Texas Rangers All-Star sends message to management: ‘I want to be adding’
Based on quantifiable metrics and analytics, the Texas Rangers are the second most disappointing team in Major League Baseball, behind the Atlanta Braves.
These metrics do not include fielding percentage, batting average, ERA, runs scored or launch angle, but the little detail that really runs big league ball clubs: Cash.
The Rangers have the sixth-highest payroll in MLB, and that cash has translated into a 53-50 record. If it makes you feel better, that is not the worst record among MLB’s 10 highest-payroll clubs.
The only team in the Big Ticket 10 with a losing record is the Braves, who feature the eighth-highest payroll and thus far are 44-57. The Braves will visit Globe Life Mall for a three-game series against the Rangers starting Friday, July 25.
Despite the similarities in their payrolls, these two clubs are in different places as the season nears one of its defining moments. The MLB trade deadline is 5 p.m. on July 31.
Rangers veteran All-Star second baseman Marcus Semien made it clear when he addressed what this deadline means.
“I want to be adding at the deadline,” Semien said in the Rangers clubhouse after a recent game. “I always want to make that a goal of mine: To make sure I’m on a team that is adding at the deadline.”
It can’t make Rangers owner Ray Davis happy to do this, but if he wants the team to make a real playoff push, he should accommodate Semien and add to his bloated payroll.
They have come too far, and in too deep, to quit.
The Rangers current “trade” situation
Unlike each of the last two trade deadline periods, this one here in 2025 doesn’t look like 2024. Or 2023.
This time one year ago, the club was around 5 games under .500 and GM Chris Young did little. His inactivity was not a white flag, nor a result of his boss being cheap. CY made the mistake of trusting the team, with good reason. That team won the World Series the year before.
Around this time in 2023, the team was 15 games above .500; by that time, the team had traded for reliever Aroldis Chapman, a move that addressed a major issue with that roster.
Here in 2025, the club has flirted around .500 since Opening Day. On April 22, they were 14-9, the high point of the season.
That’s more than enough of a sample size for Young and manager Bruce Bochy to know what they have. A team that leads all of Major League Baseball in both earned run average and fielding, as the Rangers do, can contend for a World Series.
Their best hitters (cough-cough, Corey Seager), have not hit consistently, but they are good enough to think this can come around.
What the Rangers need
Lost in the best-ERA-in-baseball is a bullpen with needs. The staff has 17 blown saves this season, near the “top” of the league. The ERA in the ninth inning and extra innings is over four. Find a hammer.
And a bat. Or bats.
Against the Sacramento A’s on Monday night, the bottom of the Rangers’ lineup was third base, first base, DH.
The club recently promoted third baseman Josh Jung back from his trip to the minor leagues. If he finds his swing, that solves a portion of this team’s offense problems. A portion.
They need a real DH. They need someone at first base who can hit quality major league pitching. An offense that gets no production from its corner infielders and its DH is dead.
It would be wonderful to think that outfielder Adolis Garcia will regain the form that made him an all-time playoff icon, but the Rangers have squeezed everything out of him. He may have one of those special games remaining in that bat, but they can’t rely on him.
They should rely on Seager ‘n’ Semien, Jung and the combination of Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford. If the Rangers are to win a playoff series, it will be because of their bats.
If the Rangers are to reach the playoffs, the sample size says they need help.
A team that spends this kind of money should not be this close to .500, but this is where the Rangers sit and they’re too good not to do what Marcus Semien wants.
This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 12:55 PM.
