TAMPA — Chris Martin is now eligible to be reinstated from the injured list, but eligibility is one thing, readiness another.
After a bullpen session on Tuesday that seemed to still be lacking in command, the Rangers held off activating Martin from the IL on Wednesday.
“We’re in a holding pattern with him,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We don’t want to activate him until we feel that he’s ready, and he feels that he’s ready. So we’re going to take another bullpen and continue to reevaluate where he is at.”
It wasn’t clear if Martin, on the IL since May 19 with shoulder fatigue, would throw on Thursday in Tampa or if he would wait until the club goes to Washington for the weekend.
In Martin’s absence, the bullpen has performed remarkably well. In the two weeks since he was placed on the IL, the bullpen had allowed 11 earned runs (18 total runs) in 42 ⅓ innings.
Martin had been the Rangers’ primary eighth inning reliever before the injury. In his absence, Robert Garcia has stepped into a higher leverage role. Garcia has two of the Rangers’ three saves since Martin was hurt. Luke Jackson, who had the bulk of the early save opportunities, has been moved into more of a middle-innings role.
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