Slow West

 

The 2026 AL West. The divisional equivalent of a writer that keeps crumpling and tossing perfectly good story ideas before deciding on one they've already done before.

We've had this season the threadlines of an A's team that can go the distance, then a Mariners team looking to finish the job from last year, then a Rangers team taking advantage of a golden opportunity, and currently the story of the AL West is 'everybody crashed into each other and died so the Astros are in first'. And like...you see how that's disappointing, right? The Astros have almost deliberately sabotaged their own success by failing to procure their main pieces, replacing them with disappointing, inferior homegrown versions, have a rotation full of very hurt former greats, and one of their big moves at the deadline was trading away one of the only good healthy pitchers they had. And they still get first. That is a truly unheard level of entitlement. That you just end up in first without even being good enough to justify it. Just 'oh, well if the other two aren't gonna be very good, we might as well.'

And the Mariners have been given every opportunity to be good this year, complete with great foundational moves, but just cannot win games. They were over .500 on July 20th, then went 4-12. Seranthony hasn't worked, Ward hasn't worked, and Josh Naylor, who's taken forever to get going, is NOW the only one on this team remembering to hit home runs. And now, after they're done with the Rays, they have to play the Yankees and Astros. It is not ideal, and it's not looking great.

So...I guess that leaves the Rangers? Who were dipping around the deadline, nearly traded deGrom and Eovaldi, actually traded Josh Smith, and then locked in and decided to go for it anyway. And that seems to be working out?

Here are some things that haven't been working all year that are suddenly, finally, doing well for the Rangers: Joc Pederson, who's once again a reliable hitter, leads the team with 21 homers, and has returned to his lovable presence on a would-be contender. Corey Seager's battled injuries and slumps all year, and now he's finally hitting, and has 11 home runs. Wyatt Langford has been trying to stay healthy for a while and now is letting his 13 homers speak for themselves. Nathan Eovaldi's looking to finally get his ERA under 4, and his 10 wins and 137 K's say a lot. And even Kumar Rocker's putting together a halfway decent season, with a 4 ERA and 98 Ks. We've also finally seen Cody Bradford show up in the rotation this year, and he looks really good. Somehow, the idea of a deGrom-Eovaldi-Gore-Bradford postseason rotation is looking better than a lot of competitors's renditions.

There are fundamental issues, like the fact that only 2 guys have over 50 RBIs [and it's August], and the fact that only one starter has an ERA lower than 4, but the way these guys have looked fairly recently indicates that things are finally clicking, and they're now a half-game behind the Astros for the division. Like in 2023, the Rangers could be heading for a showdown, and I am absolutely here for it.

Coming Tonight: A future Hall of Famer having an extremely okay season. 

Latz Entertainment

 

Jacob Latz is not only the perfect summation of what closing pitching has turned into in the MLB, he's also the perfect summation of the Texas Rangers. 30 years old, oft-injured, never an opening day starter, given the chance to just pitch the ninth and becomes an all-star...and also the best player on the team. A team that is currently first in the AL West and one game above .500, with multiple stars hurt and/or underperforming. Jacob Latz is successful because they gave him a chance...but he's also, even as the closer, the most successful player on the Rangers.

Like, I bet they're all really happy that Latz is working out in the ninth. It's been a while since they've had a good long-term solution there. Mostly they'll just have one-year experiment, an Ian Kennedy or a Kirby Yates or a David Robertson. Latz is a younger, controllable option who's still in excellent shape and is only getting stronger. Right now he's got a 1.57 ERA, 19 saves, 47 Ks, a 0.652 WHIP, and a 2.3 WAR, which is higher than that of, say, Jacob deGrom or Corey Seager or Wyatt Langford. It just proves how valuable great relief pitching is to this team, and Tyler Alexander and Jake Junis are similarly valuable. When a lot of the games are close and a lot of the lineup is underperforming...the bullpen can be the MVP.

The ideals have changed. This is a cheesier power team now, with Jake Burger and Joc Pederson among the most valuable hitters, and some of the usual contact guys [Evan Carter, Josh Smith, Alejandro Osuna] not really doing the job. It is somewhat promising that some of the formative pieces are hitting better, and Wyatt Langford and Josh Jung have OPSs over .800. Langford still hasn't put together the 162-game campaign he's been waiting for, but he's hot right now, and has 9 homers and 23 RBIs in 46 games. Brandon Nimmo is still good, if not April good, and Ezequiel Duran is still good, if not June good. But what worries me is that Corey Seager is still hurt, and wasn't playing at peak levels before the injury. I don't know if Langford is at the point where he can really carry the team on his shoulders yet. I know Evan Carter isn't. 

Obviously this team is doing right, despite a lot of mediocre seasons [MacKenzie Gore, Kumar Rocker, Kyle Higashioka], because they're in first. It takes a lot of turnarounds after rough starts, especially from Pederson and Nate Eovaldi. Eovaldi had a rough first month or so and now he's 9-7 with a 4.04 ERA and 120 Ks, which is much closer to his usual self. Pederson took forever to start hitting and now he's got 15 homers and 35 RBIs, meaning FINALLY the Rangers can enjoy Pedey as much as literally every other team he's played for has. This team has a healthy Jacob deGrom on it, so of course it's at least kind of good. But going forward, as the Mariners re-ascend the ranks, the Rangers will need to decide whether they're a momentum team or they're actually good this year. If they can build something and sneak in, it could be a factor nobody's expecting. 

Coming Tomorrow- A guy who hit a game-tying home run against my Yankees tonight.

deMystified

 

Well, we were due. A positively average season from probable future Hall of Famer Jacob deGrom. After years of lights-out work, it was bound to happen eventually.

Like Paul Skenes' more comparatively-average 2026, deGrom, on paper, isn't doing too badly. He's 7-5, has a 3.48 ERA, 115 Ks, a 0.993 WHIP. One of the best pitchers on the Rangers, and pretty healthy to boot. But considering what we've seen deGrom do, it does feel like a step down. The last time deGrom had a season with an ERA over 3.10 was 2017, where he had a bloated 3.53 ERA, while notching 15 wins and getting a 4.2 WAR. To him, those are scary numbers. Everybody else would kill for a season like that. 2018-2021, deGrom goes to work, winning 2 Cy Youngs, leading the league in ERA in 2018 with a 1.70, striking out nearly everyone, and eventually getting a bit injury-hampered. But even while he was fighting injuries, deGrom still had a 2.50 or a 1.50 ERA. Which made last year's return to form, with a 2.97 ERA, all the more exciting. 

So here are some things that are true. deGrom, in 2026, is on pace to eclipse his 2025 strikeout total of 185. The Rangers are improving, so there's a chance that his ERA could drop as the second half rages on. This could end up being another banner year for the legendary starter. But even if all of those things happen, this will still go down as one of the most pedestrian seasons of his career. Considering that he just turned 38, it's understandable. I still blame the Mets for not calling him up til he was 26. Yes, he missed all of 2011 recovering from surgery, but he could have seen time in 2013. Harvey was out, it'd have timed up. But alas. 

