Photo Courtesy: Michael Kolch
Texas Rangers General Manager Chris Young showed he was serious about washing out the grotesque stains of 2024 and 2025 when he parted ways with Marcus Semien. Stalwart second baseman Semien was dealt to the New York Mets for Brandon Nimmo. In a classic swap of bloated contracts, the Mets even agreed to give the Rangers five million just to be cute. Brandon Nimmo is a good hitter and an average right fielder. Nimmo is three and a half years younger than Semien. Semien plays every day and excels defensively. He also spends the first two months of the season “getting into playing shape.” The Rangers won this trade. They badly needed help in the outfield. They badly needed to get rid of Lazy Marcus Semien. They addressed both these issues and even got fiscal relief. This was a classic Chris Young win.
The Rangers non-tendered Adolis Garcia a week or so ago. This simply means he was a free agent and the Rangers did not offer him a new contract. Adolis Garcia joined the Rangers in 2020. He was an incredibly flawed player that played with a vibrant, flashy style. The Pride of Cuba was known for his cannon in RF and susceptibility to the outside slider. He struckout too much and never walked. It is one thing to strikeout a lot, another to turn in uncompetitive at bats consistently. This is the difference between Adam Dunn and Rougie Odor. They both struckout a ton; but Rougie Odor turned in awful at bats where he was hilariously overmatched. Garcia had plenty of these ABs during his Rangers tenure. Very few of them occurred in 2023 when the Rangers won it all. During that season Garcia played a selfless, intelligent style. The entire offense employed this approach. Tim Hyers was the hitting coach that season. He is an intelligent man that did a great job. Hyers’ ability is especially noticeable after witnessing two seasons of Garcia after he left. El Bombi reverted back to the hilariously flawed player he was when he joined the Rangers. Garcia said he would hit 50 homers before the 2025 season began. You knew this was a bad sign if you had been watching Garcia since the beginning. Sure enough, he tried to hit a homer every AB and did not even get halfway to 50.
“If you TRY to hit a home run you usually pop up or top it.” -MLB Legend Lenny “Nails” Dykstra
Garcia turned in two entire years of awful ABs. His S class defense made this slightly more palatable… But it felt like the 2025 season was defined by moments of Garcia coming up short in big spots. Spots that could have been turnaround points for the team. Spots that could have netted a squad with the best ERA in the league a couple valuable runs. Garcia came up in these spots constantly in 2025 and fell short time and time again. Vexingly, the quality of ABs he turned in during those big moments were pathetic. It is really easy to get out a slugger who is going to swing no matter what.
“Joe Carter is an RBI guy. I know if there are men in scoring position I can throw the rosin bag up there and Joe will swing!” – Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams
Consider the contrast between two legendary Rangers right fielders: Juan Gonzalez and Adolis Garcia. Comparing both of their peaks on the Rangers only: Juan Gone struckout .72 times a game. Garcia struckout 1.21 times a game. This is looking strictly at their peak seasons in Texas. It is worth remembering Garcia was faster than Juan Gone. Garcia also played better defense. The point is analyzing the quality of their ABs and how often they kill rallies as opposed to drive runners in. Both consistently started in the cleanup spot in the lineup. The four hole is reserved for the player with the most power in the lineup. The major distinction between the three and four spots is eye and discipline. The cleanup hitter is the more flawed, strapping, brutish player. The three hole hitter is your best hitter. Garcia takes these flaws to the absurd extremes, flailing selfishly at sliders during gross, rally-killing ABs. Juan Gonzalez got those baserunners on the pillows in, and he did it consistently! Juan Gone’s RBI numbers speak for themselves: 157, 144, 131, 128, 118. Those numbers are strictly from the aforementioned “Peak Ranger Era,” and omits his 140 RBI masterpiece season with Cleveland.
Juan Gonzalez understood how to make a productive out. He understood a ringing two-run double was better than a three-run homer if the pitcher was pitching you away to prevent a pull homer. Juan Gone was willing to hit the ball the other way and keep the line going. 2023 Garcia understood this and benefitted the team consistently. The Garcia before and after 2023 plays for himself. He is about the sizzle, not the steak. He was a truly great player with competent coaching. He was a “me” guy consumed by the Disease of More under the clueless gaze of hitting coach Justin Viele. Equally clueless “hitting coach” Bret Boone was just as dim. Juan Gonzalez had four seasons with double digit sacrifice flies (productive outs) in his career. Adolis has NONE. Juan Gonzalez is viewed as a great player in Rangers history. The three times he led the Rangers to the playoffs they were smashed by the New York Yankees. The very first game in Rangers postseason history was in Yankee Stadium against David Cone in 1996. Gonzalez had a three-run BOMB that set the tone for the series before Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter happened late in Game 2. The Game 2 Yankee rally was the beginning of the 90’s Yankees dynasty. People forget the Rangers were on the cusp of being up 2-0 in the BO5 series, GOING BACK to Texas for games 3 and 4. The staggering TEN playoff wins in a row the Yankees would hang on the Rangers were largely defined by the Rangers vaunted offense going soft. The difference between Adolis and Juan Gone’s legacy is playoff success. Juan Gone struggled in the 1998 and 1999 playoffs against the Yanks. But in 1996 he was Prime Josh Hamilton level when it came to tormenting the Yanks. The 1996 ALDS was an interesting flashpoint in baseball history people sort of ignore and take for granted because of what happened after. It was as though the Yanks were supposed to walk over the lowly Texas Rangers on their path back to Pinstriped Glory. Game 2 of that series was a line of demarcation that defined who would become the next AL power to challenge Cleveland. Losing this series and failing to show up in the subsequent two would define the Rangers legacy of Juan Gonzalez. He was seen as a regular season, counting stat stacking player. A guy that farmed numbers during the regular season. Had the Rangers not choked in 1996, a scorching hot Juan Gone would have likely laid waste to the O’s in the ALCS. This completely changes his legacy, as well as Derek Jeter’s.
