The Texas Rangers effectively entered their offseason seven days ago with a to-do list in place titled “Here’s How We Get Back To The Playoffs After A Two-Year Absence.” There might as well have been these two bullet points atop it.
Hire a manager.
Check.
Fix the offense.
Rangers
Uh, hm, well.
The Rangers can’t mend their flawed lineup in a week’s time. They might not be able to do so entirely in a full winter, either, especially if the club does plan to reduce payroll. The long-term solution to a more sustainable attack may take more than personnel additions or reductions anyways.
That’s why Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young emphasized the importance of philosophical adjustments Friday in an hour-long season debrief with reporters. There’s a belief that the way in which the Rangers approach and navigate their at-bats — the kinds that the club believes it saw at times this season — can breed significant improvement.
There’s also reason to believe that the answer to their first item of business this offseason can impact the second.
Skip Schumaker, whom the Rangers officially hired Friday after their split with manager Bruce Bochy, will be among those tasked to oversee the offensive rejuvenation. The Rangers and Schumaker have not yet made decisions as to what the rest of his staff will look like. Young said Friday that the incumbent assistants — including those on the hitting side — remain in good standing.
That, for now, leaves Schumaker as the fresh voice of influence. The 45-year-old second-time manager led the Miami Marlins to a postseason berth (and earned the National League Manager of the Year award because of it) in the last season that he spent on a team’s bench two years ago. Those Marlins were hardly an offensive juggernaut, scored the fifth-fewest runs in the league and were a bottom-third power team.
Contact was king, though, and it may behoove the Rangers to inch toward that mantle.
“The players have not had an offseason to adjust [to new philosophies],” Young said Friday. “I think they’ll be asked to do different things in the offseason in terms of their training, and not just simply working on one specific swing, but being able to do multiple things that may allow them to be more successful and contribute to a team-type of approach that is necessary.”
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The Rangers were built to slug the baseball last season. The offense suffered an identity crisis when that didn’t happen. Young said Friday that the club made a concerted effort to lower launch angles, prioritize line drives over fly ball and seek pure contact over straight power.
The Marlins were posterchildren for that way of thought two seasons ago. Their teamwide .259 batting average ranked fourth in the league. Their .405 slugging percentage was below average. They had the lowest fly ball percentage (33.6%), the highest groundball percentage (46.2%), a batting average on balls in play (.303) that ranked sixth best and still hit the ball harder than two thirds of the league.
Their average launch angle of 10 degrees (the lowest in baseball) helped result in the second-fewest pop ups leaguewide and an above-average quality of contact. The Rangers had the highest launch angle, the highest flyball percentage and the second-most pop-ups in baseball through the first two months of last season before the club’s offensive minds enacted a change in approach.
Young and general manager Ross Fenstermaker said Friday that the club will determine which players fit in a home ballpark that wasn’t friendly to hitters or conducive to flyball success last season. The best way to mitigate a stadium’s park factor is to prioritize the type of outcomes (see: line drives and groundballs) that won’t be hampered by a venue where balls don’t quite carry as expected.
Personnel can make a difference.
Philosophy and proper instruction can too.
The Rangers have someone on staff who’s seen the benefits.
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