The less-distressing news, I suppose, is that an average deGrom season is happening in a season of many average years for this Rangers team. Nathan Eovaldi, despite 9 wins and 110 Ks, has a 4.02 ERA that he's been trying to get down since a disastrous first month and a half. MacKenzie Gore, gotten for his velocity, is 5-7 with a 4.31 ERA. Corey Seager's been on and off the IL, and has hit .182 when healthy. Wyatt Langford's also been back and forth from the IL. Even Josh Smith is having a rough year. The team is now in 2nd in the AL West, ahead of the A's, but they're only one game over .500. They had a really good week last week, and while that can be leverage for a bit, we don't know if it's sustainable, especially for a scattered lineup that's relying on Jake Burger, Joc Pederson and a non ironically great Josh Jung season at the moment.

I don't think the Rangers will be sellers later this month, they're on the cusp of 'good'. If they sell anyone it'll be someone disposable, a reliever here or there. They might even buy, who knows. I just don't see this team, which isn't even the best version of this kind of Rangers team, going especially deep. But at least deGrom's healthy and doing his best.

Coming Tonight: One of the best hitters on the Padres right now. Hold your applause. 

Salute Your Solution

 

That is an underrated genre of baseball nickname, the kind of nickname that paints the picture of the role he fills. You can filter out some of the fun ones that have another origin, like David 'The Renegade' Bender [that's his walk-up song] or Joakim 'The Mexecutioner' Soria. Something like Ryan Howard as 'The Big Piece', being the biggest piece of the Phillies' lineup, or Eric Byrnes as 'The Human Crash Test Dummy' cause he kept smashing into walls chasing fly balls, or even Jhostynxon Garcia as 'The Password', not just because of his randomly-generated password name, but because he's the last piece that unlocks the heart of that Pirates lineup.

So why is Ezequiel Duran the Solution? Because he's solved a number of the Rangers' problems this year simply while hitting well, anywhere they play him, when no one else will. 

The funniest thing about Duran being given 'The Solution' is that he's not even the first Rangers extra hand I'd consider having that role. The same year Duran came up, late 2022, a fellow ex-Yankee farmhand dealt to Texas for Joey Gallo also tried to find a role in the Rangers' lineup. His name was Josh Smith. It would not happen until 2024, where an injury to Josh Jung freed up third. That was when I thought Josh Smith felt like the solution, because he filled in strongly enough to allow for some competition over the next few years. Now he gets to play 2nd everyday in the wake of Semien's departure, and Jung gets 3rd back.

So what's Ezequiel Duran been doing? Pretty much everything else. So far this season, Duran has played shortstop, 2nd base, 3rd base, left field, right field and first base, and very well at that. He's also been hitting .281 with 35 RBIs, and currently has the highest WAR on the team with 1.7. Basically everything they've asked him to do, he's done exceptionally well. I did not expect Duran to be reborn as a superute contact guy but here he is, and where are Willi Castro and David Fry to stop him? Can't wait for Rangers-Marlins, where Duran and Javier Sanoja get to fight. I think that's how this works.

The Rangers, outside of Duran, are exceedingly okay right now. Jacob deGrom is doing his thing, but his ERA's just higher than usual. Carter and Seager were doing well then got hurt. Burger and Pederson are hitting, but not multi-dimensionally. Pretty much every starting pitcher is just doing okay right now, and we've seen them all do better, even for the Rangers. It's only really Kumar Rocker who's on new ground by being good. At least Jacob Latz has found a new niche as a rock-solid closer, I like that for him.

Look, it's good that the Rangers have somebody like Ezequiel Duran this year, someone who can do so much for them. It'd be nicer if they had a better team around him, but what can you do?

Coming Tonight [?]: There's a strong possibility that his swing's broken, but I don't think he's gonna let that stop him.

Have It Your Way

 

The way the bungee is working out, the Rangers have righted themselves back to a 2nd place team, which is around where they were aiming for to begin with. They had a great weekend, the A's had to play the Yankees, the wins piled up, therefore the Rangers lapped them. And while it's a reach to say they're a first place team right now, it's nice to see the Rangers making the most of a fairly scattered product. Three big pieces are injured and a lot of the auxiliary guys are picking up the work, but the team has felt more itself in the last few weeks.

Immediately, you can tell that this is the most human Nate Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom have looked in a while. They're not playing badly per se, but some early starts have led to steeper ERAs than usual. deGrom is 4-4 with a 3.48 ERA, which for him is the equivalent of a 5 ERA. He's still got his WHIP around 1, and he's still got 78 Ks, but the big game dominance he had in New York isn't completely there. Granted he is, after all, 38, and may finally be past his peak. I think he's still reliable enough, but this isn't as bang-on as he was last year. Evo's finally got his ERA below 4, but in the process he's gone 5-6 with a league-leading 13 homers allowed [tied, concerningly, with deGrom]. He's definitely improved in his May starts, but I think coming back from the second-half injury left him a little waterlogged to begin the season. The important thing is they're both healthy and making all their starts. Leiter, Gore and Rocker are following in behind them but are similarly carrying around low-3/high-4 ERAs. They're honestly just inconsistent, which figures.

Meanwhile, in a lineup without Corey Seager or Wyatt Langford, things are moving ahead skillfully with a slightly altered approach. It's a good thing Jake Burger's more consistent than he was last year around this time, his power numbers have been pretty nice, with 10 homers and 37 RBIs. Like always, he's good for cheesy power and little else, but he's slightly more well-rounded this year. Can't really say the same for Joc Pederson, as he's all on the power stuff, but at least he's got a .794 OPS and 9 long balls. Took him forever to truly get going in Arlington, but he's got a bit more of a niche now, especially considering they DFA'd his only other competition for starting DH. Jung, Nimmo and Duran have been very helpful revitalizing that portion of the lineup, and Carter is still a very versatile player that just hasn't really started hitting yet. These guys are hitting, even if it's not a fully well rounded offensive output. But for right now, it doesn't need to be much more than flashy. 

They're an unassuming, relatively young, relatively simple team that can just outhit you even if they make it close. Heck, somehow Jacob Latz is really working as a primary closing option, even though he was a perfectly fine starting choice last year. Things are kind of coming together, and while I don't know how sustainable it is, it's certainly a better Rangers team than I thought, and better than they looked a month ago.

Coming Tomorrow- He's 34 years old, he's never played more than 95 games in a season, and he's already topped his season home run mark in two months. Why not, right?

Jung, Older

 

This is now the third season that's elapsed since the Texas Rangers won the World Series. Mind you, they won it with a young team of a ton of rookies and budding young stalemates. Josh Jung, Evan Carter, Jonah Heim, Wyatt Langford, Cody Bradford, Josh Smith to a degree, and eventually Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter. This would be their core going forward.

