ARLINGTON, Texas — Let's hop in a time machine and travel back to March of this year.
Still basking in the glow of a World Series, the Texas Rangers were wrapping up spring training with hopeful, if perhaps a bit muted, expectations.
Texas couldn't manage to re-sign free agent pitcher Jordan Montgomery, who was integral in the team's 2023 title run, but that wasn't the end of the world. A thin pitching staff would simply have to make due, and the offense -- that slugging, relentless offense from last year's playoffs, surely bolstered by rookie phenom Wyatt Langford -- would keep the club above water until starting pitchers Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer returned from injury.
Stay around .500 until the All-Star break, the thinking went, and the Rangers just might have a chance at another playoff run.
OK, now, back to the present.
The Rangers woke up Wednesday, July 24, with a 49-52 record, and trailing the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners by a mere three games for the American League West lead.
On the injury front, Scherzer has been back for weeks -- he's pitching Thursday, by the way, after some extended rest. Right-hander Tyler Mahle, meanwhile, is close to returning from his own minor-league rehab stint. And deGrom, the two-time Cy Young winner with the best stuff of a generation, is ramping up his recovery process for a possible return in the next two weeks.
If you haven't watched a single Rangers game all season, you'd be forgiven for thinking this whole thing went according to plan.
So, why doesn't it feel that way?
Should it?
The short answer: Have you watched this team?
Maybe winning the World Series has spoiled us around here, but following the 2024 Texas Rangers has been an act of frustration at best, and suffering at worst.
The team's paper-thin pitching staff -- a situation made worse by the injuries to solid starters Cody Bradford and Dane Dunning -- has actually held up fine. The Rangers' 4.02 team ERA isn't spectacular, no, but it's still good for 16th-best in the majors -- a middle-of-the-pack standing that any Texas fan would've taken before the season.
The real problem for this team -- the one that's really just inexplicable – has been the crippling inconsistency of its offense.
Adolis Garcia, last year's Rangers postseason hero, is batting all of .206 on the season, which would be fine if he was still slugging and getting on base. But he's not, and his 17 homers on the year are far outweighed by his sagging .663 on-base plus slugging percentage.
Remember Evan Carter? The 21-year-old rookie who batted third in the World Series, just weeks after getting called up to the majors? He's been on the shelf since May with a back injury -- and no timetable of return. Even when he was playing, though, Carter struggled with a .188 batting average and only five homers.
Marcus Semien, for his part, has been a tick above average in the leadoff role. He's batting just .243, but getting on base and slugging enough to make an impact. (Semien's most notable contribution has been in the field, where he's been among the best defenders in baseball.)
Meanwhile, Wyatt Langford, the team's spring training star and big-ticket rookie, didn't hit an over-the-fence home run until June 18. Langford finally caught his groove around that same time, but he's still prone to 0-fors -- as any rookie is.
The Rangers' two best hitters on the season have been their biggest star, Corey Seager, and their most unknown entity, Josh Smith, who should have been all-star.
The old cliché about pulling teeth might suit this Rangers offense. But it also would be too generous. The Rangers scoring with any consistency has been like pulling teeth -- and then trying to put them back in.
All of which has produced a few head-scratching stat lines from this year's team:
- 429 runs scored, and 429 runs allowed
- Most runs scored in a game: 15; most runs allowed in a game: 15
- 20 comeback wins and 26 blown leads
- Longest winning streak: 5 games; longest losing streak: 6 games
- An 11-16 record in both May and June
And yet, in spike all of that, here the Rangers sit, squarely in the mix in the AL West.
The complicating matter in all of this is how general manager Chris Young will handle the July 30 trade deadline, which less than a week away.
The Rangers have plenty of pitchers on expiring or short-term contracts, including Michael Lorenzen, Andrew Heaney, Nathan Eovaldi, Kirby Yates and David Robertson. Will Young trade a few (or even all) to better-positioned contenders for prospects?
The reality is that Texas could do both: stay in the race and sell off an arm or two. With Mahle and deGrom set to return, the Rangers, for example, could trade Lorenzen and Heaney without radically changing their playoff hopes. But Yates and Robertson have been among the better relievers in baseball this year, and would surely be a target for a contender. Trading either of them would be a blow to the bullpen (and Rangers fans know shaky that department can be).
The Rangers' upcoming schedule makes things tricky, too. They've taken the first two games of a four-game set from the Chicago White Sox, the worst team in baseball. A road trip to Toronto and St. Louis is up next, but neither of those teams are juggernauts. Then Texas gets a three-game series at home against a decent -- but beatable -- Red Sox team.
It's not out of the question that the Rangers could be sitting in first place when they welcome the Astros to Globe Life Field on Aug. 5.
Or, on the other hand, they could be 10 games back.
Seriously, that's the range of outcomes for the 2024 version of this club.
Sometimes hopeful. Mostly frustrating. Never dead.
And rollercoaster of a journey that it's been to date, it's right where this team planned to be all along.