ARLINGTON — The sudden and shocking loss of scout Scott Littlefield continues to reverberate through the Rangers’ organization.
The club is honoring his memory for the remainder of the season by wearing a patch with “SL” on his uniform tops.
Chris Young is choosing to focus on the last conversation he and Littlefield had exactly a week ago.
“My heart’s been heavy; it’s probably the most challenging week professionally that I’ve had since my dad died, and in this role, the most challenging week I’ve ever had,” the Rangers president of baseball operations said Wednesday. “I have some perspective in a lot of ways about what truly matters. But, also, I have perspective from my last conversation with somebody I admired and trusted immensely about what we need to do to get better. I’m motivated and excited to accomplish that.”
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And what exactly was that?
“We need more winning players,” Young said Littlefield told him.
It is something Young will keep in mind this offseason as he does roster renovations. But it is also his North Star for watching the final week of the season.
In the wake of the Rangers’ loss to Minnesota Tuesday, eliminating them from playoff contention, Young heard manager Bruce Bochy tell his team and then the media the loss lacked “focus” and that “we need to up the intensity.”
“Winning players finish strong,” Young said. “They give their best effort through the finish line. It’s important that we come out and play hard and play the right way to the end. We can impact the pennant race. My expectation is that we will win games that matter down the stretch here. So it’s important to all of us that we do that. That’s part of my evaluation for the future, too.”
Though their own playoff chances are done, the Rangers could still impact both the AL Central and wild card races, depending on the outcome of their three-game season-ending series at Cleveland this weekend. They could still finish with a winning record. While it’s not the playoffs, there is still some value in it.
It requires the undermanned Rangers, undermanned even more by the announcement Wednesday that Wyatt Langford would miss the last week of the season with an oblique injury, to show some of the resilience Bochy has often talked about.
After a six-game winning streak put them within a game of a playoff spot, the Rangers were walked off at the New York Mets and then suffered three gut punches at the hands of the rival Astros. It seemed to send the offense into an even deeper funk. Over the last four losses that led into Wednesday’s game, they’d scored a total of 10 runs and slashed .153/.204/.255/.460 against a pair of teams with losing records.
“I think the message to us was just keep playing hard, no matter the circumstance,” said third baseman Josh Jung. “It is kind of disappointing to not be in the playoff race; to go 16-4 and be in the playoff race and then not play great baseball. It’s disappointing and I think everybody was disappointed in the roller coaster of a season we’ve had. And after all that, we got ourselves in position to still make the playoffs and then it fell through our fingers.
“I think everyone is upset with that, but we, as a team, need to do everything we can to push that away and keep playing baseball.”
Jung was 9 for 32 (.281) over the eight games leading into Wednesday, the closest thing the Rangers had to a hot hitter in the stretch. But he had no walks. Nor did Adolis García (1-for-22), Ezequiel Duran (4-for-14) or Jake Burger (who was 0-for-17). They were hitting a composite .164 with a .164 on-base percentage.
On Wednesday, even with the compromised roster, Burger sat against Minnesota’s Taj Bradley.
“I feel, personally, like I played the game hard yesterday,” Burger said. “But it’s hard to show effort if you are not on base and not playing well defensively. It may have seemed like the effort across the board was lacking last night. We’re privileged to play this game, and no matter where you are in the standings, having effort has got to be the mindset. You might suck at the plate that night or suck in the field that day, but effort is the one thing you can control.”
And it’s one thing that the ultimate decision-maker will be watching for closely over the final week.
He’s just listening to a friend’s advice.
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