It's been three years. They have been to the playoffs zero years since. They've lost multiple big pieces, and others have spent time on the IL. Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager, Nate Eovaldi, and ultimately Langford, Carter and Jung, have lost time to injuries. And so here we are, 2026, the Rangers attempting to resume progress and fight the fact that time has passed. With the exception of Carter and Langford, this isn't an especially young team anymore, and people can see this.

Josh Jung, thought of as one of the first big pieces of the next dynasty upon his call-up in late 2022, is now 28 years old. Since his all-star 2023, he's spent one season nursing an injury, and the next season playing very okay, fine-but-unspectacular baseball. And now here he is again, hitting .300 and excelling once again. He's got 5 homers and 20 RBIs already, and is tied with Evan Carter for WAR lead of the lineup. Especially in a year where Corey Seager's gone deathly cold, a healthy, powerful Josh Jung [and Evan Carter honestly] s a very good thing. Behind him follow another great power-friendly Jake Burger performance, Brandon Nimmo making the Mets regret another one of their choices, Ezequiel Duran hitting .300 as a fill-in for Josh Smith, and Alejandro Osuna quietly drawing eyes while filling in for Langford. 

It's not the ideal incarnation of this team, but it's getting the job done to a degree. They're in 2nd place, behind Sacramento, and are hoping to fend off the Mariners as they continue to ascend to their promised spot in the standings. The A's and Mariners have their strengths and their lifelines, but they're both without a key player right now. The Mariners just lost Cal Raleigh to an injury, and the A's are now without Jacob Wilson for a bit. The Rangers' biggest omission right now is Langford, and they have Eovaldi and deGrom healthy and working. deGrom's certainly looking like his old self, with a 2.62 ERA and 57 Ks. 

So honestly, even given the Rangers' faults, I can't exactly count them out of a year like this. They're good enough to not go quietly, and have a different kind of fuel behind them than the Bochy-tradition-backed 2020s teams. So we'll see how this goes. 

Coming Tonight: One of two ex-Yankee starters finding success in San Diego right now.

Excessive Gore

 

To be at .500 and in 2nd, and ahead of your two greatest competitors in the standings, has to feel weird. Like you're there, you're accomplishing your goal...but is it earned? Are you beating yourself as much as you're beating them? The Rangers are looking decent right now, but is it because they've gotten off to a less rough start than Seattle or Houston, or are they actually on the precipice of something?

The issue of this team, since having to follow up the championship season, has been the inability for the young, homegrown core to actually inherit the team, still relying on contracted veterans like Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom and now Brandon Nimmo to do the heavy lifting. Wyatt Langford, Josh Jung and Evan Carter have flirted with greatness but injuries have prevented its consistency. Langford is once again hurt, right as he gets going. The good news is that Carter looks good, hitting a homer as I write this and letting his multi-tool ability distract from his comparatively pedestrian average. Jung's hitting .300, that's a nice start. Even Kumar Rocker's beginning to grow accustomed to MLB hitting, and has his ERA below 4. Beyond that, though, this is still a hodgepodge of acquired guns rather than a full youth movement. Which does explain why the team's development has sputtered a bit.

I do credit the Rangers for bringing on MacKenzie Gore, who's still young enough to be on the ground floor of something here. Gore is known for his high-K, high-velocity mentality, which also occasionally leads to a higher ERA. Sure enough, Gore has 35 Ks, a 1.192 WHIP...and a 4.15 ERA. Everything they figured would happen is happening. Still fits into this rotation pretty well though. I don't think Gore is gonna be the full package that the Padres were figuring when they drafted him, but he's still a handy flamethrower to have around. And then you have Jacob deGrom, still very much a viable ace, who's got a 2.29 ERA in 4 starts. I worry a bit about Evo and Leiter, but the season's young. 

Regardless, even if it's not pretty or sustainable, the runs are getting produced. Jake Burger's still an RBI machine, Seager's still the fearless captain of yore, Nimmo's having a comeback year, and Langford and Carter look confident and versatile. The team average is low, and there's a bunch of people still not hitting, but games are getting won. I think any sense of a gameplan went out the window when Bochy left, and now the Skip Schumacher approach just involves winning with what they've got by any means necessary. 

And if that works better than Bochy-ball did...it just proves that you can't really predict anything.

Coming Tomorrow- It's possible he may never live up to his Red Sox numbers, but he's still doing whatever he can to keep his team in the conversation.

Who to Gain, Who to Retain

 

2026 is yet another chapter in the many multi-faceted tactics of the Steve Cohen administration. He packed a roster one way, it didn't make the playoffs, he let it grow out, it made the playoffs, he added to it with Juan Soto, it didn't make the playoffs, he threw in the kitchen sink. And so we're now at the level of roster bloat that, by baseball standards SHOULD lead to a playoff team, but by Steve Cohen standards hasn't quite. The question is 'if you put Luis Robert, Bo Bichette, Freddy Peralta, Marcus Semien, Jorge Polanco, Devin Williams and Luke Weaver on the same team, one that already has Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto on it, can they all play well at the same time?' So far the answer is 'possibly yes'.

The 6-4 start the Mets have gotten off to is earned, and was definitely buttressed by a sharp series win against the San Francisco Giants, but...those losses against the Pirates and Cardinals stand out a little. Robert, Semien and Williams have taken to Queens handsomely, but Bichette is struggling on several levels, Polanco isn't hitting, and batters are finding the flaws in Freddy Peralta somehow. The big veteran Met performers have not been the ones you'd expect, with Clay Holmes getting off to the best start of everybody in the rotation, and Mark Vientos hitting .476 with 10 hits in 7 games. Vientos was looking to seal up the 3rd base spot, then 2025 happened and he was better off a backup, and now Swaggy V seems to be back in full force. I was in a thrift store in the tri-state area and they had a Swaggy V official Mets giveaway bobblehead priced at 15 bucks. I assume someone's snagged it by now, the way he's playing. Then again, when I found my Hunter Pence Phils bobble at a card show it was I think 7 bucks, so...maybe the price is keeping it there.

Ultimately, the Mets are proving that building a team means adding new people and stacking the deck with proven options. Marcus Semien is on this team because he allegedly wasn't gelling well with the Rangers, and you can tell Semien's in a better mood because, for the first time in like 5 years, he's actually hitting well in April. .257 average, 6 RBIs in 10 games, it's definitely better. Even at 35, Semien works as a solid mid-lineup bat with power perks. Like Polanco, he was a gamble, and he seems to be paying off.

But the other side of that coin is that to make room for all these new people, the Mets had to deal away a lot of working MLB options. Brandon Nimmo went to Texas in the Semien deal, and I think the Mets might be regretting that, seeing as he's hitting .359 with 14 hits and 4 RBIs in 10 games, and Carson Benge, in his stead...isn't. I think 'scorned at the way they left town' is sort of the theme of this Rangers team, cause they've got Andrew McCutchen, still mad at the Pirates, and he's hitting well. And I guess Jacob deGrom falls into this category as well, because the Mets didn't want him back and then signed the entire league. deGoat is looking alright so far this season, not fully exacerbating anything yet, but he has, at least been pretty dominant.

