Howard, Hearn Ready For Increased Roles With Rangers

With the Texas Rangers in need of innings, Spencer Howard and Taylor Hearn could play pivotal roles in the final two months of the season.

Chris Halicke | Aug 6, 2021

ARLINGTON, Texas — The final two months of the Texas Rangers season will provide an enormous opportunity for a large group of young players who are trying to cement themselves as part of the contending future of the club.

Since the Rangers traded All-Star starter Kyle Gibson, the team needs their internal options to step up and provide innings. The newly acquired Spencer Howard can help in that regard, but because of how he was utilized in Philadelphia, the Rangers can't fully stretch him out to pitch a ton of innings.

Even so, the Rangers plan to use him in a tandem or piggyback setup to help log some innings. His debut with the team came on Thursday, and for all intents and purposes, went just fine. Howard took the loss and was charged with three runs in 2 1/3 inning, but showed flashes of why the Rangers have sought after him for quite some time.

“It was not as sharp as I would’ve liked, but there’s still things to learn from and things that I can build off,” Howard said. “I’ll try to hammer mechanics as much as I can this next week. I'm just feeling a little bit off and it's translating into fastballs not really going where I want them, and offspeed not spinning the way I want. It’s just a matter of syncing the delivery up, and that'll come with repetitions.”

Now that Chris Woodward and the coaching staff has had the chance to get their eyes on Howard in a Rangers uniform, the transition from his time in Philly can properly begin. Sure, the Rangers already knew Howard pretty well. That's the nature of the game nowadays. But with the technology that's set up at Globe Life Field, now the club can begin to aid Howard in getting to the next level.

"The way [our pitching coaches] do it is pretty special," said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. "I don't think they're going to overwhelm Spencer at all. They've talked to him about certain things. Just our processes and how we do it — the data and the technology we use. How we're going to relay that information to him and help him understand what we see and how we can help him."

The Rangers have sophisticated technology at Globe Life Field that not many other ballparks have throughout the league. It's a new process that Howard didn't go through in Philadelphia. Citizens Bank Park may or may not be set up with the same technology as the Rangers, but Howard said he was never presented with the type of data the Rangers are presenting.

Texas has had success with turning around the career of a few pitchers, including Gibson, Mike Minor and Lance Lynn. Howard is significantly younger than that trio, but the Rangers intentionally have the pitchers heavily involved in the decision-making process as the coaching staff digs through the data.

"I think it's critical," Woodward said of having the players involved. "That's where you get the long-term growth and understanding of themselves. Both Doug [Mathis] and [Brendan Sagara] have been phenomenal in doing that with all of our guys."

Another internal candidate for a larger role is Taylor Hearn, who is in the process of being stretched out. Two runs scored during his outing, but both were unearned due to a throwing error by third baseman Yonny Hernandez.

“It's like the ball was coming out with life,” Woodward said of Hearn. “He looked good. Honestly, the tempo was good. The conviction was there. He was executing pitches. His stuff maintained throughout the outing. [He had] good sliders, good changeups. I just thought he did really good.”

Hearn has quietly had a solid season, despite having a slight regression from last season with a 4.13 ERA and 107 ERA+. He's pitched in a number of roles — pretty much whatever Chris Woodward has asked him to do. 30 of 33 appearances this season have come in relief. In doing so, Hearn leads the team in relief strikeouts (52), becoming the club's fourth left-handed pitcher since 2015 to rack up at least 50 strikeouts in relief.

As he continues to be stretched out into a longer role, he could eventually earn his way back to starting like he did in the minor leagues, whether it be later this season or next year. And after a career-high of four innings on Thursday, Hearn felt good after the outing.

"I like it because as I get more innings and go deeper into the game, I'm able to get a better feel," Hearn said of pitching in a longer role. "Probably the first time I went a little bit more in Detroit, I did get a little tired because I hadn't done it in a while. It's just honestly getting back in the routine of what I used to do."

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Published Aug 6, 2021

CHRIS HALICKE