Photo Courtesy: Dominic Ceraldi
When the Rangers began the 2024 season they were defending World Series champions. Halfway through May it was clear they were never going to show up. They never did. The Rangers were more hungover than Tommy Lee after a three day bender. The product the Rangers put on the field this season was far more embarrassing than anything Tommy Lee ever did on camera.
The Texas Rangers are a loser franchise whose history is rife with misery and disappointment. So it really is saying a lot to call the 2024 season the most disappointing ever. The Rangers lost 105 games in 1973. They lost 102 games in 2021. They choked the division away in the final series of 2012. None of these failures compare to the atrocity that was the 2024 season. The Rangers front office wasted no time in trying to cash in on the World Series victory.
The Rangers could not even get a proper parade, an ominous portent of things to come. The Rangers proved with their tepid product placement Toyota excursion they were not serious about building a sustained winner. GM Chris Young was the only person in the entire front office who did a good job. He retained much of the World Series core while his co-workers were jacking up prices, putting more ads everywhere, and making the product worse.
The in-person experience at the Ballpark In Arlington (actually named after some joke insurance company) was truly wretched this season. Highly compressed, atrocious music assaulted the ears of the audience at every turn. The ads, which were already laughably out of control, got cranked up to an even more insane rate. In previous articles I mentioned that ads on the mound was just the beginning, soon there will be ads on the jerseys. That happened this season. MLB even added ads on the helmets in the playoffs. As predicted, the initial influx of ads has snowballed out of control and severely degraded the quality of the game.
The Rangers put a garbage product on the field this season. The experience surrounding the on-field product was even worse. I have been going to baseball games since the 90’s and this season’s experience was by far the worst. The level of shameless avarice matches that of Yankee Stadium in 2009, when the Yanks were on their way to a title in their new overpriced field. The problem is the Rangers have no tradition. The Rangers front office gave themselves carte blanche to degrade the product, using the World Series trophy as a cudgel.
Legendary broadcaster Eric Nadel was promised a replica trophy that had a speaker that replayed his famous call. The front office backed out on this simply due to cost. That really does say it all, doesn’t it? A joke org that has never won anything does not want to pony up the money for another trophy; even to honor a legend who has stuck with them through thin and thin. The Rangers front office is a perfect example of shameless avarice to the point of ludicrousness. An org that played second fiddle to the Dallas Cowgirls cannot even honor their own hard carry legends that stuck it out through decades of suffering. What a joke.
So as the front office was relentlessly wringing every penny out of last season’s miracle run, what was happening on the field? How did the Rangers go from winning it all to having a losing record? Many pedantic dopes will insist the Rangers crashed and burned due to injuries. It was NOT injuries.
The Fall
The Rangers woes this season start behind the plate. No, not the constantly scrolling distracting ad spam behind the batter’s box, the other thing behind the batter’s box. Jonah Heim was an excellent defender last season. He was top 3 in defensive runs saved as a catcher. He hit over .300 for most of the season. He was an All-Star. Heim was atrocious this season. He slashed .220/.267/.336 and his defense regressed. This abysmal turn perhaps can be attributed to his mother-in-law passing away right after the birth of his first child. Heim certainly looked like a player that spent every waking moment of his time away from the park caring for a child. Heim needs to hire a nanny and get his house in order. If he turns in another year like 2024 he will become a full time parent.
The backup catcher last year was Mitch Garver. He was stylistically similar to Mike Napoli. A beefcake slugger often used at DH. Garver was very clutch last season and when Heim needed a break he would play a bit and contribute to the lineup. He was great in the playoffs. Garver signed with Seattle this offseason. He was “replaced” by clueless dope Andrew Knizner. Knizner had an OPS+ of 13. 100 is average, higher is better. He hit less than a pitcher would have. The Rangers would have been better off keeping Austin Hedges, who also cannot hit but is a great vibes guy. The catching position was one of the Rangers biggest strengths in 2023. It was a black hole this season.
First baseman Nathaniel Lowe was solid this season. His hitting was above average, as was his defense. He missed a few games at the beginning of the season but contributed positively to the team in the way that was expected of him. This cannot be said about many of his peers.
Second baseman Marcus Semien spent the first two months of the season sleepwalking, as usual. Marcus is a notorious “slow starter,” which really just means he does not take his offseason preparation seriously. Semien is paid a top end salary to be the hard carry star of this team. He got a guaranteed contract that hilariously runs until 2028. The Rangers gave him the backend guarantee with the idea that he would really perform in these initial prime years, making the regression palatable. Semien listlessly wades through the first two months of every season. It prevents him from being a true top end player, even when he finds his form later in the year like he did last season. Semien and Corey Seager are paid the big bucks to be the hard carry stars. Last year they lived up to expectations. This season was characterized by tepid underperformances. Semien has some of the best lineup protection in baseball and posted a league average 100 OPS+ this season. What is really galling is knowing he will show up unprepared again next year. The Rangers could not stop the bleeding early in the season. No one stepped up in the way Josh Hamilton did in 2010 or the way Seager did last season. Seager and Semien did not clock in until late July. Adolis Garcia pressed all season. Those players were clutch all year in 2023. They came up short again and again in 2024.
