Michael Young: Texas Rangers are a playoff team

The Texas Rangers are 13 games back of the Houston Astros in the American League West. They sit at .500 (36-36) with 90 games left.

But the Rangers are in the thick of the two-team wild card race, just 1.5 games back of leaders New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. They certainly remain in the playoff hunt.

And count Michael Young among those who believe the Rangers will be playing meaningful October baseball.

“I think we’re a playoff club,” said Young, a Rangers Hall of Famer who now serves as a special assistant to general manager Jon Daniels.

“I think now we’re starting finally to see our full team healthy with Adrian [Beltre] coming back and Carlos [Gomez] being back. Carlos being back fully healthy is huge. One, for his production, and, two, for his energy and what he does in our clubhouse.

“Like I said, I think we’re a playoff club. It’s just a matter of going out there and gelling together. We haven’t had the opportunity to have everyone at the same time, so I expect a very positive, productive second half.”

Young made the comments on Friday at Dr Pepper Ballpark as he prepared to play in Dirk Nowitzki's charity baseball game on Saturday. He said this is his "baseball fix" for the year.

And, in what could be taken as a compliment, Young even compared his and Nowitzki's swing.

"Dirk's swing is honestly probably like mine right now, which isn't very good," Young said. "But if you’re 7-foot and can hit fall-away 22-footers it doesn’t really matter what you’re baseball swing is like.”

This story was originally published June 23, 2017 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Michael Young: Texas Rangers are a playoff team."