Kevin Blackistone has a piece in the Tuesday DMN on Buck Showalter, which centers around a rather bold proclamation from Buck:
"I think our guys are ready to take the next step: playing in October. Simple as that."
Really not much else of note in there, though...
What I found more interesting was a short item on Rule 5 draftee Fabio Castro...
The Rangers think there is so much upside to Castro, out of the Dominican Republic, that they don't want to lose him or even take a chance of exposing him to waiver risk. It will make for some dicey roster configuring to keep him, though.
"If we can't keep this guy, we probably won't get him back through the waiver wire," Showalter said. "We hope he pitches well enough where he makes us keep him."
As I've said before, I don't think the Rangers would have gone through the machinations to get the first pick in the Rule 5 draft and nab Castro if they weren't planning on keeping him. If he's a disaster this spring, if the team decides they made a mistake in taking him, that would change, of course.
But as long as Castro looks halfway decent this spring, I'd be shocked if the Rangers didn't start the season with him on either the 25 man roster or the d.l.