Seager was good once he got going. It was too little, too late though. He eventually ended the season on the IL. He has to stay healthy if the Rangers are to be pennant contenders.
Josh Jung was playing very well until one of the dopes the Tampa Bay Rays have throwing sliders at max effort til their arm blows out hit Jung in the wrist. His entire season was ruined because of this. This is the injury many casual fans will cite when making excuses for the listless ballclub. Incredibly, the Rangers were virtually unaffected by this injury. Light-hitting utility infielder Josh Smith transformed his swing in the offseason, absurdly turning into a good hitter. Smith was dismissed by many as a Punch and Judy, fast, backup utility guy. He made an incredible transformation that many thought impossible. He played every day at third in lieu of Jung. He was exceptional at the beginning of the year especially, providing an unlikely spark in an extreme way. Thus, the Rangers did not lose much by Jung being hurt. This is why casual fans dismissing the poor season due to “injuries” is absurd. Corey Seager played 123 games, but he missed a month last season too when he got 2nd in MVP voting. All the other starters played over 130 games. It wasn’t injuries.
Rookie left fielder Wyatt Langford was exceptional after he returned from a pulled hamstring. He showed pop at the plate and ranked top 3 at his position in defensive runs saved. He has a bright future. The other young outfielder the Rangers used last season, Evan Carter, missed the entire year with back issues. Carter was only on the big league club for the last month of the season last year. The Rangers established much of their division lead last season early on, before Carter was called up. They relentlessly bludgeoned teams with a deep lineup. Robbie Grossman and Travis Jankowski were both a big part of this. Jankowski was hitting over .300 for most of last season. He is fast and plays good defense. Robbie Grossman was crushing lefties and providing some pop. They were both worthless this season. Leody Taveras manned center field last season. He spent much of the season hitting over .300 too. He looked like he had finally developed. He crashed back down to earth this season, reverting back to the flawed, boring player Rangers fans watched struggle for years.
Adolis Garcia was incredibly clutch last season. He played great defense, cut his strikeout rate down, and provided excellent lineup protection. He pressed all season, turning into a highly counterable desperate RBI guy. In big spots Adolis would swing at the rosin bag if a pitcher threw it at the plate. His very solid and flashy defense became flawed and sloppy. It is the same sort of regression we saw from Yasiel Puig: the loose, vibrant style he played with losing much of its consistency. Last year the Rangers had five good outfielders. This season they had one.
The Pitching
The bullpen was the Rangers’ Achilles heel last season. Chris Young brilliantly added two veteran arms in the offseason: Kirby Yates and David Robertson. Both vets were electric all season. Moves like this show why Young is a good GM that deserved his new contract. It is not his fault the team was so awful this season. He was basically the only person in the front office not insanely high on his own supply.
Jose Urena played a swing man role, filling in for injured starters sometimes. He was solid in 109 innings. Jose Leclerc looked lost for half the season, then found his rhythm as usual. Jacob Latz was a solid lefty out of the pen. Neither Jack Leiter, Jonathan Hernandez, nor Grant Anderson developed at all. The Rangers simply cannot develop pitching talent, even the “CAN’T MISS PROSPECT” variety. Josh Sborz spent the season on and off the IL. Honestly the bullpen was better than it was last season.
The starting pitchers were not great but did enough to make the playoffs again if the offense was functioning. Nathan Eovaldi turned in 170 innings and was solid. Andrew Heaney could not get any run support, but was electric in about 30% of his starts, just like last season. He notably started 31 games, despite his injury history. Anything over 30 is very good. 34 is basically the max. Jon Gray had a classic Jon Gray season: a few brilliant starts and then an injury. He then got blown up a few times until he felt right, then got hurt again. When 100% healthy he is very good. He seems to spend about half his time in uniform injured or recovering from injury. Gray is simply ineffective when not at 100%.
Michael Lorenzen was good until he was traded to the Royals. Dane Dunning regressed badly. Cody Bradford was excellent, but got hurt after winning his first three starts and returned to ruins late in the season. Mad Max Scherzer was getting battered by Father Time all season. The 39 year-old warrior tanked through 9 starts as his career careened sadly towards its end. Jacob deGrom returned to a pile of corpses late in the season, but looked like Prime Jake again. Kumar Rocker made his debut and looked good. Ultimately the Rangers had the pitching to win 88+ games. The offense simply never showed up. The outfield was especially awful.
The Rangers spent all of 2024 cashing in on 2023. Hopefully they can focus on winning again in 2025.
