Texas Rangers center fielder Evan Carter (32) nearly loses his helmet after a swing and miss during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants at Globe Life Field on Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, in Arlington.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
Cal Quantrill is the latest graduate of Chris Young’s pitching recovery program, one in which the Rangers president takes down-on-their-luck starters off the streets, dusts off their repertoires and turns them back into productive members of society. Good stuff. So good, in fact, it pains me to take exception with something the recovered starter recently testified.
The subject was how — like an upturned cat always landing on its feet — the Rangers forever find themselves back at .500.
“I think we know we’re better than that,” Quantrill said. “I think we know we can be a well above .500 team.”
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No, Cal. No, you can’t.
Time to quit thinking it’ll be different from last year or the year before or the year before that after losing three of four to the God-forsaken Angels. If that abomination of a series wasn’t a sign from above, I don’t know my Old Testament.
Then again, as humiliating as it was to have someone do that to you in public, it’s not like it was anything new. They got swept by the same bottom-feeders in May. Swept by the evil Twins in June. Swept by the hated Astros just a couple weeks ago.
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The Rangers sunk to those lows and bounced back, right? Why should it be any different now?
What’s to keep them from making a run with a quarter of the season left and a playoff spot still within reach?
Because the Rangers were a playoff team only if everything went right, and that sort of thing doesn’t happen often. Certainly isn’t happening this year. From the looks of it, they may have used up all their karma in 2023.
The greatest sin was going into the season without enough pitching. You need at least nine candidates for the rotation to withstand a 162-game season. The Rangers were at least three starters short. They hoped Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi could beat back time; Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker would validate their draft status; and Cody Bradford and Jordan Montgomery would act as reinforcements if the owner didn’t fund the acquisition of a starter at the deadline.
Now Eovaldi’s out for at least a month and deGrom looks like he might be right behind him. Rocker remains maddeningly inconsistent. Young hoped to bring Leiter back to bail out a depleted bullpen, but, if deGrom is out, he must go back into the rotation. Just as soon as he’s stretched out, that is. Bradford has been effective in his return, but not Montgomery, who hasn’t been the same since he got off the parade float.
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The Rangers complain they’ve been unlucky because of all the injuries. No question about it. They’ve rarely fielded their ideal lineup. Few teams do. If you ask me, they’ve had more luck than they deserved.
What were the odds that Jacob Latz, cast into a bullpen built on the fly as usual, would become an All-Star closer? Or that Quantrill would fill a rotation spot so well? Did you have Joc Pederson, Josh Jung, Zeke Duran and Jake Burger as Comeback Player of the Year candidates? I liked the swap-out of Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo, but I didn’t think the difference would be this vast.
And what about waking up one day to find Nicky Lopez on your doorstep?
Only it turns out Nicky Knocks is really 31, and the last few weeks he’s looked more like the player he’s always been. Same with some of the others returning to the mean. If you go by OPS-plus, the Rangers have five regulars (Pederson, Jung, Duran, Nimmo and Wyatt Langford) who rank significantly above league average. The Astros also have five. Only they’ve got Yordan Alvarez, maybe the game’s best hitter, a guy who can carry a team by himself.
In theory, the Rangers have the same in Corey Seager. Finally on a tear, too. But, given the bad back and hammies, what makes you think the Rangers can count on him for the next six weeks?
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If your lineup is pretty average overall, you need more than one star, anyway. Langford has the look. But, like Seager, he can’t hang in the lineup. Even when he does, he sometimes seems to be losing a fight with himself.
Bottom line is, the Rangers needed more help before this season even started. They could have used Luis Arraez, once again competing for a batting title, at second. He was available on a reasonable one-year deal. They also needed a right-handed platoon bat in center, at least one more starter and something for the back end of the bullpen.
Had they built such a roster in the offseason, one befitting a recent World Series champ in the nation’s fourth-largest market, they’d be sitting high atop the West now. But Ray Davis wouldn’t pay the bill. I don’t blame him for wondering why the farm system hasn’t delivered, a question that demands an answer. Or someone’s head. Just the same, you can’t simply let the roster play as is. Makes it look like you’re less interested in winning than resetting the payroll.
Let’s hope the Rangers prove me wrong, because there’s something particularly galling in missing the playoffs in a season when the West was never so winnable. And if by some miracle they actually do make the playoffs, think of the upside. They won’t have to go through the Angels.