Thursday afternoon the League Division Series round of the postseason will begin at Globe Life Park in Arlington. The Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays, two teams with some bad blood, are meeting in an ALDS rematch. Toronto won the best-of-five series in five games last year.
Prior to start of Game 1, both teams released their 25-man rosters for the ALDS.
Texas Rangers 25-man roster
Pitchers (11): Tony Barnette, Matt Bush, Alex Claudio, Yu Darvish, Jake Diekman, Sam Dyson, Cole Hamels, Jeremy Jeffress, Keone Kela, Colby Lewis, Martin Perez
Catchers (2): Robinson Chirinos, Jonathan Lucroy
Infielders (5): Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre, Mitch Moreland, Rougned Odor, Jurickson Profar
Outfielders (7): Carlos Beltran, Shin-Soo Choo, Ian Desmond, Carlos Gomez, Jared Hoying, Nomar Mazara, Ryan Rua
The most notable omission is left-hander Derek Holland, who was part of the club's 2010 and 2011 pennant winning teams. He has bullpen experience and could have been carried as an extra southpaw reliever, but the Rangers went with Claudio for that role.
Hamels, Darvish, and Lewis are starting Games 1-3, respectively, the Rangers announced. They could start Perez in Game 4, or they could bring Hamels back on short rest. That would allow them to start Darvish in Game 5 on normal rest thanks to built in off-days. It goes without saying the more starts from Hamels and Darvish, the better.
Toronto Blue Jays 25-man roster
Pitchers (12): Joe Biagini, Brett Cecil, Marco Estrada, Scott Feldman, Jason Grilli, J.A. Happ, Francisco Liriano, Aaron Loup, Roberto Osuna, Aaron Sanchez, Marcus Stroman, Ryan Tepera
Catchers (2): Russell Martin, Dioner Navarro
Infielders (6): Darwin Barney, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Justin Smoak, Devon Travis, Troy Tulowitzki
Outfielders (5): Jose Bautista, Ezequiel Carrera, Kevin Pillar, Michael Saunders, Melvin Upton
No surprises here. The Blue Jays did drop infielder Ryan Goins and outfielder Dalton Pompey from the Wild Card Game roster to add Happ and Sanchez, who will start Games 2 and 3 of the ALDS, respectively. Marco Estrada is getting the ball in Game 1.
