The Rangers will head to Arizona for spring training next week with more substantive questions about the club than perhaps at any time in the last decade. They are coming off just their second losing season since 2009 and looking up at a division that includes the defending world champions for the first time in 16 years.

Each day this week, we will examine one of the questions they will attempt to answer in the six weeks leading up to the March 29 opener against the world champion Houston Astros:

No. 4: Can Texas build a six-man rotation?

An annual rite of Rangers spring training: The search for enough starting pitching.

This year, the question is even more pertinent with the club seemingly determined to expand the rotation to include six starters.

Manager Jeff Banister has long been enamored of the idea of using six starters and the club's pursuit of Shohei Ohtani included a proposal to shift to a six-man rotation. Just because the Rangers lost out on Ohtani doesn't mean they are going to shelve the idea. If anything, they are more committed.

The thinking is that a schedule that includes more off days allows for what Banister calls a "five-plus-one" rotation, in which there would be five regulars and a sixth starter who could possibly swing between the bullpen and rotation when needed to ensure everybody gets five days off between starts. The hope is that it would keep all pitchers fresher and give them more life later in the season.

"I don't think I'm the only one that has looked at this as something where parts of it that make sense," Banister said of a six-man rotation. "The schedule makes it challenging. Construction of your roster makes it challenging. There is enough data that tells us there are pitchers who definitely benefit from an extra day's rest or the routine of being on that five-day rest period or six-day rest period. You can point to ERAs. You can point to velocity. You can point to walk rates go down, strike out rates go up.

"The challenge is finding the guys who are willing to look at it, to be part of it, to wrap their minds around it," he added. "Because traditionally, we're kind of stuck in that five-man rotation."

So is he committed to it?

"There are different levels of commitment," he said. "But, yes."

It is a novel concept.

Taking it from concept to reality in six weeks is a challenge. There are at least as many questions about the rotation as there are answers. The answers are these: Cole Hamels, Doug Fister and Matt Moore all would be in the rotation, barring injury.

The questions?

Will Martin Perez be ready?

Perez suffered a broken bone on the tip of his right (non-pitching) elbow in an accident with a bull over the winter and was expected to miss the first few weeks of the season. He has maintained he would be ready for the start of the season and has begun to throw off a mound. If he is ready, it would give the Rangers four locked-in starters. If not, it thins the choices by a significant option. Perez leads the Rangers in innings pitched since returning from Tommy John surgery midway through 2015.

Can Mike Minor and Matt Bush both transition to the rotation?

Over a three-year period with Atlanta, Minor averaged 176 innings as a starter, but he missed two full seasons and last year pitched exclusively - and exceptionally well - in relief for Kansas City. He pitched only 77 innings last year. If he is to move into the rotation, the Rangers will have to monitor his workload more diligently than others. The same goes for Bush, though he doesn't even have a track record as a starter. How they react to increased workloads during the spring will be key to whether the Rangers have the necessary arms to expand.

Do Bartolo Colon or Jon Niese have anything left?

The veterans, both in camp on minor league contracts, at least have some experience in a six-man setup. Both did it for the New York Mets for part of 2015. The experience is important. More important, though, is whether they can get guys out. Niese didn't pitch at all last year after undergoing knee surgery at the end of 2016, while Colon had a 6.48 ERA in 143 innings. Given questions about the readiness of Perez and the questions about the transitioning relievers, hitting on one of these veterans would significantly open up the possibilities.

Is there an optionable starter in camp?

The most advanced pitching prospects in camp are Yohander Mendez and Ariel Jurado. They would be able to be optioned to the minor leagues. And ideally, the sixth starter could be optionable so the Rangers could send him out and replace him with an extra reliever or bat when the schedule gives them an abundance of off days. The more realistic hope is that one of them is ready at mid-season to push for the rotation. They can at least leave favorable impressions on the major league staff.

Will a free agent fall to them?

There is a glut of free agent starting pitchers still available on the market. If the standoff between players and owners drags on into camp, the possibility of prices dropping more means the Rangers can't rule out bargain hunting. Remember, this is a team that added regulars Ian Desmond and Mike Napoli to the roster after camp began in each of the last two seasons.

File-This Sept. 26, 2017, file photo shows Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Bartolo Colon throwing against the Cleveland Indians during the first inning in a baseball game in Cleveland. Colon has agreed to a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers, and the 44-year-old right-hander will attend big league spring training. Colon would get a $1.75 million, one-year contract if added to the 40-man roster under the terms of the deal agreed to Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane, File) (Ron Schwane / AP)

Rested and ready?

The Rangers will consider using a form of a six-man rotation this season to keep starters fresher. Will it have an impact? For the veteran starters in camp, past results are a mixed bag. Here's a look at how those starters have performed over the last three seasons when starting on four days' of rest after their last start vs. five days:

Bartolo Colon

Doug Fister

Cole Hamels

Matt Moore

Jon Niese

Martin Perez

SPRING TRAINING ISSUES

Part 1: Does Texas have a regular LF among these options?