Rangers' Glenn Otto Needs to Avoid Doing 'Too Much'

The right-hander set a career-high in walks in his last outing, but still managed to find a way to win

Glenn Otto has had a bit more time to reflect on his last start for the Texas Rangers, thanks to Thursday's day off.

And, now, he has a bit more. 

The Rangers announced on Friday that the right-hander was placed on the team's COVID-19 list, meaning that the right-hander won't pitch as scheduled on Friday against the Chicago White Sox.

That's a shame, too, because the time between starts allowed him to re-calibrate after his uneven outing against Seattle on Saturday. It led to a win for the Rangers and for Otto, but it was probably his least effective start in nearly a month.

It wasn’t easy, but Otto gutted his way through a game in which he set a career-high for walks and threw strikes just 51.5 percent of the time.

“I just have to try and focus on the positives, address the negatives and get ready for the next start and attack the zone,” Otto said after the win over the Mariners.

Otto threw just five innings in that game, but he actually started the game with four innings of hitless baseball, which don’t quite underscore Otto’s control issues. He walked five and hit another batter while giving up two hits and two runs. Cal Raleigh broke up his no-hitter with a single, and Jesse Winker’s two-run home run basically ended Otto’s day after he got out of the inning.

So did Otto’s pitch count. He was at 95 when he left the game, with just 49 strikes.

“I was just trying to do too much,” Otto said. “I was just trying to be a little too fine. My pitches move quite a bit so they don’t necessarily have to be pin-pointed. I just need to come (inside). If I can get ahead of hitters, I can.”

There’s no reason to believe that he can’t back to being more efficient. His recent history says that’s possible.

Otto, 26, has won his last three starts, which is a career-best in his young Major League career. In his last four starts, Otto is 3-1 with a 2.45 earned run average in 22 innings.

Those past four starts are a bounce-back for Otto. On May 14 against Boston, Otto had his worst start to this point of 2022, giving up eight runs (all earned) in an 11-3 loss at Globe Life Field.

His performance the past four starts has dropped his ERA by two points (6.38 to 4.24), and he’s starting to perform like American League Pitcher of the Month Martín Pérez. Otto has allowed two or fewer runs in seven of his eight starts, and his four wins tie him for the club lead with Pérez.

One of four prospects to come to the Rangers in the Joey Gallo trade last year, he was the first to make the Major Leagues and the first to be a part of a regular rotation at his position group.

That, naturally, means he’ll be the first to make adjustments.

“He’s obviously got to learn from this and do better,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “But you’re not always going to be perfect.”

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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