Bruce Bochy and the Texas Rangers went from world series champions to a third place team that won just seventy-eight games in 2024.
Injuries weren’t the entire story of the fall but they sure didn’t help. There were also a few players that simply underperformed.
Shortstop Corey Seager missed another thirty-nine games, finally shut down in September to undergo surgery for a sports hernia. Seager missed more time the previous season but played in all seventeen post season games.
Outfielder Evan Carter was projected for a huge first full season after blossoming late in 2023 and helping through the playoffs. He managed just seventy-five plate appearances in twenty-three games. A back injury ruining the twenty-one year old’s season.
Josh Jung the AL’s all star starter at third base in 2023, was hit by a pitch and broke his wrist April first. He was out until the all star break and wound up playing only forty-eight games.
ALCS MVP comes up short
Outfielder Adolis Garcia departed in September with a sprained patella tendon. He went from thirty-nine homers to twenty five and watched his OPS+ fall off a cliff from 127 to an under league average 94. That was after he mashed in the previous post season – 323/382/726.
The drop off was much the same for second baseman Marcus Semien, who went from a league best 7.4 WAR season to 4.1. Same for center fielder Leody Taveras, OPS+ from exactly league average 100 to 84.
Tavares may actually have lost his job going forward. With the recent trade for slugger Jake Burger, He most likely will grab the DH spot and with an outfield of Garcia, a healthy Carter in center and former number four overall draft choice Wyatt Langford, leaving Taveras on the outside.
The great deGrom needs health
Jacob deGrom staying healthy looks paramount. The right hander looked his same old dominant self in three late season starts. That’s just ten outings in two seasons after signing for $185 million over five years. Thirty five starts in four years because of injuries.
But a healthy deGrom plus the return of free agent Nathan Eovaldi, the hopefully recovered Tyler Mahle who has also been limited by arm woes with just twelve starts in three years. The steady Jon Gray, the emerging Cody Bradford and top prospect Kumar Rocker would give Texas a solid rotation.
After prayers for all those injured players, all they need is to once again find a closer as the ressurected Kirby Yates has left for free agency. The Rangers could contend again especially with Houston trending in the other direction.
