In Major League Baseball, things go pretty awful when they’re not going well. And it still holds true for the Texas Rangers, the reigning World Series winners.
For the Rangers, it’s been a terrible season with all the aftereffects of a traditional championship hangover. Their record is 37-46 and they are eight games out of a postseason place in the fiercely competitive American League after losing for the sixth straight game on Saturday. To make matters worse, on Saturday Corey Seager was hit by a pitch in the wrist and forced to depart early.
Time is running out for the reigning champions, but it’s not over yet. General manager Chris Young will eventually have to choose whether to sell around the MLB trade deadline. In the event of a sale, the Rangers possess an abundance of players who might lure other teams to replenish their farm system.
The Rangers will be happy that Max Scherzer recovered from his herniated disk surgery so rapidly if they decide to sell. With two starts under his belt in 2024, Scherzer appears to be in peak form, and a team hoping to make the playoffs would be fortunate to have the services of the three-time Cy Young winner.
“Wait ’til next year” is not an option when your 40th birthday is less than a month away. Since last season, when he moved to Texas and discovered championship glory, every chance to win another World Series means to Scherzer. On this occasion, though, Scherzer’s sole chance of winning another ring may lie in leaving Texas.
On Friday, Scherzer moved up to the eleventh spot on the all-time strikeout record, surpassing Greg Maddux with 3,375 punchouts in his illustrious career. While it’s never sure how many innings a 17-year veteran has left in his career, he’s only allowed two runs in 10.1 innings of his 2024 season thus far. All signs point to the innings continuing to be of a high caliber.
Teams obviously take into account Scherzer’s contract, age, and history of injuries when calculating the risks of making a trade. However, the Mets were astute enough to take up over half of Scherzer’s outstanding debt this season, and in exchange, the Rangers sent them stronger prospects. This implies that Texas probably won’t lose money on this trade agreement, which will provide them with some payroll relief in a year.
David Robertson and Kirby Yates are relievers.
Since these two are in the same circumstance this season, we’ll group them together. The Texas bullpen’s two most dependable relievers have gone a long way toward helping the team secure the few close victories they have had this year. They’re both practically gone if the Rangers sell at the deadline.
When Kirby Yates signed a one-year deal with the Rangers this winter, they could have anticipated him to be good, but they couldn’t have predicted him to be this dominant. With an opponent batting average of.138, he has limited opposing offenses to just three earned runs in 28.1 innings thrown. He has made all 11 of his save attempts and won the closer position. Not bad for a 26th-round selection in 2005.
Meanwhile, Robertson is establishing himself as a timeless talent. His season ERA of 3.34 is still very high despite a few big outings, but his 2.46 FIP and 14 strikeouts per nine innings indicate that he is capable of being one of the finest relievers in baseball on any given day. In addition, he had to take credit for striking out Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, and Mookie Betts in consecutive orders.
When a team decides to raise the white flag, veteran relievers are the first to leave. You can earn the opportunity to pitch for a contender instead of a non-contending team if you pitch well enough on that squad. And that’s precisely what Robertson and Yates are doing right now.
Utility Ezequiel Duran
There’s always other pitchers to discuss. Since Andrew Heaney will soon become a free agent, a transfer may simply be made. Although Tyler Mahle and Jon Gray have an additional year of control, they might decide to stay, you never know. Ezequiel Duran, the prospect Texas acquired in the Joey Gallo trade with the New York Yankees, is a more intriguing player to talk about.
A season ago at this time, Duran was considered a possible cornerstone for the Rangers’ future. At the age of 24, he was dominating the baseball diamond, amassing a.870 OPS and a.308 batting average during the first half of the season. But since then, everything has collapsed, and this season, Duran’s performance has been so awful that the Rangers have sent him back to Triple-A.
Duran seemed to be blacked out in Texas anywhere you look on the diamond. After Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter establish themselves as the team’s long-term starters, he won’t see any action in the outfield. Additionally, there isn’t a space for him on the infield with Josh Smith returning and Josh Jung recovering. However, there’s a good chance that many other teams have room for a 25-year-old with very intriguing raw tools.
Duran is an excellent choice for a change of scenery all around. He might be part of a trade deal that the Rangers use to acquire younger, more promising prospects in exchange for a bullpen pitcher. Additionally, Duran may restart his career without the constraints of a company where he has seen many highs and lows.
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