That's gotta be a tough one, when the Mets have to play the Rangers. DeGrom the ace, Nimmo leading the pack. Kumar Rocker, who they did not sign, also in the mix. Not like the O's series will be much easier, with Alonso and Helsley after their revenge. 

That's gonna be one of the themes of this season for sure, will the ex-Mets outdo the actual Mets. Last night Amed Rosario had a huge clutch homer for the Yankees, we're still hearing about Dominic Smith's steady work as DH in Atlanta, Alonso's plugged into that Orioles lineup, Seth Lugo's still a crucial part of the Royals rotation...the list goes on. The Rangers, even with their flaws, could be a team that eases into the race this year, and they've got a bit less pressure on them than the Mets. So it's an intriguing narrative, and we'll see if the Mets can do any better than last year, especially in the later months.

Coming Tonight: I know it's fun to talk about ex-Mets, but an ex-Yankee on a team loaded with them is off to a terrific start.

The Strangest Sights of Spring

 

Prior to 2026, Andrew McCutchen had spent approximately 3 months of his 16-year career on American League team, that fun autumn with the 2018 Yankees. Everyone assumed he'd retire as a Pittsburgh Pirate. However, Bob Nutting, in finally putting money into the team and building something of a competitor for 2026, did so at the expense of the fans, who would have loved to keep getting to see Cutch. In his place, the Pirates now have Marcell Ozuna at DH, which is arguably more value and WAR, but a much less likable player with a much more suspect track record.

And so now Cutch had to soldier on the only way he knew how, by putting out feelers for any other teams that needed veteran help and trying to make the club that way. The Rangers bit, and now we have the bizarre sight of Andrew McCutchen in Rangers blue, looking to make the club as a bench DH type. All the while, Ozuna seems to be a lock for his old DH spot in Pittsburgh, and will be trading in the green sleeve for a yellow one. Regardless of what emotion it brings out from any loyalist, either of these looks are just downright odd, even if they do last. 

And that's the main factor, as we round out the end of Spring Training. Like any preseason year, there's some sights that just don't look right. And either you get used to them during the season or they fade off in the distance, never quite panning out. I'll rundown some favorites in each of the 30 camps. It's not just 'a player in a new uniform', but it's players in uniforms that will take a while to get used to. Again, think of cutch on the Rangers, a lot like Hunter Pence on the Rangers. It's a real shock honestly.

Angels: Alek Manoah, a surprising favorite for an Opening Day rotation spot, and someone with a real desire to prove his success was not a fluke. The shift from Jays to Braves I could stomach, but this is a different color scheme and a different section of the continent. Maybe this works out.

 Astros: Nick Allen by default, but he honestly looks odd in most uniforms. An Allen-Altuve DP combo would be cool because there wouldn't be much of a height difference. 

A's: Jeff McNeil. Not only does McNeil look odd out of Mets pinstripes for the first time since his career began in 2018, but he just looks odd standing next to all of these young, talented players starting their careers. McNeil will be sharing playing time with Zach Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom, and attempting to prove he's still a durable MLB option. 

Blue Jays: Jesus Sanchez. In my defense, this is the first time in his career he's not in wholly dark tones, and the more optimistic light blues and whites of Toronto will be interesting. It'll also be interesting to see what he can add to this team after standing out in Miami and falling short in Houston.

Braves: Mike Yastrzemski. Seeing him in Kansas City blue was also weird for the record. I think I just assumed he'd stick with SF til the contract ran out, then keep re-upping, and seeing him now as a crucial piece of this return-to-form Braves squad is something I wasn't expecting.

Brewers: Akil Baddoo. Even if he doesn't make the team it'll just be a weird note after a bunch of Tigers seasons.

Cardinals: There's actually a lot of competition. Ryne Stanek in bright red looks odd, Ramon Urias in bright red..I'm giving it to Dustin May because it's a complete inversion of how I pictured him in LA.

Cubs: Lord have mercy, welcome back to the bigs Tyler Austin!! Austin was a Yankee farmhand around the same time as Aaron Judge, flamed out, then became a big star in the Japanese leagues. Here he's back, and is trying to crack the overstuffed Cubs roster. Honestly, with Seiya Suzuki hurt he's got a chance. Mostly want him to succeed for the joy of it, but man is it weird seeing him out of pinstripes.

D-Backs: Nolan Arenado, as discussed. Verging on Longoria vibes.

Dodgers: Edwin Diaz probably, but there really isn't much competition. I think I'm still extremely used to seeing him in Mets colors, as is most of the league. Odd that it really was SEVEN SEASONS in Queens. It didn't feel that long.

Giants: I think this'll be Harrison Bader, because this is the furthest west he's ever played and the most he's ever been in black. 

Guardians: Either Colin Holderman or Rhys Hoskins. Equally known for either one team or one shade or so. Hoskins in the AL will be very interesting.

Mariners: Rob Refsnyder for sure. This'll be the first time in a while he's suited up for a team that isn't the Red Sox, and the M's are banking on him in a full time DH role, which is huge. I sincerely hope it works out for him, he's the exact kind of guy that could work in Seattle.

Marlins: Really just Owen Caissie. Cubs fans thought they'd be getting him next, then the Cabrera deal happens, now he's become the latest and greatest big time prospect to try to make it in Miami.

Mets: Clearly there's a lot of competition, but of all of them I think Jorge Polanco looks the strangest. I never considered him a possibility to play for the Mets. You know how some people just have that 'yeah, the Mets will go for them' feel? Polanco's not one of those guys for me. Hell, 1st base isn't even his position, and he'll be covering for Pete Alonso, so that's even stranger.

Nationals: Miles Mikolas, as I just assumed he wouldn't play anywhere else other than St. Louis. Still red, but just slightly off.

Orioles: Shane Baz. I think mostly because I think of him as a kid in dark tones, and now he's there wearing the orange highlighters. A little off. Really hope he works out in Baltimore though.

Padres: Nick Castellanos narrowly beats German Marquez. Mostly cause it just makes me sad.

Phillies: Brad Keller in a color other than blue. Though, real talk, I really hope he keeps it going for us, cause we deserve some good bullpen luck, FINALLY.

Rays: Cedric Mullins. I'm thinking I'll get used to this, but Mullins just seems like a different kind of player from the sort of veteran the Rays usually bring in. Perhaps he'll be dealt by June.

Red Sox: Willson Contreras in the AL is the weirdest bit of this, weirder than Ranger Suarez in the AL. I think I'm mostly just caught off guard still by the Cardinals trading him. And now he's the first baseman, supposedly for this Sox team, or maybe the DH. It might work but it doesn't compute for me at the moment.

Reds: Dane Myers probably, but Pierce Johnson and J.J. Bleday come close. Myers might actually work better in Cincinnati than he did in Miami. Slightly better team.

Rockies: Michael Lorenzen I think. I just never expected to see him on an 'it's a living' signing, not after the Tigers one.

