3. Texas Rangers
Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports
Yikes.
Rangers GM Jon Daniels believes that he has all the right pieces to make a strong playoff push in 2015, or at least he used to. A team with the likes of Adrian Beltre, Yu Darvish, Prince Fielder, Shin-Soo Choo, Derek Holland and Jurickson Profar holds a lot of promise and star power, and should be a consistent threat in the American League, but it isn’t now due to the unpredictability of injuries.
Last season powerful first baseman Fielder experienced a herniated disk early on in May that sidelined him for the rest of the year. Choo had difficulty with elbow problems throughout the season that ultimately sidelined him at the end of August after a pedestrian season from the normally-consistent hitter. Starting pitcher Holland hoped to have a good 2014 season before a freak accident at home limited him to only a few starts.
Each of those injured players should be returning and should be healthy for Opening Day 2015, but the fates of ace Yu darvish and prospect Profar aren’t as desirable.
Both will be watching their team play the season without them. Darvish, after being sidelined in late August last season with elbow problems, experienced more discomfort this Spring Training that revealed TJ surgery would be necessary for full recovery.
Profar meanwhile, once a highly-touted five tool prospect that promised to be the future of the Texas Rangers, missed most of the 2014 season and will now miss the entire 2015 season as well. The shoulder injury has been a lingering liability of Profar’s and questions abound of if he can produce when he returns in 2016 after almost two years on the shelf.
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