We can officially call it. The Rangers offense is not good to carry this team into the playoffs, and it will not be good unless they are able to make a few major changes.
The only bona fide threat they have is Corey Seager, and he is a part-time player because of his injury history. The Rangers have played fifty games, Seager has played in twenty-six of them.
They have three hitters who are totally lost and might not get found: Adolis Garcia, Marcus Semien, and Joc Pederson. The three are automatically worth nine outs a game, which is three innings. So, with Garcia, Semien, and Pederson in the lineup, the Rangers are, at best, playing a six-inning game, having forfeited nine outs before the game even starts.
General manager Chris Young can insist as loudly as he wants that this team is “built to win.” When he does, he’s leaving off three words. This team is built to win “half its games.” Those are the games the pitching is so dominant it overcomes the anemic offense.
You can’t blame Young. He is not the one flailing at pitches that are eight inches out of the strike zone. He’s also not the one dispensing the payroll. He was told he couldn’t go over the luxury tax threshold because doing so would trigger all sorts of extra costs for Rangers ownership. So, his hands were tied in the offseason and they are tied now. That’s the challenge he has in trying to improve the offense. He would have to trade for someone that wouldn’t put him over the tax threshold.
He has other challenges. He cannot replace Semien because he has a long-term deal. They can and should, bat him ninth. Even if Young wanted to, it would be nearly impossible to trade Pederson. Not many teams need an $18.5-million .127 hitter. And trading Garcia would be difficult with his $10.5-million salary and slash line of .243 AVG/.281 OBP/.679 OPS. His OPS+ for 2024-25 is 100, which means, he’s an average major league hitter. The average salary is $5 million. So, he is being paid double his worth. Semien is even worse these last two seasons. His slash line for ’24 and ’25 is .224/.299/.685, with an OPS+ of 90. For that, they’re paying him $26 million a year.
Putting Semien, Pederson, and Garcia in positions where they are supposed to provide the offensive production is killing the Rangers. But, a team can have only one ninth-place hitter. The Rangers have three who qualify.
So, unless Chris Young has reached his boiling point of saying enough is enough, and Rangers’ ownership gets bitten with the let’s-win-this-thing-no-matter-the-cost bug, Young and the Rangers are stuck with three black holes in their lineup. Stuck playing a six-inning game. Stuck at .500.
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