SURPRISE, Ariz. — By just about any measure this spring, only the big-bucks Dodgers and Blue Jays are held in higher esteem than the Mariners, whose payroll is lighter than the Rangers’. Yet no organization is richer in terms of talent than Seattle. If a hole develops in their postseason plans, the Mariners probably have enough trade capital to patch it.
Makes for a pretty formidable opponent, especially in your own division.
How you gonna compete with that?
“I’m not thinking about them,” Skip Schumaker said, which, come to think of it, is what I’d say, too.
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The Rangers’ new manager has enough on his hands without worrying whether Cal Raleigh will make more history or Julio Rodriguez takes the final step to superstar or Seattle’s All-Star rotation returns to recent levels.
Doesn’t mean the Rangers can’t compete if everything breaks right, but they’d better do it soon, because the Mariners look like the new dawg on the block.
The Rangers?
Trying to turn back the clock.
The Mariners are the fresh angle after winning the division last year and taking Toronto to the limit. Other teams have occasionally broken the 15-year interlocking grip the Astros and Rangers held on the West. The A’s did it in 2012-13 and during COVID, and the Angels made one last gasp in ‘14.
Just seems like the Mariners’ horde of young talent leaves them far better positioned to keep their crown a little while.
For instance, MLB.com’s Top 100 prospects lists six Mariners, the most in the game. Would have been seven, but they traded Jurrangelo Cijntje, an ambidextrous pitcher, to the Cardinals for Brendan Donovan, who’ll play second. Now, if it were me, I’d have had a hard time trading someone who can throw with either hand, if for no other reason than the novelty. Like trading a two-headed frog for a coffee maker. Even if you like coffee, where’s the fun in that?
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I’ve also spent a great deal of my nearly 50 years in press boxes writing about the Rangers, who, until recently, had a hard time finding pitchers who could throw with one hand, much less two.
Anyway, the Rangers’ contribution to MLB.com’s Top 100 list can be boiled down to Sebastian Walcott, a notable inclusion, at that. Better than the Astros, who came up empty.
Then there’s the matter of big-league rosters. The heart of the Mariners’ rotation not only is young and home-grown, Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert and George Kirby made Baseball American’s list of its Top 100 big leaguers, as did J-Rod (No. 8) and Raleigh (No. 9). Add Josh Naylor, the first baseman signed after a mid-season trade, and the Mariners present a daunting task for the Rangers as well as the rest of the division. Especially in the long run.
But the Rangers, who have four of Baseball America’s top 100 (Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford, Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi), stand a reasonable chance this year of holding their own with the Mariners.
All of which goes back to Schumaker’s original point. No, he doesn’t have time to think about the Mariners or anyone else.
He’s too busy trying to remind you of yesteryear.
Or a couple of yesteryears ago.
“I have to worry about, you know, how do I get Jake Burger back on track?” Schumaker said. “How do I get Joc (Pederson) back on track? How do I get, you know, Wyatt Langford to have an amazing year?
“All those things are on my mind.”
As well they should be, because the Rangers can’t keep up with the Mariners if they don’t get more than they did last year from all of the above. Not to mention Josh Jung and Evan Carter, who had a nice game Friday with a lineout against a lefty as well as a home run.
Schumaker also needs to get at least 140 games out of Seager, which has happened exactly once in his four seasons as a Ranger. They need him on the field because he’s a borderline Hall of Famer and a difference-maker.
How much difference does he make? Over the last three years, the Rangers were 181-63 when he played and 68-74 when he didn’t.
Question is, how do they keep him in the lineup?
My suggestion has been to run him through DH once or twice a week to give his legs a break, but Schumaker said Friday that’s pretty much a no-go. First, Pederson is already a left-handed option at DH, and unless Joc plays first base with any more aplomb than he did in Friday’s game against the Mariners, he’ll be the regularly-scheduled lefty DH.
Seager also made it clear in conversations with his manager that he wants to play shortstop every day, or as much as his hammies will allow, so that’s that.
The Rangers’ best shot at competing with the Mariners or anyone else, of course, is in their rotation. Chris Young made a similar point when he traded for MacKenzie Gore to go along with Eovaldi, deGrom and Jack Leiter.
Nothing so far at the more-or-less midpoint of spring has made anyone think any different. Schumaker said the fun part over the next two or three weeks will be to see “who runs to the opportunity and not from it.”
“There are also some guys that are showing signs like this is going to be a really good year for them, you know, bounce-back wise,” he said, “and just be who they once were, which was not that long ago, right?”
Only seems like an eternity. Hit rewind, Skip. Please.
Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN
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