BOSTON — In the clubhouse, the Texas Rangers remain hopeful. Their playoff odds are bleak but not impossible. Their remaining schedule offers some favorable matchups, their rotation is getting healthier, and they’ve made an unlikely run before.
“Last year we snuck in the playoffs and won the World Series,” All-Star second baseman Marcus Semien said. “Right now, we’re in the regular season trying to do something similar.”
In the front office, though, the Rangers have little choice but to begin a practical assessment of all that’s gone wrong in defense of last year’s championship.
“Where we are in the standings, we have to start looking to 2025 and beyond at how we’re going to bounce back from this,” general manager Chris Young told The Athletic before Wednesday’s 9-7 win against the Boston Red Sox. “We are starting those conversations.”
The Rangers (56-65) have fallen well short of expectations. They’re a third-place team in a relatively weak division. They had a 12-4 stretch in mid-July, but even that wasn’t enough to get them above .500. In fact, they haven’t had a winning record since May 18. It’s been a season of disappointment, but Young said he is not planning to fire anyone from the coaching staff. Expiring contracts will force him to address the bullpen this offseason, and Young expects to “be active and sign one or two more starting pitchers,” but pitching has not been the team’s biggest problem. In the positive column, the Rangers remain one of the best fielding teams in the majors.
The real difference is at the plate. After 121 games last season, the Rangers had scored 691 runs, the most in the American League. With a remarkably similar group of hitters this season, the Rangers have scored 518, eighth-most in the AL.
“I think there have been a lot of people surprised,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “And they should be with what we did last year.”
For three months, the baseball world has been waiting for the Rangers to get hot, and it hasn’t happened. Their offense has remained underwhelming, and when it has shown signs of life, its pitching has faltered. Sooner rather than later, the Rangers will have to figure out what that means, because every key offensive player remains under team control through at least next season. Are they better than this, or is this the new norm?
“This is a personnel issue,” Young said, “and really getting guys back to what we believe is their standard form — not even overachieving, but just their standard form. If we do that, I really like our group.”
In his early analysis and conversations, Young said he’s landed on three problems that have left his offense so shockingly diminished.
First, four key players have underperformed. And not just a little. “Even (below) their 50th percentile outcomes,” Young said. He named the players because, frankly, their numbers speak for themselves: Right fielder Adolis García had an .836 OPS last year. He has a .691 OPS this year. Catcher Jonah Heim had a .755 OPS, now a .629. Center fielder Leody Taveras was at .733, now at .654. And play-anywhere utility man Ezequiel Durán — the type of player who can make up for injuries and raise a team’s floor — went from an above-average .768 OPS to a well-below-average .590.
“That’s 30 to 40 percent of the lineup,” Young said.
Such underperformance was exacerbated by the second factor on Young’s list: injuries. The Rangers lost All-Star third baseman Josh Jung for 102 games because of a broken wrist, and emerging young outfielder Evan Carter for 67 games (and counting) because of a lumbar sprain. Young made clear that he does not think health issues fully explain his team’s performance — “We’ve had injuries, but not enough to set us back 200 runs,” he said — but losing two everyday players, on top of the four who have radically underperformed, meant for much of the season, 50 to 60 percent of the lineup was not as expected.
The third issue for Young was the fallout from Nos. 1 and 2, most notably the added pressure it put on rookie Wyatt Langford. Drafted in 2023, 22-year-old Langford made the Opening Day lineup after just 44 games in the minor leagues. He batted fifth and sixth in the first two games of the season, then moved up to No. 3 when Jung got hurt and he was the Rangers’ cleanup hitter through most of July. Aside from a big month of June, Langford has been a below-average hitter, especially against right-handers.
Rangers GM Chris Young has identified three key issues that have hamstrung the team this year: loss of form, injuries and a lot of pressure. (Sam Hodde / Getty Images)
“We put him in a position in the lineup that he shouldn’t be in, frankly,” Young said.
So, now what?
Starter Tyler Mahle returned from Tommy John surgery on Aug. 6, and veterans Nathan Eovaldi and Jon Gray are expected to rejoin him in the rotation relatively soon. Jacob deGrom, who also had elbow surgery, pitched two simulated innings on Monday and hopes to make his season debut in late August or early September. Even without Max Scherzer, whose return from shoulder fatigue is still possible but feels unlikely, the Rangers’ rotation is on the verge of getting stronger.
The schedule, too, offers some opportunity to make up ground. Of the Rangers’ 41 remaining games, 19 are against the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Angels and Toronto Blue Jays (four of the worst teams in the American League). Another 11 are against the Seattle Mariners and Minnesota Twins, two teams the Rangers would likely have to pass to get into the wild-card picture.
“I mean, we need some good things to happen,” Semien said. “But that’s the attitude we bring here. Let’s make something good happen.”
To some extent, Young is bringing a similar attitude. His long-term outlook is still glass-half-full. Given all of the key players under team control, the Rangers’ window of contention is not closing.
“In fact, I feel it’s the opposite,” Young said.
DeGrom, Mahle, Gray and Cody Bradford will be back next year, and Young believes he can further supplement his 2024 pitching staff through trades and free agency. The only position players on expiring contracts are role players Travis Jankowski, Robbie Grossman and Carson Kelly. The Rangers could do nothing to their lineup and still have a viable offense — provided they believe it will perform more like it did in 2023 and less like it has in 2024.
“The core of the team is in place,” Young said. “Now, what we have to decide is, do they all complement each other in the right way or do we need to adjust something in terms of our personnel to be able to cover if one of these guys — or two of these guys — don’t return to form? That’s how we’re going to look at it.”
There are still games to play this season, and there’s still hope — however far-fetched — that the Rangers can make a run at the playoffs. But the disappointment of the past four and half months must be addressed at some point, and Young and his front office are beginning that process now.
“I believe in these guys,” Young said. “But it’s going to be very important for several of (them) to have big offseasons and really train and get after it and make some adjustments so they don’t go through this again.”
(Photo of Adolis García: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
