A slow start to the abbreviated season could cost these 5 Texas Rangers playing time
After 60 games last season, the Texas Rangers were 32-28 and in possession of the second wild-card spot.
Hey, the 2020 MLB season is only 60 games.
Make those playoff reservations now.
Right?
Right?
Well ...
“I don’t necessarily look at what we did last year,” manager Chris Woodward said. “It’s, obviously, a different team.”
Obviously.
Nevertheless, Woodward believes the shortened schedule could play into the Rangers’ hands. They have quality starting pitching, but also a group of young players who could start quickly and carry the Rangers for two months.
As Woodward described it, they are still learning to sustain success over a 162-game season. They show early speed before fading late.
“There’s a lot of inconsistency with some of these players,” Woodward said. “Hopefully the consistent part shows up in the beginning and, yeah, who knows?”
But part of a team starting fast is to not have too many players who start slow. Those who do might be in jeopardy of losing their playing time much more quickly than they would in a 162-game campaign.
The goal this season is the same as always: to win.
“In a typical season, you give guys the benefit of the doubt to figure things out,” Woodward said. “We don’t have time for that this year. We have to hit the ground running. There is less rope for guys.”
Ah. The dreaded short leash. These five Rangers could find themselves on the wrong end of one.
Rougned Odor
Honestly, his leash has been really long. Three-seasons long.
The Rangers have said the second baseman can’t be dragging an anchor most of the season. They have a replacement on the roster, Nick Solak, and just drafted second baseman Justin Foscue with their first-round pick.
So, Odor can’t slump early, as he has in four of the past five seasons. He can’t slump throughout, as he has much of the past three seasons.
In fairness to Odor, he led the Rangers in homers (30) and RBIs (93) last season and was one of the league’s best players in September amid talk of how he must be better in 2020.
Jose Leclerc
The Rangers’ 60-game record last season would have been much better if not for the lousy start to the season by Leclerc, their closer. He lost his job after posting an 8.44 ERA over the first month and blowing two saves.
Two blown saves doesn’t sound like much, but there was a domino effect that kept the bullpen from being as good as it should have been.
Each loss that should have been a win this season will sting even more. Leclerc, though, is the Rangers’ closer.
“What he went through last year will help him this year,” Woodward said. “He really struggled in all fronts, and was able to overcome it. At the end he was standing pretty tall and proud of what he was able to accomplish. It’s not going to be perfect every time he goes out there, but I love where he’s at right now.”
Ronald Guzman/Greg Bird
The only position battle of spring training will resume July 3 with the Rangers’ first full-squad workout of spring training 2.0.
Neither Ronald Guzman nor Greg Bird had an advantage at first base in March before camps were closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. With Isaiah Kiner-Falefa showing more potency at the plate, the Rangers were growing comfortable with the idea of using Todd Frazier at first base more frequently and playing Kiner-Falefa at third.
The plan is for Frazier to play most of his games at third base and for Guzman or Bird to win the job. But they have to produce at a position where the Rangers have not had much production for more than a decade.
Jordan Lyles
The Rangers bet reasonably strongly in free agency that Lyles will be the starting pitcher he was to finish last season, when he went 7-1 with a 2.45 ERA in 11 starts with the Milwaukee Brewers after the trade deadline.
That’s really good.
But he had a 5.36 ERA in 17 starts before the Pittsburgh Pirates traded him.
The Rangers are likely to use left-hander Taylor Hearn and right-hander Jonathan Hernandez for multiple innings early in the season. Lyles might not lose his rotation spot if he struggles, but he might not be allowed to go through a batting order more than twice or the Rangers could consider using an opener on his day to pitch.
Jeff Mathis
The early-season structure of team rosters could leave Mathis short on early at-bats. The length of the season could, too.
Teams will open the season with 30 players, will trim to 28 players on the 15th day and then the standard 26 on the 19th day. One of those spots is almost certain to go to catcher Jose Trevino, who is a better hitter than Mathis.
The Rangers signed Robinson Chirinos, who caught more than 100 games each of the past two seasons, to be the primary catcher. In a 60-game season, how many off days is Chirinos going to need?
Consider this: A caveat of the three-man taxi squad is that one of the three must be a catcher. Barring something completely unforeseen, that will be Trevino.
The more he’s around the team, even if he isn’t an active player, he is a threat to Mathis’ job security.
