Just a few teams to run through as the way too long exhibition season finally grinds to an end. Today’s look is a team that absorbed some horrific luck last year. Unfortunately, things aren’t looking brighter as the new season gets rolling.
The Texas Rangers were about as unlucky as it gets last season on the injury front. In the process, they tumbled badly in the standings. But the upside was that the window might not be slammed shut for long. A little better health in tandem with some good young prospects seemed to be a recipe for a return to contention for the 2015 Rangers. I think you can probably scratch those plans.
Yu Darvish is already done for the season, which is a killer injury for the pitching. Top prospect Jurickson Profar will now miss another campaign with injury issues. The team didn’t do much in the off season to impress, and Texas is in a division with two or three legit powerhouses. In other words, another down year appears very likely.
That staff is is a real problem at this point. Derek Holland is now the ace by default and he just doesn’t profile as a #1. Yovani Gallardo should be thrilled about being back home in Texas, but he’s gone from being a true power pitcher to more of a pitch to contact type and is simply not a #2 anymore. The rest of the rotation looks extremely questionable. The Rangers bullpen is a potential disaster. This is not a good ballpark to play 81 games in with a staff this questionable.
The Texas offense could be a bit improved. Prince Fielder is back in action and Rougned Odor had a very nice rookie season and might well be a star in the making. Elvis Andrus remains a plus at SS and Adrian Beltre continues to build on a career that ought to make a him a legit Cooperstown candidate. I think there’s some reason to think Beltre might be starting to decline a bit as his power numbers took a dip last season. But he was also lacking protection so that slippage might not mean much. This has a chance to be a very good Texas infield, although I’m not close to sold on Robinson Chirinos being an everyday catcher.
The outfield is not as secure. Leonys Martin is an exciting player with terrific speed and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him put up some nice numbers this year. Ryan Rua looked good in a September cameo and off his spring appears to be a guy capable of being the everyday left fielder. I have Shin-Soo Choo as a question mark at this point. He’s clearly a very capable guy when right, and he’s an on base machine to boot. The concern for me is that last year wasn’t just an injury induced slump, and that he could be declining. We’ll find that out relatively quickly. Mitch Moreland is acceptable at best as the primary DH.
Due to the Darvish injury that created what amounts to a rush to play the Under on the Texas win total option, any value on that play appears to have pretty much vanished. But even if one is taking the rose-colored glasses look at the 2015 Rangers, it’s tough to make a compelling case for them being a surprise team. I see Texas battling to avoid finishing at the bottom of the AL West heap.