The Rangers need to add starting pitching this winter. They need to retain starting pitching this winter. Those are significant projects that will require time, energy and creativity.

But they must also find time for one other significant pitching project this winter.

They must re-examine the process by which they identify and develop starting pitching.

So let's call this offseason issue:

Do some home-schooling

Martin Perez was the last starter the Rangers developed who has made 30 starts in a season for the club. Perez broke into the majors in 2012. He reached 30 starts in a season for the first time this year. And the Rangers still didn't have enough confidence in him to use him in any of their three AL Division Series games.

You can't go five seasons between developing starters and continue to contend long-term. The price of acquiring pitching is too high in terms of both prospects and dollars.

General manager Jon Daniels indicated the Rangers will do some internal analysis this winter to see what can be improved. This won't yield them a pitcher for the 2017 season, but doing some retooling here may help them extend the current "window of opportunity" much longer. This must become the preeminent data collection project of the offseason. The project should include scouting, development and how pitchers are valued.

Starting pitching is the currency of the game. If you hoard it, you've got a bright future. If you are willing to trade it, you can fix other pressing issues. The Rangers have used starting pitching over the last two years to acquire big-time contributors such as Cole Hamels (starters Jake Thompson, Jerad Eickhoff and Alec Asher were three of the six players sent to Philadelphia), Jonathan Lucroy (Luis Ortiz) and Carlos Beltran (Dillon Tate).

Not sure the Rangers could have changed anything on those deals, though it has been suggested to me they could have put Chi Chi Gonzalez in the Philadelphia deal instead of Thompson. If so, it's significant. Gonzalez took a step backward this year and had an 8.71 ERA in just three major league starts. Thompson reached the majors for the first time and made 10 starts with a 3.41 ERA for the last six. Small sample sizes for both, for sure, but also attention-worthy.

Of more concern should be what the Rangers saw in the playoffs. They see Kyle Hendricks making starts for the Cubs and saw Tanner Roark start for Washington. They traded both in deals that brought no tangible return whatsoever.

There is probably some draft rehash to be done, too. In particular, the Rangers may want to look back at 2010 and their process then. They had five picks in the top 50, starting with No. 15. They took outfielder Jake Skole, a major bust, at 15, catcher Kellin Deglan at 22, right-hander Luke Jackson at 45 and third baseman Mike Olt at 49.

In between the pick of Skole and the pick of Jackson, the following pitchers were snapped up: Mike Foltynewicz (19), Aaron Sanchez (34), Taijuan Walker (43) and, perhaps most significantly, Mansfield Legacy's Noah Syndergaard (38).

It hurts to lose out on pitchers, hurts to have multiple opportunities to draft them and is particularly painful when they are growing up less than 20 miles from the home office.

The Rangers still have some pitching talent at the upper levels of the minors in Gonzalez, Nick Martinez, Connor Sadzeck, Yohander Mendez and Jose Leclerc and a potential fast-comer in Brett Martin. It's a thinner group of talent than three months ago, which makes it all the more important to not make mistakes in evaluations or development.