How much longer can Texas Rangers wait for these regulars to turn seasons around?
In today’s baseball world of advance metrics, good old batting average still defines quality offense to a majority of fans, many media and even a great deal of the players themselves.
Just take a look at a box score or the graphics of game broadcast or the Globe Life Field videoboard. (Trust us, fans.)
Batting average, batting average, batting average.
By that measure, the Texas Rangers have one of the worst offenses in baseball. They’re one of the worst by any measure, actually.
They entered Tuesday hitting .210 as a team. Only three others were worse.
Of the Rangers’ everyday players, five were hitting .200 or worse. Two of them, Shin-Soo Choo and Willie Calhoun, were actually on the rise.
That leaves shortstop Elvis Andrus, catcher Robinson Chirinos and, of course, second baseman Rougned Odor, who were batting a combined .158 (19 for 120).
Rarely do they start rallies or keep them alive, and too often they have come up empty when the Rangers have needed a hit.
Yet, they keep playing regularly in a season when it was said a lack of early production would create a direct path to the bench.
At 6-9, it would seem the Rangers can’t wait on them much longer and have options ready to plug in.
“I think everybody understands what’s at stake right now, but we need more production,” manager Chris Woodward said. “If we need more production, and I feel like that’s a better option, we might go with that. It’s just the nature of the business nowadays, especially with 60 games. We’re trying to put the best team on the field to help us win.”
The Rangers are looking beyond batting average. They are big believers in OPS. Woodward is a believer in weighted on-base average or wOBA, which FanGraphs says takes OPS a step further by weighting each hitting aspect in relation to run value. A player with a good on-base percentage likely has a similar wOBA.
But Andrus, Odor and Chirinos are struggling across the board, statistically. Woodward said that he will continue to give a struggling hitter at-bats as long as he is sticking with his mechanics and approach while also performing in some metrics.
Hard-hit balls is another big one with Woodward, and that’s good news for Andrus.
Andrus is hitting the ball harder than his teammates. He has put the ball in play more than any other Rangers hitter, and as a result leads the team with 19 balls hit 95 mph or harder.
Six of those have come in the past four games, including two Monday in the Rangers’ 10-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners. Woodward thought the first, at 96 mph, was a home run off the bat.
Andrus, who is hitting .175 with a .482 OPS, said that his timing as been off so far this season, but he is trending in the right direction.
“I’ve been fighting a lot with my approach, with my timing, hitting too many balls in front of me, like my point of contact was too [far] and front,” he said “And that’s something that I’ve been working ... to let the ball travel, trying to see the ball a lot better than what it’s been so far.”
Odor has hits in back-to-back games for only the second time this season, but is batting only .128. He had his hardest hit ball of the season Monday, a 108.2-mph single off the right-field wall.
He has only eight hard-hit balls this season, has struck out 16 times and has only a .440 OPS. His wOBA of .203 is one of the worst in baseball.
Yet, it’s better than Chirinos, who has a .199 wOBA and has only five hard-hit balls this season. He singled Monday to snap an 0-for-16 skid, but is hitting only .129 with a .404 OPS.
His lack of production, after signing in the offseason as a free agent, has stumped Woodward.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I know he’s working really hard. He wants to produce. He’s a team-first guy. He feels like sometimes he’s letting the team down when he’s not producing offensively because he’s been an offensive force, especially as a catcher. Maybe it’s just one or two that he hits forward that gets him going.”
Chirinos’ backup is Jeff Mathis, who is having a nice start to the season but historically is one of the worst offensive players in baseball history. Jose Trevino is in the alternate camp and seems to be on the cusp of a sticking in the majors.
Nick Solak and Anderson Tejeda played second base while Odor dealt with oblique tightness. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who has been terrific at third base, is most comfortable at shortstop. The Rangers signed infielder Derek Dietrich to a minor-league deal Monday and added him to the active roster Tuesday.
Chirinos is going to get more chances. So is Andrus, based on how hard he’s hitting the ball. Odor keeps getting chances despite four seasons’ worth of struggles.
Part of that is salary, but Woodward said he will write out the best lineup for the Rangers each game in this odd-ball 60-game season. He’s been making minor changes, but larger changes could be coming.
“I think in-season, especially in this kind of a year this is, who gives us the best chance to win and, as Woody said in the past, to try to get guys out there that are productive and play the hot hand,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “So competition is plus, and the more the better.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 5:04 PM.