Royals: Starling Marte, like his old teammate Andrew McCutchen, has only spent 3 months in the AL, from his 2021 stint in Oakland. This will be an odd venture, not only as a KC DH, but on likely his last legs. I remember when he was the speedy, powerful rookie, and now he's just kind of hanging around. That's very odd.

Tigers: Kenley Jansen's really the only one of these that looks anywhere close to strange. It's not the Dodgers, after all.

Twins: Orlando Arcia, probably. A shame so much of this team is just people trying to keep playing. More minor league than anything else.

White Sox: Anthony Kay, another returning guy from a couple continents over. Used to him in Toronto colors, now he tries Act 2 as a White Sox. Hope it goes as well for him as...well, teammate Erick Fedde, though perhaps sustained over a longer period of time.

Yankees: N/A. Cause even Ryan Weathers is a second-generation Yankee. Nothing looks too out of the ordinary...yet.

Uncustomed Heroes of 2025: Rangers

 

You'd think that something could have gotten done.

The 2023 Rangers was the foundation of a terrific team, with a burgeoning young core, a lot of great contracts of prime performers, the managerial eye of Bruce Bochy, and proof of October success. Yet now the 2023 season feels like an anomaly, as every subsequent year the Rangers' luck has failed to persist long enough to ensure a fighting chance. In 2024, the Rangers were close to competing but trailed off in September. And in 2025, the Rangers went from potential sellers to July buyers, brought on a ton more talent yet still couldn't match up to the Mariners, or even the Astros. So at season's end, Bochy left, Garcia, Heim and Semien were gone, Seager is being shopped, and the dream, as it was in 2023, is over.

That doesn't mean this team still won't compete. A lot of prime pieces are still young, including Wyatt Langford, Jack Leiter, Evan Carter and Kumar Rocker, and enough people have stayed around to ensure that the team probably won't fall to last in 2026. But the damage seems to be done, and what remains may not be enough to fully chase the top this year.

Josh Jung, after a rookie success in 2023, met with an injury a week into the 2024 season and was still slightly limited in 2025. His path to A-list greatness has been rerouted it seems, as he's now a .250 hitter, who only had 61 RBIs and 14 homers in 131 games. Defensively he's slightly below average. He'll be 28 next year, meaning he either figures it out or alludes to the fact that this is all he can do.

2026 Prediction: Closer to his 2023 numbers, but he may lose even more playing time to Josh Smith.

Jonah Heim also saw his stock drop from 2023. The 95-RBI season of 2023 may have been a very strong fluke, as offensively Heim took another step back this year, hitting .213 with 11 homers and 43 RBIs in 124 games. With a better catcher on the roster, one with a better power bat, it's no wonder Heim was cut after the season.

2026 Prediction: Needs the Carson Kelly path. Might need to backup somebody this year only to catch fire down the road. He just needs to trust the process.

Evan Carter, the rookie hero of the 2023 postseason, still has yet to play a full season in the majors. Both 2024 and 2025 were cut short by injuries, though this season was a fuller and more satisfying picture of his talents. In 63 games he hit .248 with 5 homers and 25 RBIs, plus a .728 OPS. Carter will be 23 next year, and still has a relatively high ceiling.

2026 Prediction: Huge breakout, with an ASG nod and some MVP votes. 

As Heim struggled, new pickup Kyle Higashioka, the former Yankee backup who made a name for himself as a flashy choice in San Diego, did exactly what he was signed to do: give backstop security while also helping out for some clutch power moments. Higgy had his best statistical season to date this year, in addition to crossing 300 at-bats for the first time. In 94 games he hit .241, with 11 home runs and a career high of 47 RBIs. The idea is that Higgy will be the starter next year, which is pretty huge.

2026 Prediction: Not quite as much of an exclamation point as this year, seeing as it's very likely he'll be losing playing time to Danny Jansen, but with some excellent clutch moments and more of the power hitting he's known for.

After several seasons of being a well-loved power bat with the occasional contact streak, Joc Pederson had his first true gutter ball since the heat of his LA days, in a season with the Rangers. In 96 games, Pederson could only muster a .181 average, 9 homers and 26 RBIs. It just was not happening with Pedey at the plate this year, which is a shame, cause he's been on a nice run since 2021.

2026 Prediction: Bounces back with enough leverage to be a deadline bait.

Similarly, sly offseason trade Jake Burger had an up and down year in Arlington, going from a .228 first half average, complete with time spent in the minors, to a sudden surge midyear, hitting .262 in 28 second half games, with 5 homers and 18 RBIs. I genuinely think Burger, like Josh Bell before him, only gets truly hot in August and September, and teams should use this to their advantage.

2026 Prediction: Much better year. 30 homers again. 

Miraculously, though thought dead and picked up just to see if he had anything left, Patrick Corbin actually put in some halfway-decent work for the Rangers this year after burning the Nats contract. He started 30 games, went 7-11 with a 4.40 ERA and 131 Ks. Curiously, his WHIP of 1.365 was his best since 2019, his last truly great season. The Rangers needed an innings-eating, big game guy, and despite many of them getting hurt, Corbin persisted and gave this team something halfway decent. 

2026 Prediction: The Minnesota Twins come calling and he gives them the most innings of the rotation. Are they good innings? Not really.

Kumar Rocker, in between injuries to other pitchers and rotation vacancies, had more of a sample size this year after a rookie cameo last year. People are still trying to figure out where Rocker fits into this team, especially considering that his Vandy teammate Jack Leiter has already proven more MLB staying power. Rocker's results this year were disappointing, with a 5.74 ERA in 14 starts, despite 56 Ks. 

2026 Prediction: So next year, the Rangers will likely have much more rotation room, with DeGrom, Eovaldi and Leiter being the only non-negotiables. Rocker will likely be an Opening Day rotation member, but only if his arm is in decent shape this spring. If he can get a full season of MLB level work then the Rangers will finally be vindicated in picking him up.

Similarly, Jacob Latz was not initially thought of as a rotation option this year, as he began the season in the bullpen, but, as it tends to in Arlington, duty calls. In 8 starts, Latz had a 2.72 ERA, with 34 Ks and a 1.084 WHIP. He wasn't bad as a reliever either, with a 2.93 ERA in 46 innings of mostly long work.

2026 Prediction: Best case for him, begins the year as the fifth starter and works his way up as the year goes on with good results. However there might also be a prospect heir apparent that comes up and relegates Latz to a swing position in later months.

Finally, Michael Helman's age-29 season was the most prosperous one for the career minor leaguer. Despite playing 10 games for the Twins last season, Helman got caught in a game of waiver tag in 2025 that got him on 4 different rosters over the course of the season. It eventually got him to Texas, where help in the outfield was needed, and he made a pretty decent impression, with 5 homers and 20 RBIs in 38 games, plus some decent defensive work in the outfield. Not sure how much longevity it'll give Helman, but it was a good use of an opportunity.

2026 Prediction: Fun backup bench piece, mostly replacement level.

Coming Tomorrow- A few last remnants of an unassuming Rays team. 

