After historically bad sweep, Texas Rangers manager hopes pride will bring back fight
The Texas Rangers may be in the throes of a rebuild but that won’t stop manager Chris Woodward from using the different tools in his shed.
The Rangers, who started a four-game series against the Tigers in Detroit Monday night, are coming off an embarrassing sweep by the Toronto Blue Jays in which they were outscored 25-2, including being shutout in both ends of a double-header on Sunday. That’s the first time the Rangers have been blanked in both games of a double header. (The games were shortened to seven innings per MLB’s updated rules.) The Rangers are trying to prevent a third consecutive shutout Monday, which would also be a team first.
The Rangers haven’t been beaten that badly in a three-game series since being outscored by 24 runs to the Houston Astros in late September 2017.
Woodward didn’t like what he saw in the Rangers’ clubhouse in the form of energy and attitude. Perhaps it was just Buffalo. But if things don’t change, he said, a slew of roster moves could be in order.
“You’re going to have to earn your at-bats [and innings],” said Woodward, whose team has the third-worst record in the majors at 35-58. “I think they’ve had enough games whether they’ve earned them or maybe somebody else is going to get some opportunities. It is performance driven.”
How one quantifies success, at least from the outside, might not line up with how Woodward and the Rangers will do it going forward for the rest of 2021.
Woodward said players will be rewarded if they’re doing what is asked of them, whether the results on the field are substandard or not. Although, even he acknowledged that some level of “performance standard must be fulfilled.”
“Outcome is probably last,” he said. “I want to win, there’s no question. But it’s more [about] attitude. When you get your butt kicked how do you respond? Do you come back fighting? Did you get back up off the canvas and fight? Or do you just say, ‘OK, everything is going to be fine, let’s let this kind of play out.’ No, you can’t do that.”
Don’t expect pitchers Mike Foltynewicz or Jordan Lyles, however, to be going anywhere. Woodward suggested that although both have struggled recently, the idea of replacing them with inexperienced minor league prospects at this point would not benefit the prospects or the team. Plus, he said, Folty and Lyles have showed they can at least keep the Rangers competitive from one start to the next.
“If you go down that road of just keep replacing guys it’s going to be a perpetual ‘who fills that spot?’ [situation],” he said. “There’s some stability there and we need that right now.”
Especially, considering ace Kyle Gibson, who started Monday, could be traded by the July 30 trade deadline.
“As long as they’re conducting themselves by the standards we’ve set,” he said. “They’re good examples to show our younger guys, good and bad.”
As for those struggling at the plate? Woodward said what he’s asking for goes beyond talent.
“You don’t need talent to get a guy to third base from second,” he said. “We have to get back to that. This team has been pretty resilient in my three years here. We have a lot of character in that room, but at some point when we have three games like we did in Buffalo and you get your butt kicked three games in a row, pride has to set in at some point and you say, ‘OK, enough is a enough. If we’re going down today, we’re going down fighting.’”
Rangers sign draft picks
The Rangers announced that five of their 20 picks from last week’s draft have signed, including their picks from rounds five, six and seven.
▪ Fifth-round pick left-hander Mitch Bratt signed with a $850,000 signing bonus. Sixth-round right-hander Chase Lee signed for $75,000.
▪ Right-hander Bradford Webb (7th round) signed for $10,000, catcher Liam Hicks (9th round) signed for $30,000, and left-hander C.J. Widger (10th round) signed for $20,000.
All five begin workouts at the Rangers complex in Surprise, Ariz., this week.
The Rangers also signed two undrafted free agents from Puerto Rico, including left-hander Oscar Bonilla and first baseman/outfielder Abimelic Ortiz. Both were assigned to the Rangers Dominican Summer League Program.
