Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young answers questions during a press conference on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young answers questions during a press conference on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

Angela Piazza/Staff Photographer

The Texas Rangers are playing some of the best baseball they’ve played all season and are doing so during the most pivotal portion of their schedule.

With under a week until the trade deadline, Texas has a two-game lead on the Astros and holds a 55-52 record. If Chris Young is going to add to this roster at the deadline, winning baseball leading up to August 3 was a requirement. So far, so good as the Rangers took three out of four games in last weekend’s series against the Mariners and took the first game of a three-game set against the AL-best Tampa Bay Rays.

Young joined “GBag Nation” on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM) on Tuesday ahead of Texas’ series opener against Tampa Bay to discuss his trade deadline plans, the team’s form of late, how this team reminds him of the 2023 World Series team and more.

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Below are highlights of the conversation, edited lightly for clarity.

Congrats on taking three of four from the Mariners, it’s just becoming the norm to overcome injuries for you guys.

Chris Young: Yeah, well, it’s not the exact identity you want to have, but it is one that the team has shown a lot of perseverance and resilience, and very proud of the group and the way they continue to fight. And there have been a number of times this season where we’ve endured injuries that you would think could derail us, and the group has found a way to continue pushing forward, and I think that’s the sign of a good team, characteristic of a good team.

What went right against the Mariners, what’d you like about how you guys played?

Young: Well, the games we won, we did a little bit of everything. I mean, we pitched, we hit, we played good defense, we ran the bases. It was really just a very good effort, a collective effort, and a good style of baseball. And really, minus the one bad inning in Sunday’s game, we had a chance to sweep them. But we were playing a very good team, and the guys were ready to play. They were focused, and they came out and fought. And I think it just again speaks to the talent of the team and the character of the group, and when they play good baseball, we can compete with some really good teams.

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Have you ever seen a guy that, in a big game scenario, is more ready to go then Nathan Eovaldi?

Young: No, he’s the best I’ve ever seen. I mean, it really is so fun to watch, and I’m not sure there’s anybody else you’d rather have out on the mound across the league than Nathan Eovaldi in a game that matters, one game that matters, and he’s such a competitor, and he lives for it. He craves pressure, and he wants the moment. And it’s just awesome to watch. It’s just time and time again we’ve seen it, and this weekend was a great example.

How important is it to follow things up with another good week here with trips to Tampa and Houston?

Young: Yeah, certainly we don’t want to have a letdown coming off a great series, the momentum that we built with beating Seattle. We’ve got to continue to play good baseball, and we’ve got to continue to build on what we’ve done. This division is super tight. We put ourselves in a really good spot. We need to keep marching forward. We need to keep improving. We’re closer to getting healthy, in my opinion, looks like Corey [Seager] is getting closer to being back and helping us. Josh Jung, we hope, is right around the corner. We’ve got Jordan Montgomery, Jack Leiter and Cody Bradford that appear to be not too far away. So there’s some really good things happening on the depth front and getting these guys back. And several of those guys are going to be impact players to get back, but we can’t have a letdown now. We’ve got to keep improving and keep playing good baseball. If we play the way we played this weekend, we should be just fine this week.

Have you guys decided how aggressive you want to be at the deadline or are this week’s games going to have an impact on that mindset?

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Young: So I’d say we want to always be super aggressive. We want to go out and be the most aggressive team. Some of it’s just a function of the market and what’s out there, what’s available, and whether or not they like the players you’re willing to give up to accomplish that, so I think that’s the starting point. That said, the market right now seems to be a little bit slow. A lot of teams like us, still trying to figure out what they are and how far in to go, and so it’s going to come together over the next week. But it’s going to be a busy week. I’m actually sitting with the group in Tampa right now, we’ve been working all day, working and looking at different scenarios and different needs, and trying to find any way we can to improve this team and give these these guys a chance.

Would it be more depth acquisitions you’re looking to make or difference-making star players? Do you have an idea in your head of how that would come together?

Young: Not perfectly, just because, one, the star players are hard to access, and even some of the depth players are as well. It’s just really a lot of how the market shapes up and who’s available at what points when you have to make decisions. And you may say no to a trade that is gone two days later, and you look back and say, “Gosh, we should have done that deal. We were waiting on the market to evolve, and it was there in front of us.” Or the opposite may happen, that somebody becomes available after you’ve already made a trade, and you’re going, “Man, I wish we had sort of been a little more patient.” So you can’t predict it perfectly. You try to stay engaged with every team and understand the market and understand what teams are trying to do, and who may become available, and then again make the best decisions in real time.

How long do you expect Corey Seager’s rehab assignment to go?

Young: Well, it’ll be based on health and performance. Our hope is that he gets off to a good start from a performance standpoint. He feels good coming out of it. If he does, time is of the essence. We don’t want to wait too long, but we’re not going to put him in harm’s way. We want to make sure he’s ready to perform when he comes back. But it’ll be at least a couple games, and could be longer if he needs that.

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Have you guys found a new brand of winning baseball compared to what clicked so well with the World Series team?

Young: That’s a really good question because I haven’t thought about the specific style of play or brand. I mean, that team could really slug. That team really, really hit and scored runs at a ridiculous pace, and they did it from day one. This team has taken a little time to find the offensive profile that has worked, but the way we played this weekend, there was some similarities, and I think ultimately what I see in the ’23 team that I see in the ’26 team is a lot of fight, a lot of hunger, a lot of some unsung heroes, some guys that maybe you weren’t expecting to have big contributions that are stepping up and really playing critical roles. I mean, we’ve talked about Nicky Lopez. We’ve talked about Elias Diaz. We have Ezequiel Duran. Josh Jung’s having a tremendous year. We’ve just had a number of guys contributing. Joc [Pederson] has really bounced back. Jake Burger has bounced back. We’ve had a number of guys that are contributing in a way that we got in 2023, and that’s exciting to think about.