Swing Away

 

Is it weird to anyone else that a team run by Bruce Bochy is going into a potential playoff spot with the supposed rotation being Jacob deGrom, Merrill Kelly and Patrick Corbin? With Tyler Mahle and Nate Eovaldi being too injured to contribute? It's either a mad lib gone wrong or somebody's 2020 MLB the Show team like 3 seasons in. 

It's weird that we're here, and even weirder that the Rangers, with all the backpedaling they did this season and continued injury woes, are still a game and a half behind the Mariners for a wild card spot. And arguably they've had better luck against Houston than the Mariners have.

I think it comes from the fact that the Rangers dial more into desperation than the Mariners do. You get a sense from the Rangers that they don't want to lose games, and you see all these clutch hits from guys like Rowdy Tellez and Michael Helman and Sam Haggerty, and especially Kyle Higashioka. This is a very good clutch teams, and they're capable of legging out the close games in addition to the offensive blowouts, the sort that happen when you employ Corey Seager, Adolis Garcia and Wyatt Langford. It does feel like a circus of great offensive weapons, guys like Jake Burger and Joc Pederson and Marcus Semien. We're not in full 2023 10-run landslide territory, but we're seeing steady and enviable offensive production. Corey Seager, despite the missed time, will get MVP votes this year, and has a 5+ WAR for the third time since joining the Rangers. Garcia has 73 RBIs and even more great defensive moments. Michael Helman now has an .886 OPS, and he's been in the lineup more. The offense has come around, thankfully.

The problem I still see with this team is the bullpen, even if that's coming around. I still don't think Robert Garcia's a very good closer, and the team seems to agree, as now Shawn Armstrong seems to be getting more save opportunities, and doing better at it. Maton and Coulombe have been disappointing since coming over. There doesn't seem to be many tried-and-true solid bullpen options here, just guys who are good now and probably won't be for long. And that's kind of an issue if you're trying to compete. Even if you get peak Merrill Kelly to post a 3 ERA in 7 starts with 35 Ks, you can't let that go to waste. And I'm really concerned about that. At least the Mariners have some solid bullpen pieces, ones that aren't 35 or older.

I'm open to the Rangers lapping somebody and putting their name in the ring, but if they're gonna be up there in the wild card race, they need to sustain it, and they need to earn it. If their bullpen screws them out of this one, they'll have no one to blame but themselves for getting everyone's hopes up.

Coming Tomorrow- It was only 20 years ago that you could open a pack of Topps and find a draft pick card of a guy who'd make the majors that very year, and it'd be a valid rookie card. It feels like an eternity ago but it was that recent. One of them's still pitching. 

The Sleeper Pick

 

Today, the Rangers won a game against the Cleveland Guardians, their nearest wild card competitor, and lapped them in the standings. They are now at .500, while Cleveland is now 1 game under .500. This puts the Rangers third in line for a wild card spot, and cements their status as the uncontrollable variable in the AL.

Honestly, this role has served them well before. In 2023 they spent a lot of time being the leader in the AL West, then upstairs demanded the Astros win the West again so they got hot midyear, and the Rangers swelled late to sneak into the playoffs anyway. As a lower wild card seed they outclassed their competitors and eventually took down the Astros to make, and win, a World Series. Then last year everybody got hurt and it didn't happen.

So as the Rangers begin to squeeze their way into a picture that was looking pretty solid before, it occurs to me that perhaps this is Bruce Bochy's new legacy. The Giants teams always took 1st in the West and rolled from there, save for the 2014 team which was a wild card pick that rolled. Then the Rangers was a wild card pick that rolled. Maybe...this is just what Bochy does now. He makes wild card teams into winners. He got a Rangers team to the finish by getting great seasons out of Jonah Heim, Josh Jung and Evan Carter, all of whom have been shakier since. Maybe now his legacy is getting a playoff team out of guys like Rowdy Tellez, Patrick Corbin, Josh Smith and Kyle Higashioka. 

What this does indicate is that some large pieces are gonna be out of commission. The Rangers just announced that Marcus Semien is likely missing the rest of the season. Semien, like usual, had a year where he stunk for the first two months then caught fire and became one of the team's best hitters. He'll finish the season with 108 hits, 62 RBIs and a 3.3 WAR, which isn't bad at all. Also currently missing are Evan Carter, Sam Haggerty and Jake Burger, who've been very helpful recently, and it's doubtful that Tyler Mahle will return this year. 

But the Rangers are still getting excellent quality from their biggest pieces. Nate Eovaldi has a 1.73 ERA, and it's a crime that more people aren't talking about him for a Cy Young. deGrom's having his fullest, and best, season in years, 10-5 with a 2.76 ERA. Merrill Kelly had an excellent start today and is on track to be a very useful starter down the stretch. Corey Seager's having another career year with a 5.6 WAR. Wyatt Langford is finally blossoming into the star the Rangers knew he'd be, with 19 homers and 52 RBIs. And now Tellez is heating up as well. 

There's still a lot of elements at play, like the Royals going at a steady enough pace, or the three teams in the spots at the moment not doing a ton of moving, but the Rangers are definitely a factor in this, and could still spoil some teams. We've got a month, crazier things have happened in a month.

Coming Tomorrow- A hard-hitting outfielder doing his best to move the needle slightly as the end of another non-contending season wraps up.

Which Way, Western Team?

 

Of all the teams that have a chance at a playoff spot this year, the Rangers might be the most vexing. At multiple points during this season, the Rangers have either looked like a true fierce competitor or they've looked completely lifeless. And I think the lucky part is those moments have synced up exactly in the right way for this team's credibility. Unlike the Giants, they timed a hot streak to make them buyers at the deadline, resulting in Merrill Kelly, Phil Maton and Danny Coulombe coming to town. And they're still trending upward, even after some mixed series' with the Yankees and Mariners.

The main issue with this team is that the things that are really good about it are infuriatingly fleeting. Corey Seager missed about a month and a half of playing time, but when he's been on he's been the team's best player, with 16 homers, 40 RBIs and a 4.3 WAR in 83 games. Tyler Mahle had an excellent start to the season, but, as he's prone to, got hurt. Marcus Semien had a .324 average in June and has a .210 average the rest of the season, which is the single purest distillation of Semien's flightiness you could even find. Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford and Josh Jung have all made decent progress, but all in fleeting moments and never at the same time. Josh Smith has been one of the constant presences, he's been working the contact muscles all year, but Josh Smith has been the 'break in case of emergency' guy for the Rangers the last few years. If Josh Smith is getting more playing time than the people he's supposed to supplant, then maybe he should be starting for another team. Cut out the middleman.

The most important thing that's synced up, though, has been the starting pitching. An all-timer Nate Eovaldi stretch is happening at the same time as an all-timer Jacob deGrom stretch, and adding in great stretches by Merrill Kelly and Jack Leiter means that this rotation is rolling, in a way unrivaled by arguably anyone else in the AL West [even as the Mariners are heading the same direction]. Luis Castillo may be good right now, but Eovaldi is 10-3 with a 1.38 ERA. That is a performance that really deserves to be mentioned around Cy Young voting time honestly, even if Skubal's probably getting it. The one thing this team really doesn't have is a viable closer, as Robert Garcia keeps getting killed in the ninth, but Phil Maton seems to be doing a decent enough job there thus far.

