ARLINGTON — Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young definitively stated that he does not want to put any additional pressure on his team’s players as they plow through a critical stretch of their season that may certainly determine the their status as contenders.
He’s fair to say so. But, in the interest of his desires, we’d advise those players to skip this read.
“The hope is that we get better and better as the season goes here,” Young said Monday afternoon before the start of a three-game series vs. the Athletics. “If we do that, I’m going to do everything I can to help give this team a chance to win.”
Here comes the squeeze.
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“But,” Young said to finish the though above, “we can’t go backwards at this point.”
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Translation: If the Rangers choose to add at the July 31 deadline, which is a proposition that they have certainly not ruled out, they need to see a continuation of not just the strong play but the strong results during the next seven games that will lead into it.
Their first half of offensive underachievement and their continued inability to build legitimate momentum eliminated any margin of error that the Rangers could have had to work with.
They entered play Tuesday with a 7.5 game deficit in the American League West and 2.5 games back of the third and final Wild Card position. There are four teams — the Cleveland Guardians, the Los Angeles Angels, the Kansas City Royals the Minnesota Twins — that trail them by two-and-a-half games or fewer. They’ll play one of those teams, the Angels, three times before the last day that trades can be made. The Athletics and Atlanta Braves, who the Rangers will host this weekend, are both under .500.
Young made two things clear Monday afternoon when asked where the team’s mindset stood in regards to the deadline: The club’s plans remain fluid with nine days to go and that the team’s performance of late is the kind that’s worthy of support.
The Rangers won two of their three games against the first-place Houston Astros to finish the first half and took two of three vs. the first-place Detroit Tigers to start the second. They’ve scored the second-most runs (93) and allowed the second-fewest (49) since the start of July. They have, for the first time in a month, begun to make up legitimate ground within their own division.
That, according to Young, qualifies as the necessary results that he and the front office need to see to support additions. It just needs to be maintained as the Rangers, who’d be expected to be primarily in the market for bullpen help if they do add to their roster, march toward the deadline.
Last season’s operations might best serve as a cautious reminder of why Young and company may require further evidence before they buy at the deadline. The Rangers had a record below .500 for the entirety of July last season but were wooed into minor additions at the deadlines thanks in part to a five-game win streak before the end of the month that included four wins against the historically bad Chicago White Sox.
Yeah, well, about that.
The Rangers neither climbed above .500 or above third place in the division after they added catcher Carson Kelly and left-handed pitcher Andrew Chafin for the stretch run. The experience prompted Young, in a June radio interview with Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 AM The Ticket, to declare that “being .500 is not good enough” at the deadline.
The Rangers climbed above .500 for the first time since May 20 on Saturday and did so again on Monday after what had been seven consecutive losses when presented with an opportunity to even reach it. They’d like to cement themselves into a position where each individual game does not decide whether or not they are winners or losers from the standpoints of their overall record.
The next week of games could do that.
One direction or another.
“It’s going to determine a lot,” Young said of the next seven games. “It’s just the reality of this point in the season. We’re looking up in the standings and we can’t afford losing streaks.”
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