Blame Jon Daniels for Texas Rangers season? Sure. But 2021 payroll cut isn’t on him.
For the first time this season for a Texas Rangers road game, the Star-Telegram did not have to rely on the home team’s broadcast feed to figure out what was going on.
This series might be the only time a reporter travels, though that is TBD.
There are no hidden benefits for reporters to travel. All access is via Zoom, whether in the same visiting ballpark with the team or in the home office or in Antarctica.
But there is value to actually being at the event. Is there enough value, though? After one game, the answer is yes.
The only other series under consideration is the next series at Minute Maid Park later this month.
As for Tuesday’s game, the Rangers did a lot of things right and took advantage of the mistakes handed to them.
Here’s some Rangers Reaction from a 6-5 win over the Houston Astros in 10 innings.
Fans seething
The vitriol hurled at Jon Daniels following the Rangers’ lack of substantive action at the trade deadline was off the charts. Rangers ownership didn’t get by unscathed, but Ray Davis, et al, didn’t get it nearly as bad as Daniels.
So, once again, Daniels took some bullets for the owners, who rarely speak to the media and make Daniels do their dirty work for them publicly.
Even when there isn’t dirty work to do, Daniels is left to speak for ownership.
When he received his most recent contract extension in 2018, Daniels was the only person from the Rangers on the conference call announcing the news. No one from the ownership group was there to be asked why they thought Daniels deserved an extension.
Daniels does have bosses, after all.
On Monday, Daniels had to answer questions about the 2021 payroll. He told the truth, that the Rangers would have a smaller budget because of the lack of revenue this year, and took the bulk of the wrath that should have been directed at the owners.
Does Daniels deserve criticism for extending the Rangers’ rebuild? Sure, though not all of it. Ownership could hasten that along by spending some money in free agency.
Does Daniels deserve all the criticism for the product he assembled? Much of it, though he doesn’t set the budget.
He was duped by the breakthrough season Danny Santana had in 2019 and the big September produced by Rougned Odor.
Those two were supposed to protect Joey Gallo. On Tuesday, it was Jose Trevino and Nick Solak doing the protecting.
Daniels can’t be blamed for not signing Anthony Rendon. That’s on ownership, which treats a team in the fifth-largest market like they are in the 25th-largest market. The Rangers also didn’t pull the trigger on Nicholas Castellanos, whom manager Chris Woodward wanted, or attempt to upgrade first base.
Well, outside of signing Greg Bird.
Then Monday arrived, and Daniels didn’t move Lance Lynn.
Fans were apoplectic.
The best the Rangers could have received was a deal similar to what the San Diego Padres gave the Cleveland Indians for right-hander Mike Clevinger.
The Indians received three MLB players the Padres decided they could live without, including a catcher hitting .158, and three prospects who were not in the Padres’ top five.
The Rangers have plenty of that already. Right, Daniels critics?
Some fans might have acted happy with that haul and tried to put lipstick on a pig. The Rangers can find a better deal for Lynn in the off-season, maybe to a team that isn’t contending this season but expects to in 2021.
Yes, seriously.
But with a shrinking budget, an ace for the $8 million Lynn is owed is very budget-friendly.
And who gave Lynn that contract?
Hmm.
Lyles improves
As long as we’re pointing out where Daniels went wrong in building this Rangers team, that Jordan Lyles deal isn’t looking very good.
Lyles turned 11 terrific second-half starts last season into a two-year, $16 million contract. He entered Tuesday with a 9.25 ERA and has been so ineffective that the Rangers used an opener for the first time this season so that he didn’t have to face the top of the Astros’ lineup an extra time.
That might have done the trick.
Lyles turned in his best performance of the season even though he allowed three runs in five-plus innings. The last two came in the seventh after the first two batters reached on hits that didn’t leave the infield. They scored on a two-out three-run homer by Michael Brantley off reliever Nick Goody.
“It was my best outing,” Lyles said. “Numbers-wise, I felt like we threw better. We were working good and quick. Definitely something to build on.”
Lyles, who had been tipping his pitches in his previous start, had probably done enough to get the Rangers to the sixth with a 3-1 lead. The Astros scored against him in the sixth, when they started to have better at-bats. Goody started to warm as they mounted pressure.
But Lyles started the seventh. Abraham Toro beat a shift with a swinging bunt. Dustin Garneau’s grounder to first was just out of the reach of first baseman Ronald Guzman, who deflected it while diving.
“I thought Jordan threw really well today,” Woodward said. “That’s the best he’s thrown. He got unlucky in the seventh inning. I thought he had handled those guys really good.”
Goody entered, and looked good in retiring George Springer and Jose Altuve. His 3-2 slider to Brantley, though, was a hanger that ended up clanging off the foul pole in right field.
IKF’s big D
Elvis Andrus was the hero for the Rangers, with a solo homer to start the ninth inning, but the Rangers don’t win without third baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa making a dazzling diving stop in the bottom of the inning.
Toro was at second base with one out when Springer sent a hard smash between third base and shortstop. Kiner-Falefa dived to snag it, then stood and threw to first.
Yadiel Rivera, who pinch-ran for Guzman in the ninth and stayed at first base, caught the wide throw and tagged Springer as he dived into the bag.
It was the second out rather than, at minimum, giving the Astros runners at first and third with one out.
Kiner-Falefa was at third the day after Todd Frazier was sent to the New York Mets and Andrus came off the injured list. Kiner-Falefa had been playing mostly at shortstop in place of Andrus.
“It did save the game,” Woodward said. “He’s been doing that all year for us. With Elvis back at short, putting him at third base, and he makes an immediate impact the first game he gets out there. He’s good at diving to both sides. We’ve seen all the plays down the line. But to save the game like that in the ninth inning just shows you how athletic he is and how fearless the kid is.”
That was Kiner-Falefa’s second great play of the game. The first came in the fifth.
Toro was batting to start the inning and flipped a popup foul toward the seats next to the Rangers’ dugout along the third-base line. Kiner-Falefa was shifted off the line, and he raced after the ball.
He slid on the warning track and made a back-handed catch as he slid into the padded wall.
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 12:11 AM.