There is a chance that this rotation paves the way for a run, and all of the pieces, like Adolis Garcia, Jake Burger, Rowdy Tellez, Kyle Higashioka and Wyatt Langford, all make this team an unstoppable offensive force that brings us another odd year of Bochyball in the playoffs. It can definitely be done. It's just very odd that this season has developed the way it has, and that the first 3 or so months of the season paved the way for a Rangers team that could go far. 

If it happens, and it very well could...don't be too shocked. This team either just misses the playoffs or goes deep, and we'll see which.

Coming Tonight: At last he is healthy, helpful and hitting home runs, which is something the guys that signed him to the contract were really worried wasn't gonna happen.

Built to Last?

 

As I write this post, the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks have the exact same record, with 100 games played. 50-50. Exactly .500. The Rangers are in third, the D-Backs are in fourth, and they're both within 3 and 5 games of their respective playoff races. Not even two years ago these teams were good enough to meet in the World Series. There hasn't even been that much to really account for atrophy; all the young cores that brought these teams to October are still young, intact and thriving, and the marquee guys [Seager, deGrom and Garcia in Texas's case, Marte, Corbin and Gallen in Arizona's] are still with the team, and still relied upon. And yet...neither is really a league giant as much as they were in 2023.

The Rangers have just been unlucky. Last year everybody got injured. Not just all the pitchers [deGrom, Gray, Mahle, Bradford], but all the young position players that made the team exciting in the previous postseason. Evan Carter and Josh Jung got injured very soon into the season, then Wyatt Langford got hurt. Corey Seager had a phenomenal year and then he got hurt. And while that was enough to lighten expectations, it wasn't gonna completely kill them.

This year, though, has been wholly disappointing. Great seasons by Jacob deGrom, Nate Eovaldi, Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford feel like they're being wasted. Adolis Garcia hit 39 home runs in 2023, and now he's just got 13. I know he's one of those guys that can heat up late when you're not looking, but he's also 32, and even 7 seasons into his career I worry he's past his peak. Which is what happens when you keep developing players into their late 20s. What does help is that Garcia is still excellent defensively, but that's not why they kept him around. It's like signing Joc Pederson for his base-running, which was pretty much the only thing he was doing right before he got hurt. And now you're hearing that the Rangers might be shopping people, including deGrom. Which is kinda upsetting. 

The Diamondbacks have about as much of a reason to be disappointed, because that 2023 season was supposed to be the start of a dynasty. The stars aligned to give this team multiple young stars, like Corbin Carroll, Geraldo Perdomo, Gabriel Moreno and Zac Gallen. Perdomo might still be one of the best shortstops in the game, being not only an impressive defender but FINALLY coming alive at the plate this year. He's got 72 RBIs already, which is well on the way to not only top his previous season highs but also register as his first 100 RBI year. He's also about to eclipse his season hits mark and has already topped his season homers mark by soaring into double digits for the first time. Perdomo, like Carroll, is a great young player who's only getting better. 

Yet after emphasizing these youth pieces and framing the team around them last year, the D-Backs, despite a late push, missed the playoffs. And this year they're not looking like a favorite for a wild card spot either. While last year it was a matter of the tentpoles caving [Carroll, Kelly, Gallen and Moreno having weak years], this year the flaws are fully on display. This team's pitching just isn't good anymore. In 2023 you at least had three strong starters distracting from the fact that this was all they had, but now Gallen has a 5.40 ERA, Pfaadt has 10 wins and some big games but an ERA over 4, and Kelly's trying to stay ahead of things while being 36 and a year removed from an injury. Having Ryne Nelson helps, but this team brought on Jordan Montgomery, Eduardo Rodriguez and Corbin Burnes with the idea of having a fully formed, fully reliable rotation and they've all struggled with injuries ever since coming over. Rodriguez is healthy now but struggling yet again. Burnes was at least doing well, but when's he gonna be back? Next September? Will there be any point to those starts?

It sucks, because both of these teams have great managers, the organizations are well built and the stars are worth it. But the luck has not been what they've deserved. The D-Backs are actively shopping both Zac Gallen and Eugenio Suarez, and the Rangers are trying to do the same with deGrom. The idea is to lighten some load while continuing to compete somewhat, but how likely are these teams to get back on track after these two underwhelming years?

Coming Tomorrow- A guy with a big beard who pitches in a minor league stadium. 

deRevenge

 

The Texas Rangers have four people on their pitching staff whose entire personality is missing entire seasons of baseball due to injury. FOUR. And three of them are currently injured, and for some reason this is surprising to them. Like 'oh no, we have to bring up Dane Dunning and have him start, this is a disas-' YOU KNOWINGLY SIGNED TYLER MAHLE AND NATE EOVALDI. You KNOW what their deal is. Eo obviously has more healthy moments these days, but you know the drill.

You know who hasn't gotten injured yet, and I say this with trepidation because he never usually makes it out of June? That's right. Your favorite hurler and mine, Jacob deGrom. For all of you worried that he'd never pitch a full season again, I give you the satisfying news that with his next start, deGrom will have his 16th start of a year, a feat not surpassed since before the pandemic. 2020 was his last full campaign, which is...a wild and troubling stat. And in this healthy, revitalized year, deGrom is, unsurprisingly, pitching like his old self. So far he's got a 2.24 ERA, a 7-2 record and 87 Ks. For the Rangers, who have been surprisingly mediocre this year, deGrom has been the rock. 

In other words, Jacob deGrom is doing exactly what the Rangers signed him to do: stand there and not let runs score. It took him three seasons to do so consistently and for more than a month, but here he is. 

What's funny is that because the Rangers are struggling, and because deGrom is about halfway through his Texas contract, you're already hearing rumors he'll be dealt. One very fun rumor links him back to the Mets, who, while not completely out of luck rotation wise, have routinely needed a fifth man in times of injury. If Montas and Manaea return and stay healthy, and if Senga eventually returns, this may not be needed, but people have been talking about it. If you'd asked deGrom, of course he'd want to return to Queens. He'd play for a competitor, and he'd actually get run support. Whenever the Rangers have run support he's hurt. He's healthy this year, the Rangers score some runs but then forget to a lot of the time. 

Honestly, though, if it's not the Mets it'll be someone disappointing. The Dodgers would piss me off, the Astros would piss me off, the Cardinals would piss me off. The Yankees would piss YOU ALL off, I dunno if we'd need it but I'd take the help. There's always gonna be that liability, though, with deGrom, which is 'will he last til October?' He did in 2015, but he was younger then. He's 37 now. Every start he's aware of the risk. He's trying his best to pitch like he always does without missing more time, and so far he's doing well. But seeing as Chris Sale just got hurt again, the risk has to loom. 

I hope deGrom has a season he's proud of, wherever he ends up going, if anywhere. After all that rotten luck, he deserves one.

