Texas Rangers Have Played Themselves Out of Being Sellers

Don’t look now, but the Texas Rangers are right in the middle of the postseason race. At the conclusion of the teams’ recent 8-1 home stand against the Tigers, A’s, and Braves, the Rangers found themselves in a tie for the third wild-card spot in the American League.

Even after the loss to the Angels on Monday night, the team was still only four games behind the Astros for the division and 0.5 game out of the third wild card.

The team is finally performing up to expectations. And things couldn’t have turned around at a better time. With the trade deadline looming Thursday, the Rangers have gone from potential sellers to certain buyers.

At the same time that Texas is on a heater, the Astros have been struggling. On Monday, July 7, the Rangers were three games under .500, 4.5 games out of the third wild-card spot, and a season-high 11 games back in the AL West.

Flash forward three weeks — but only 16 games — and things are much different. Most shockingly, the Rangers have cut their deficit in the AL West by seven games by winning 12 of their last 16 contests. With 55 Rangers games still to go, the possibilities are endless for this Texas team.

Stats and rankings were taken prior to play on July 29.

The Offense Is Heating Up

Bruce Bochey’s postgame press conferences could have been on repeat for most of the season. There has been little to fault with the pitching staff and defense but plenty to critique about the offense.

But Bochey, President of Baseball Operations Chris Young, and the players themselves have held true to the idea that this Rangers team would eventually start hitting. It took nearly three months, but the offense is finally clicking.

Corey Seager is starting to hit like an MVP candidate, and Marcus Semien has been lighting it up for a while now. Josh Jung is the hottest of the hot hitters, too.

After being sent down to Triple-A for a brief reset and wake-up call, Jung has been crushing it. In his seven games since being called back up, he is hitting .409/.480/.682 with two bombs.

Texas is now giving the pitching staff some run support. In fact, the Rangers have scored the second-most runs in baseball during the month of July with 127. The Blue Jays lead baseball with 135 for the month.

The Rangers Desperately Need a Productive DH

With the offensive woes this year, there has been one position that has stood out as extra terrible: designated hitter. The Rangers have received the least amount of production from their DH when compared to all of the other teams.

The numbers don’t lie. Texas’ designated hitters have a slash line of .124/.243/.226 and a 38 wRC+. You read those numbers correctly. That is the production that the team has gotten through 107 games from a position that is only supposed to hit. Not ideal.

Joc Pederson was supposed to be one of the main answers to the DH dilemma heading into the season, but that hasn’t worked out. He has been hurt for a large part of the season, and has just come back a couple of games ago. In those games, he hasn’t recorded a hit yet.

Hopefully Pederson will turn things around, or the Rangers will be able to trade for a right-handed bat, or preferably both.

The Pitching Doing Work

Top to bottom, quality pitching and Texas Rangers baseball have usually gone together like the Dallas Cowboys and NFC Championships over the last 30 years. That is, they don’t. Until they do, like this year.

The staff is on a historic pace for the organization. Not only do the starters have the best ERA in baseball, but heading into Tuesday’s slate of games, the bullpen is tied with the Giants for the second-best ERA in baseball.

Despite the quality pitching, there is still a need for a lockdown closer. It comes as no surprise that the Rangers have been linked to several teams that have closers who are on the trading block.

The internal additions of Jon Gray coming off the IL and Josh Sborz coming back soon will add even more depth to a rock-solid ‘pen. But pitching is where it’s at down the stretch and in the playoffs, and the Rangers will want to bolster the bullpen as much as they can heading into the final two-month push to the postseason.

Limited Salary Room

While the Rangers have played themselves into contention, the luxury tax still looms. The amount of money that the front office will have to play with is somewhat of a moving target.

After factoring in the player incentives that are likely to be met, the number that is available is probably as low as $2 million. That’s not a ton of cash to go make a big splash.

But don’t underestimate the creativity of Chris Young and his staff. They could very well target lower-salaried players. A more realistic scenario is that the Rangers might end up having to trade a piece or two to clear some salary room before making moves for the new pieces.

One point, which I believe is a valid one, was recently brought up by Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News. In his piece, he mentioned the idea that if the Rangers are planning on being below the threshold next year, no matter what, going over this year while in contention could be the play.

It would seem strange to operate during an entire offseason and for four months of the regular season with a self-imposed salary cap, only to bust it at the last possible moment. But the idea of winning and winning now could sell ownership into pushing a bit further in.

All things are on the table for the Rangers over the next few days. But one thing is now clear: Texas will not be sellers and will be working hard to put together a roster that can get to the playoffs and make some serious noise once they arrive.