{"id":69983,"date":"2025-06-01T00:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T00:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/69983\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T00:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T00:45:10","slug":"the-texas-rangers-next-course-of-action-to-fix-their-struggling-offense-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/69983\/","title":{"rendered":"The Texas Rangers\u2019 next course of action to fix their struggling offense? Rest"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 On the umpteenth day of attempted efforts to stabilize an offense that has been anything but, the Texas Rangers<\/a> rested. <\/p>\n

That is not a thinly veiled shot at Saturday\u2019s performance, which left the Rangers shut out one day after what appeared to be an epiphany, but rather the course of action that the team will now take to squeeze the best out of its underperforming hitters. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a grind of a season,\u201d Rangers manager Bruce Bochy<\/a> said before his team\u2019s 2-0 loss vs. the St. Louis Cardinals Saturday at Globe Life Field. \u201cNow is the time to start giving some guys some days.\u201d <\/p>\n

It started with Adolis Garc\u00eda<\/a>. The Rangers gave their slumping right fielder consecutive games off to begin the weekend<\/a> series vs. his former team. Friday\u2019s absence was labeled as a \u201cmental break.\u201d Saturday\u2019s unveiled the start of a longer term plan to give the struggling slugger a low-pressure environment to rediscover his swing. <\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

Related:Floundering Adolis Garc\u00eda, Marcus Semien may leave Texas Rangers with no choice<\/a><\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda hasn\u2019t played since Wednesday vs. the Toronto Blue Jays due to a Thursday team off day and back-to-back games on the bench. If he doesn\u2019t play in Sunday\u2019s series finale he will have sat for five consecutive days before the start of the Rangers\u2019 next road trip because of a scheduled Monday off day before the team starts a series vs. the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Bochy said Sunday that the Rangers have developed a plan for Garc\u00eda to follow in his downtime and are willing to give the 32-year-old as many days off as he needs to unearth his best form. The team\u2019s health and depth \u2014 including the return of shortstop Corey Seager<\/a>, the addition of outfielder Alejandro Osuna (.862 OPS in six games) and emergence of outfielder Sam Haggerty (.700 OPS in 17 games) \u2014 allows for it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you when he will be back in there,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cWe just want to give him some time to make this adjustment and get on track. We know what an impact this guy can make on our club, but you have to have him right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda has slashed just .173\/.218\/.346 with 19 strikeouts in his last 15 games and his career-worst 40.4% chase rate this season ranks in the bottom third percentile leaguewide. He\u2019s hit a combined .167 against breaking and off-speed pitches since the start of May and owns the American League\u2019s fifth-worst weighted on base average (.242) in that span.<\/p>\n

The two-time All-Star understands the club\u2019s decision and is open to the opportunity. He identified his approach and usage of the entire field as areas of improvement. <\/p>\n

\u201cBochy has a lot of experience in this game,\u201d Garcia said Saturday morning. \u201cHe said he\u2019s watched me play and he thinks I need it. So, I\u2019ll take it, and now I\u2019m working on some stuff without the pressure of \u2018you have to do something.\u2019 He\u2019s smart about it. That\u2019s why he\u2019s a Hall of Fame manager.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda, in the midst of his healthiest season in the last two years, has played in 56 of the Rangers\u2019 first 59 games and has gotten a total of 10 days off since opening day. Only ironman second baseman Marcus Semien<\/a> \u2014 who has played in 58 games and gotten nine days off \u2014 has worked more. <\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s off day was the Rangers\u2019 first at home since an April 14 break in between a series at the Seattle Mariners and a series vs. the Los Angeles Angels. It was the Rangers\u2019 first off day this season that didn\u2019t precede or follow a road trip and it led into an 11-1 win vs. a team currently in a postseason position. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys just really played a good game,\u201d Bochy said Saturday. \u201cThe day off before, I think, served them well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same line of thinking, Bochy believes, can be applied on an individual basis. Garc\u00eda\u2019s pause is as much for his own benefit as it for the team\u2019s. The Rangers \u2014 who were shutout for an American League-high eighth time Saturday and record a league-high 14th game with four or fewer hits \u2014 have continued to squander baseball\u2019s best starting rotation and nearly depleted all of their options to fix the offense. <\/p>\n

The quintet of Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle and Patrick Corbin combined to allow just four runs in the first five games of this current homestand. The Rangers won just twice in that span, and excluding Friday\u2019s outburst, have averaged less than one run per game. They remain a bottom-five team in batting average (.222), on base percentage (.288) and slugging percentage (.356) despite a coaching change, demotions, promotions and countless lineup tweaks. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s called for uncomfortable decisions. The Rangers first moved Garc\u00eda out of his usual cleanup spot into a lower-leverage position in the batting order at the end of April, and after that shift didn\u2019t yield a positive return, they shifted him into the eight hole prior to last weekend\u2019s series against the Chicago White Sox. He hit just 3 for 20 in six games between then and Saturday\u2019s loss. The bench and batting cage \u2014 even if it is temporary \u2014 were the only places left for him to go. <\/p>\n

Bochy acknowledged Saturday that he intends to rest his entire lineup more liberally. Seager has played designated hitter twice in three games since he returned from the injured list. The team\u2019s three catchers \u2014 Jonah Heim, Kyle Higashioka and Tucker Barnhart \u2014 will receive more equal burn in the upcoming week. Bochy declined to share whether he\u2019s discussed off days with Semien, who reached base six times in the first two games vs. the Cardinals, though the 34-year-old is the next logical candidate for a shakeup should his season-long slump continue. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to find ways to score runs right now,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cYou have to make adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda\u2019s time off was the latest in a long line of them. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll help me,\u201d Garc\u00eda said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to help me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcus Semien\u2019s breakout serves as reminder that Rangers are better with him at his best<\/a>Texas Rangers announce release of veteran outfielder Kevin Pillar<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON \u2014 On the umpteenth day of attempted efforts to stabilize an offense that has been anything but,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[3418,8289,4805,5,3321,384,10546,403,7530,386,4,3245,394,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-69983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-adolis-garcia","9":"tag-arlington","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-bruce-bochy","13":"tag-corey-seager","14":"tag-globe-life-field","15":"tag-jacob-degrom","16":"tag-jonah-heim","17":"tag-marcus-semien","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-mlb-texas-rangers","20":"tag-nathan-eovaldi","21":"tag-rangers","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-texas","24":"tag-texas-rangers","25":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114605347579015601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}