Adolis Garcia will be remembered by Rangers fans for his plethora of great moments in the 2023 title run. He peppered the Astros with homers and had an especially memorable Game 7 against them. He had a walkoff homer in Game 1 of the World Series. Game 1 would ultimately be the flashpoint of the series. He went down with injury in the middle of the World Series. The Rangers closing it out in five made many people forget that.
Ultimately Adolis was seen as sort of the anti-Nelly Cruz. He was the right fielder that stood tall when it mattered. He had pop like Nelly, but was alive and dangerous in the outfield; as opposed to tentative and plodding. Garcia was a cornerstone of the Rangers winning it all. He was written in the lineup every day he was available since then. He failed again and again. Bruce Bochy bobbed his massive head as he penciled Adolis into the cleanup spot day after day. Bochy showed El Bombi RELENTLESS and unwavering loyalty to a fault. When the injury-ravaged Rangers were hot in September led by a cadre of youngsters, Adolis Garcia rushed back from injury to post more 0-4 performances. His recurrence in the lineup was the absurdist deathnail in a sickening season. Garcia should be appreciated for his contribution to the Rangers’ first title. It is hard to put the “bad” aside for the “good” when the “bad” was seemingly present every time with the bases loaded and two outs. Adolis stood tall in big moments in 2023. In his 1184 plate appearances since then he has posted a .278 OBP and totally failed the eye test. The thing about “running it back” with the same players you won a title with is you are inherently giving each player a ton of trust and job security. Bochy was going to live or die with Adolis, even going as far as to bring him back from injury and completely upsetting team chemistry. Adolis should have been left on the shelf to heal, not rushed back to flail at more sliders when the kids were cooking.
Bochy was loyal and calm to a fault. His “balanced” approach veers deeply into the boomerish and out of touch. Trusting your veterans is one thing; calling for the same strategies that have NOT been working for MONTHS and expecting a different result is insane. Not only did Bochy do that, he went out of his way to do that. Garcia’s injury was the perfect honorable “out” to letting the listless slugger recover. The gang of youngsters the Rangers were trotting out were playing at a torrid pace. They caught lightning in a bottle. It was almost cute until they won enough games in a row to make you raise your eyebrow. Right when they got to the point of being in the playoff picture again, Adolis was reinserted in the lineup. The vibe was crushed, along with the Rangers and their season that very night. That is why Bochy deserved to be fired. He was brilliant at managing pitchers. Maybe the best ever. His lineup decision making and tepid approach allowed two talented teams to grossly underachieve. The players knew they were never going to get screamed at and it showed. Adolis could have turned the 2025 season around at any point. Instead, he tried to hit a homer every AB.
Jonah Heim was the best catcher in the AL in 2023. He has posted two awful seasons since. His defense has fallen off along with his bat. He was overworked severely in 2024, as underappreciated vibes guy Austin Hedges was allowed to walk in the post-title offseason for five mil. Five million dollars might seem like a lot to pay for vibes, but the departure of Austin Hedges was the definitive move of the post 2023 Rangers. This is not satire or an exaggeration: Hedges was such a gregarious, positive force that he severely contributed to the 2023 title run despite not being able to hit. The handsome backstop brought everyone up around him. Trading his automatic outs with a smile for a guy that hit almost .000 was a fatal error. Letting Hedges go had a domino effect: Jonah Heim was subsequently ridden into the ground. He was overworked to the point of ineffectiveness. The Rangers added a breathing backup in 2025… but he missed a lot of time early. Heim went from solid to BRUTAL as he was again relentlessly overused by the thoughtless Bochy. Heim had the lowest OPS+ on a team full of putrid underperformers. He was above league average in OPS+ before being asked to play every day without relent. If only the Rangers had kept the amiable Hedges, Heim would have never fallen off. Hedges would have had an untold, unquantifiable positive impact on the clubhouse. It is perhaps the most impactful “backup catcher being allowed to play elsewhere” decision ever.
Flamethrower Josh Sborz has been plagued with arm trouble for two seasons. He recorded the final out of the Rangers 2023 title run. Although volatile in the regular season, he was very solid in the Rangers title run. His most memorable moment came against Houston in the ALCS, with S class superstar Yordon Alvarez at the dish. Sborz unleashed an insidious three pitch sequence that lobotomized the slugger. Alvarez had been impossible to get out in that series, especially without a lefty pitcher. The sequence showed off Sborz at the peak of his powers: Alvarez saw all 3 of the devastating pitches and was overwhelmed. This is how Sborz should be remembered as a Ranger, not for the erratic regular season performances where he was a true coinflip Jekyll and Hyde type pitcher.
The Rangers ran it back for two seasons with the same roster that won the World Series. This did not work at all. They severely changed their roster to show their commitment to winning. They had the best ERA and defense in the league last season. This team merely needs to re-canvas like Bill Rawls.
