Rangers open to every option as rotation depth takes hit

ARLINGTON -- The Rangers had been lucky to ride with the same five members of their rotation since Opening Day.

Outside of Jacob Latz’s spot-start in place of Jacob deGrom for the second game of the season and a bit of tweaking to the rotation for Nathan Eovaldi just last week, the Rangers have been remarkably healthy in the rotation.

Now they find themselves in a bit of a pickle with Jack Leiter landing on the injured list with a right ankle injury that ultimately required surgery.

“You never want to lose anybody in the rotation,” manager Skip Schumaker said on Monday. “Jack was doing the best he could with the injury that he had. ... But it does make it challenging. It does leave an opportunity for somebody to step up.

“There might be some young guys getting opportunities here soon, we'll see what it looks like. There's definitely a hole in the rotation when you lose any of these guys. But we're not the only organization that’s lost a starter. This is going to test us, but hopefully we have a guy that steps up.”

The Rangers fell, 6-4, to the Marlins on Tuesday in what would have been Leiter’s turn in the rotation. In his place, veteran Cal Quantrill ( 2 IP, 1 ER), rookie Jose Corniell (3 1/3 IP, 5 ER) and Joe Ross (2 2/3 IP, 0 ER) combined to cover the entire game with a taxed bullpen.

“We needed to get innings, bulk innings, out of somebody,” Schumaker said postgame. “We were kind of tight down in the bullpen, as far as available arms. We had those three guys available for length, and then potentially a couple guys, if we tied or got the lead. Somebody needed to get those. I thought Corniell did a pretty good job. I think he got behind too many times and they ended up doing damage.”

It was only Corniell’s second MLB appearance, having debuted on the final day of the 2025 season. He had a delayed start to this season due to back and triceps soreness.

Corniell allowed 18 earned runs over 26 2/3 innings (6.08 ERA) in seven appearances (six starts) at Triple-A Round Rock after returning from his injury.

“There's work to do,” Schumacher said. “He's not a finished product by any means. I think his velo is still going to creep up over the course of the year. I think his changeup is going to get better, I think his cutter is going to get better. I think he has enough to get guys out at the big league level. It’s part of our job to help him make those adjustments, and he's going to have to, because the big league hitters hit mistake pitches often. But he has enough stuff to get guys out.”

General manager Ross Fenstermaker said that while the front office is always evaluating ways to add reinforcements, they do feel confident in the group of pitchers they have here at this time.

The three starting pitching prospects that the Rangers have on the 40-man are Corniell (Texas’ No. 4, per MLB Pipeline), David Davalillo (No. 7) and Winston Santos (No. 5). None of the three has had a particularly smooth 2026 season.

Leandro Lopez (No. 14) is also on the 40-man roster, but he has not yet pitched above Double-A.

“Again, we're not the only team that's had some injuries,” Schumaker said. “Injuries are going to come up. Hopefully we are well equipped to replace some of these guys. It can be hard to replace Jack Leiter, but we feel good about some of the depth that we have coming up now. I don't know what it's going to look like, because they haven't pitched in the big leagues, but they have real stuff, and if they're around the zone, they'll be OK.”

Santos is coming back from a left hand fracture he suffered on a comebacker during live batting practice in Spring Training. Since then, he’s posted a 7.44 ERA in 11 starts at Double-A Frisco.

Davalillo -- after a breakout in 2024-25 -- has posted a 5.64 ERA in 11 starts between Frisco and Triple-A Round Rock this season.

“We feel pretty confident with the group that we have here in the organization at this point,” Fenstermaker reiterated. “I think we had several options, one of which is here now in Corniell. Winston Santos is on the roster. We feel confident we'll get David Davalillo back on track. We've got a couple options in Triple-A as well that are off roster, too. There's different ways that we can go about this. I feel we'll continue exploring every opportunity we have.”