As Rangers’ season comes to an end, it’s time to start thinking about the changes ahead

ARLINGTON – On a glorious afternoon with the top down, the Twins up and the best Rangers staff in more than 40 years working, Thursday should have brought something better than a league-high 15th shutout loss. Shouldn’t have been the final game at the Globe this year, either. Not with this pitching or defense, the best in baseball.

Not with a league ripe for the taking.

If you’d told Bruce Bochy in March his club would throw and catch this well, what might he have expected?

“I’d think,” he said Thursday, “we should have won the division.”

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Because they didn’t, didn’t even come close, changes will be made. Chris Young knows he can’t run it back for the third year in a row hoping it’ll be different. What won a World Series doesn’t work here anymore.

Question is, who or what needs to go?

Adolis Garcia, pinch-hitting in the ninth, took his final bow, then a called third strike.

Jonah Heim, who pocketed the final out of the World Series run, is on his heels.

The manager is no lock to return, either. If he were, he’d already be under contract. He wants to come back. His years in Texas, he said Thursday, have been “as much fun as I’ve had in the game.” Blame him all you want for what’s happened on his watch, but you’ve got to admire a guy who thought this summer was fun.

For the record, Bochy is golden with me. Best manager in club history, a Hall of Famer, the captain you need in a perfect storm.

But it’s the president’s call, not mine, and he’s not tipping his hand.

“I love him,” Young said of Bochy. “I love working with him. He’s been wonderful. He came here to win a World Series, and he’s helped us accomplish that.

“We’ll figure out what the future holds.”

Here’s what might cloud the picture: Young seemingly hired Bochy’s heir apparent in November, and Skip Schumaker, National League Manager of the Year in 2023 and now special advisor to the Rangers’ president, isn’t waiting forever on his inheritance. Chances are his name will come up for one of the jobs coming open. He might soon have an easy decision to make.

The question Young must ask himself is if he thinks a different manager would have gotten more from this pathetic lineup. Should he have benched someone sooner? Did a couple need a kick in the pants? Maybe. But he benched and demoted Josh Jung, and it didn’t make any difference. He’s still grippin’-and-rippin’ no matter the count.

Of course, that’s pretty much the team mantra, right? Only the Rangers could have made pesky little Cody Freeman, owner of a .222/.257/.354 slash line going into Thursday, look like Tony Gwynn. For that matter, the only hitter in the lineup Thursday with an OPS above league average was Michael Helman, Freeman’s fellow rascal.

On one hand, you could argue that managing just two hits over six innings against Bailey Ober, he of the 5.10 ERA, was predictable with no Corey Seager, no Marcus Semien, no Wyatt Langford. On the other hand, this is also what you should expect. Over the last three years, Seager has played 119, 123 and 102 games. This is who he is at 31. Langford is stuck at 134 games in each of his first two seasons.

Semien missed more games in this homestand than he’d sat out in the previous four seasons combined. Might be the problem. All those games over the last 10 years have taken a toll.

Which brings us to the next question: How many of these guys will be back?

How many should be back?

Could Seager or Semien be on the block? Not unless Ray Davis is prepared to pick up a huge chunk of their salaries in the process. Even if he were so inclined, what would the Rangers do without Seager’s considerable presence in the lineup? He’s no firecracker and he misses too many games, but he’s a load in the box. Only Langford’s 5.4 WAR approaches Seager’s 6.0, and the former had 30 more games to accumulate his wins above replacement.

Jung, who’s regressed significantly since his rookie season, might bring something in a package deal, but they’d be selling low. Same with Jake Burger. As it is, they’re stuck with Joc Pederson for another year.

Memo to Young: Maybe send a trainer to check on Joc this winter, just to see how he’s, you know, getting along.

Otherwise, any net gain from losing the salaries of Adolis, Heim and Jon Gray as well as a few of the relievers’ shouldn’t be significant if the payroll is wilting, too, as Young reiterated Thursday. So don’t expect any big money spent on free agents. Davis doesn’t have a luxury tax to worry about, but he didn’t make as much at the gate, either. Average attendance at the Globe declined from last year’s post-title boost of 31,272 to 29,593.

An announced crowd of 23,298 paying customers, most apparently in green camouflage, turned out Thursday. In a better world, it should have been a glimpse of what’s to come. What they got instead was the same ol’, same ol’. No matter how else you might cuss ‘em, you can’t say they weren’t consistent.

Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN

Rangers’ pitching staff has been the league’s best, but it could only take Texas so far