Rangers believe in current group despite rocky road trip

By Kennedi Landry | July 31, 2024

This browser does not support the video element.

ST. LOUIS -- Rangers general manager Chris Young, manager Bruce Bochy and everybody around the clubhouse has asserted their belief in this roster all season, but especially over the last few days as the Trade Deadline came and went without much movement from the Texas side.

Young was clear that even without selling off expiring contracts or taking big swings to add another bat at the Deadline, this belief hasn’t wavered.

“We really believe in the group we have,” Young said. “We've pitched very well all year. Offensively, we're getting healthy right now. I truly believe our best baseball is ahead of us these next two months. I think it's a big sign of confidence, a show of confidence in this group, and in their ability, their talent level.

“I'm excited to see this come together. This division is very tough. Houston is very good. Seattle is very good. We certainly have dug ourselves a little bit of a hole here. But nobody's run away with the division, and we feel confident that these next two months, if we play to the level that we think we can, that we can compete for the division title.”

Texas didn’t do much to emphasize that belief on Wednesday, when they dropped the series finale to the Cardinals, 10-1, at Busch Stadium to finish off a losing road trip against St. Louis and Toronto.

St. Louis starter Michael McGreevy, who was making his MLB debut, manhandled the Rangers' offense, limiting them to one run on just five hits and one walk over seven innings.

This browser does not support the video element.

“I mean, you have to play better baseball than what we did,” Bochy said. “That second inning got a little sloppy, missing the cutoff man and another throw that was wide. [Starting pitcher] Andrew [Heaney] could have come out of that a little bit better. … It's pretty simple. We gotta put some pressure on the other club, and today, it was just ugly. We had some bad luck there. But we got to do some things offensively.”

Simply put, the Rangers offense has not been up to par this season. But the question is why.

For most of the 2024 season, six of the nine players from the starting lineup from Game 1 of the World Series have been in the Rangers lineup, not including designated hitter Mitch Garver -- who signed with the Mariners this offseason -- and the losses of a pair of injured players in Josh Jung and Evan Carter.

This browser does not support the video element.

Yet, almost every position has regressed offensively for Texas.

Rangers’ wRC+ by position (these refer to the player's position at the time of each plate appearance, not their general primary position):

Bochy has shuffled the top of the lineup. The front office has mixed in some depth from both internally -- by activating Jung and recalling Ezequiel Duran -- and externally by acquiring catcher Carson Kelly. They’re trying to do what they can to get this offense going. The players are as frustrated as anybody.

“The message was sent to a couple of guys,” Bochy said, while declining to specify who. “It's all about producing here, and we’re to the point where we gotta win games.”

This browser does not support the video element.

Young added that the front office did monitor the position-player market at the Deadline to add a potential bat, but there was no obvious fit for Texas’ lineup with the return of Jung on Monday.

“The best real upgrades that we're going to find offensively with our roster come internally, with one [being] the addition of Josh coming back and then some of our own guys starting to perform up to the level of their capability,” Young reiterated. “There just was not a natural fit out there. We had great conversations with a number of clubs, but in the end, we trust the group we have. Again, we think our best baseball is still ahead of us, especially on the offensive side.”

The Rangers' best baseball may be ahead of them. But they’ll have to play much better than they did this week in St. Louis to prove their general manager right.

“I can't speak for everybody, but yeah, obviously we didn't play well on this last road trip, and the last two games were pretty ugly,” said Heaney, who was tagged with the loss on Wednesday. “So yeah, we need to play better. And I think everybody knows that.”

This browser does not support the video element.

More from MLB.com