Rangers working on process over wins in minors

The Texas Rangers’ big-league team isn’t the only squad in the organization struggling to win games. All of them are.

The four full-season minor-league teams entered Thursday at least four games below .500. The honor of having the best record belonged to Double A Frisco at 14-18.

The Rangers were 14-20 ahead of the beginning of an eight-game homestand against San Diego, Oakland and Philadelphia.

But first-year farm director Jayce Tingler isn’t wringing his hands. Instead of wins and losses, he’s hoping to see individual players build a foundation of what it takes to further their development.

Once that process runs its course, then wins and losses will become more of a focus.

“Honestly, where we’re at right now, we’re more worried about individual player development,” Tingler said. “There’s going to be a time when we teach the guys how to win, but we’re not there.”

While Tingler didn’t give the specifics of the development process, he said that rather than give players six or seven things to work on at once, players are focusing on two areas that need improvement. Once they’ve got those down, they receive two more.

There have been plenty of quality individual performances within the losing. Cuban-born Yanio Perez was batting .349 with a .602 slugging percentage at Low A Hickory, where No. 1 prospect Leody Taveras was batting .286 with nine extra-base hits and four steals.

Taveras is 18.

Left-hander Brett Martin has a 3.12 ERA and 34 strikeouts after five starts for High A Down East. Yohander Mendez, Connor Sadzeck and Collin Wiles have all done good things in rotation for Double A Frisco.

The winning will come eventually.

“We’ve got personal individual plans with each guy, and we’re not going to skip a step,” Tingler said.

This story was originally published May 10, 2017 at 7:40 PM with the headline "Rangers working on process over wins in minors."