CHICAGO -- Ariel Jurado will not get a second start for the Rangers.

At least not this week.

The Rangers optioned the 22-year-old back to Double-A Frisco Sunday, less than 24 hours after his big-league debut. The Rangers needed to activate reliever Chris Martin as a bullpen reinforcement after using relievers for 23 innings over the past seven days. It creates a need for a starter for Thursday's game against the Kansas City Royals.

Manager Jeff Banister said minor league prospect Yohander Mendez and journeymen jack-of-all-trades Austin Bibens-Dirkx were the leading candidates to make the start. Mendez might have been given the start Saturday over Jurado but he did not have enough rest after starting Tuesday's game for Triple-A Round Rock.

"We're trying to position guys to be available to us," Banister said. "We're in a long stretch right now and we needed relief help."

Mendez, 23, is 0-3 with a 5.65 ERA at Triple-A Round Rock. He was up as an extra reliever for the Rangers for 12 days but pitched only once. Bibens-Dirks, 33, pitched three innings for Round Rock Saturday and came out so the Rangers could have him as an option. The other option would be to pitch the game out of the bullpen with Jesse Chavez the likely starter.

Jurado's first start was perhaps most notable for this: He threw 55 of his 81 pitches (67.9 percent) for strikes. It was the highest percentage of strikes by a Rangers pitcher making his career debut as a starter since Jon Daniels took over as GM for 2006.

"I like that he trusted his stuff, that he commanded the baseball," Banister said. "He was willing to attack the strike zone."

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