Any hopes Texas Rangers relief pitcher Kevin Jepsen had of wrestling the closer's role from Keone Kela went up in smoke Monday. Jepsen came into a tie game with two outs in the top of the eighth inning, which he successfully navigated. However, he ran into trouble in the ninth inning, where he gave up four earned runs on three hits and a walk. Prior to this outing, Jepsen had given up just two earned runs in 10 2/3 innings with six strikeouts. Following Kela's bad outing on Friday, Jepsen had gained ground in the closer competition, but those gains now appear to have been lost.
The Texas Rangers' manager Jeff Banister told reporters that pitcher Tony Barnette is not likely to be ready to start the season, opening a roster spot for reliever Kevin Jepsen. The 33-year-old Jepsen has been a pleasant surprise, giving up just one run and four hits over 9 1/3 innings this spring training. After what basically amounted to two lost seasons in 2016 and 2017, he looks far more like the guy that saved 15 games and hurled a 2.33 ERA in 2015 and less like the one that struggled to the point that he spent all last season with Nationals' Triple-A affiliate. There is more reason for optimism, as Jepsen seemed to rediscover his strikeout mojo in 2017, and it has carried over to the spring, as he is averaging nearly a K per inning. If Jepsen can work his way into Banister's good graces, and the Rangers' bullpen deteriorates as it did last year, there is an outside chance he could find his way into high leverage situations. There is little reason to give him a roster spot at this point, but with such an unclear bullpen picture in Texas, he is now worth some attention.
