, a one-time failed starter who is re-inventing his life as a reliever, cruises through the sixth. And, most important, Josh Sborz, the man who recorded the final seven outs of the 2023 World Series but missed all of last season after a shoulder debridement (fancy word for a clean-up), hits 93-94 mph on the giant screen above Young’s head that contains stats I don’t even comprehend and blanks Cleveland in the seventh.

Toss in Chris Martin, Robert Garcia, maybe Michel Otanez and just maybe, late in the summer, Emiliano Teodo, and this is how it’s supposed to work for a team ready to compete again in the AL West.

Bullpen worries? What worries are those?

OK, even Young doesn’t go so far as to say there are no concerns for a team that didn’t have anyone record 10 saves last year and saw Garcia, a guy with nine saves, nearly re-write the club record book for blown saves (7) and losses (8) while coming up poorly in almost every category where you’d want a closer to excel (first batter faced, men in scoring position, extra innings).

The funny thing is that of the three Rangers to collect nine saves, Garcia is the only one still here. For a team that said goodbye to Marcus Semien, Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim, the biggest offseason loss may have been Shawn Armstrong, who signed with Cleveland for an almost paltry $5.5 million on a one-year deal — an amount the Rangers’ new budget could not afford.

When manager Skip Schumaker was asked for some of his positive bullpen observations from a year ago when he served as an adviser, the first two names he mentioned were Armstrong and Hoby Milner, who led the team with 73 appearances.

“They were guys who did a really good job in high leverage spots,” Schumaker said. “I know they’re not here anymore.”

So the Rangers have three weeks to sort through exactly who is here and who should go to Philadelphia to open the season and what innings they might pitch. You won’t see those roles defined here because, Schumaker said: “Honestly, I’m just trying to get guys to face guys who have a name on their back I might be familiar with.”

And that only happens in the early and middle innings, not late in games when the Rangers need relievers to do a better job than they did in 2024.

Along those lines, Young expects the names to change after opening day.

“We did a study on teams that regularly have the best bullpens and that’s what we discovered, that they keep bringing in guys or making trades or claims to get better as the season goes along,” Young said.

Schumaker said it’s not so much a desire for a “closer by committee” approach as simply the way things often work for most teams.

“I’ve been in situations where your sixth inning guy ends up being your closer,” Schumaker said. “In 2011, the [St. Louis] World Series, Ryan Franklin was our closer at the break. Jason Motte ended up being our closer at the end.

“Two years ago when I was with Miami, we started the season with [Dylan] Floro and ended up with Tanner Scott. So I just don’t know what’s going to happen here. I’d love for someone to take hold of that [closer] role for sure. But also there’s leverage spots where you can lose games in the eighth inning where you don’t even get to your closer.”

Figure on some combination of Garcia, Martin and maybe even Winn working to accumulate early season saves for this team. Figure on an almost completely different combination striving to finish games in August and September. Not every team can afford to pay Josh Hader $19 million per season for an inning of work two or three days a week. Come to think of it, the team that pays Hader (Houston) didn’t have him for the last 46 games of 2025 — a major reason the Astros’ playoff streak was snapped at eight years — and they don’t know when they will have him in 2026.

So if you’re going to play save-your-dollars musical chairs with any aspect of your big league club, it needs to be the one where Texas is hoping its guessing game provides better finishing results than it did in 2025.

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