Coming Tomorrow- Proof that getting the hell out of Chicago can save careers. 

Once More, With No Feeling

 

In 2024, the Rangers' hopes to compete, and potentially win a second World Series in a row, were thwarted by their own injuries. deGrom, Scherzer, Seager, Jung, Bradford, Mahle and Gray all spent significant time on the IL, and the replacements could only do so much. Heading towards 2025, and with even more young promise hitting the roster, the Rangers looked to capitalized on a new promise to bring home rings on odd years, as opposed to Bochy's even year runs in San Francisco.

And while many of the injured Rangers of 2024 have factored greatly into this season, new and different injuries have prevented this team from getting ahead, and now they're getting over losing a series to the White Sox. Not even two years after winning a ring they're dropping games to the worst team in the AL. Something has to be up.

I mean, the good news is that Wyatt Langford, a 2023 draft pick who made the majors to begin the 2024 season, is now a fully realized, multi-faceted ballplayer in his second season. He's excellent defensively, combining with Adolis Garcia and Kevin Pillar for a very strong outfield, he's a terrific hitter, with 10 homers and 21 RBIs, and he's stolen 10 bases. He's rounding out several of the categories you need to fill out as a great player, and he's been one of the Rangers' surest bets this year.

But in Langford's stats, you can see a troubling trend with this team. Langford leads the team in homers...with 10. Need I remind you how much of a power-hitting team this was in 2023? You have Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Joc Pederson, Adolis Garcia and Kyle Higashioka on this team. All of them, quite famously, have hit plenty of home runs. But so far, through about 2 months of play, none of them have hit more than 7 of them. That perplexes the hell out of me. And it's not like they're all completely cold either. Seager, through injuries, has hit .300, Garcia has 27 RBIs. Though Semien and Pederson sure are cold, like...worryingly so. And you hope they can eventually get it together, even if that's usually Semien's thing, really slow starts. 

I never thought this team, with these players, would be a 'leave it to a strong rotation' type, but that's where we're at. And luckily they do have guys like Jacob deGrom, Nate Eovaldi, Tyler Mahle, Patrick Corbin and Jack Leiter on excellent runs at the moment. It's a very strong rotation, and it's weird that Corbin has factored so heavily into it. Someone did point out that Corbin's best numbers happened from 2017 to 2020, stopped when a democrat entered the White House and continued at the start of 2025. This sort of behavior I'd expect from Josh Hader rather than Corbin. This rotation has garnered 19 of the team's 27 wins, and a lot of those have stayed exceptionally close, which, again, remember back in 2023 when this team blew everybody out by 10 runs?

They've got to wake up eventually, right? Maybe June is when it happens. A lot of these guys are just waiting to really go on a tear, and if it all happens simultaneously they could even leave the similarly streaky Angels in the dust. How wild would that be?

Coming Tonight: Five years in he's undeniably one of the most consistent, and ferocious, pitchers of the decade.

I Leave You Alone for Five Minutes..

 

The way I usually post customs, I try and go from the top down, or at least how the division looks how I make them. So a couple weeks ago the AL West customs were going in a pretty understandable order. Rangers, Angels, Mariners, Astros, A's. This is how the division looked for most of April.

I check the AL West standings a couple days ago and it's like someone's done a prank on me. The Angels are in last, the A's are in second, the Astros are in third [where they've belonged for the past three years], the M's are in first, and the Rangers, who looked so good early on in April, were circling fourth. It had been well reported how many close wins marked their first week back, but that didn't ring any alarm bells for me. Ultimately, far too many starters were hitting below .200 for this to in any way resemble a first place team, so here they are in fourth.

Thankfully, today's an off day. So they can figure it out hopefully while they can breathe.

At the time of their last off day, April 21st, the Rangers were 13-9. Perfectly respectable record, on the right foot. Then after the day off they go 4-8. It is possibly because Corey Seager gets hurt during this stretch, and isn't back until yesterday. But it does also feel like some of these issues were bubbling up. Joc Pederson has been absolutely terrible this year, hitting .094 with 8 hits in 85 at-bats. Marcus Semien, who at least has experience being cold in April, is hitting .182. Jake Burger was doing so poorly he got sent down to the minors, joining Evan Carter, who's yet to even have any time in the majors this year. Luke Jackson, despite having 8 saves already, has a 6.00 ERA. Even all-stars like Josh Jung, Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim have shown their inherent flaws despite some decent enough averages. Even with Langford, Seager and Smith all doing well, there's a morose, sluggish feel to this team, and it's become even more evident when compared to the Mariners and A's, who feel revitalized.

The one place the Rangers haven't suffered too greatly is in the starting pitching, which is weird considering they've already had to cut Dane Dunning and put Kumar Rocker on ice. Jacob deGrom, Nate Eovaldi and Jack Leiter have had excellent starts, and are perfectly reliable arms for the current moment. deGrom has a 2.61 ERA and 36 Ks, so he finally seems to be his old self again. The surprises have been the two fliers- Patrick Corbin has done a 360 from his Nats days, and has a 3.28 ERA, and a 2-1 record, through 5 starts. He's not perfect, but he's reliable, which is...wild.

And Tyler Mahle, after too many consecutive years of injury troubles, looks better than he has since leaving the Reds. In 7 starts he's 3-1 with a 1.19 ERA and 32 strikeouts. Smooth, strong and unstoppable. He's not overexerting himself at the moment, he's just doing his thing, and it's led to him being considered the league best starter of April. Hopefully he doesn't let that go to his head, because we all know how soon he can get himself onto the IL. 

The Rangers ultimately have a lot that works, especially in its pitching. So the hope is that whatever offensive issue has stopped the team from competing at the moment subsides in time for them to really dominate going forward. Semien, Garcia and Pederson have had slow starts before, and hopefully they can get around these ones. 

Coming Tomorrow- The Dodgers have had a streak of organizational pieces not coming to fruition. Zach McKinstry, Jonny Deluca, Josiah Gray, James Outman. Has this guy just broken the streak??

If It Wasn't Evenly Matched, That'd Have Been More Shocking

 So, one of the big series' of the weekend was Rangers-Dodgers, and it led to three very tight, low-scoring games. Of course it did.

The Dodgers are gonna be hard to beat because they just won a World Series and, in response, got even better. The Rangers are gonna be hard to beat because everyone who was hurt last year is healthy again, and the Bruce Bochy magic now works on odd years rather than even ones. Between the two teams you have some of the best players in baseball right now, a few of which didn't even factor into many of the games in this series. The knock-down/drag-out quality of just an April version of Rangers-Dodgers foreshadows the fact that this could very well be a World Series matchup.

That's certainly not something that intimidates Corey Seager, arguably one of the best postseason performers of the last decade. By 31, he's a two-time World Series MVP, and a two-time World Series champion. He's responsible for 19 postseason home runs and 48 postseason RBIs, 20 of those happening during the 2020 playoffs. His last three seasons with Texas he's hit 30+ home runs, a feat made even bigger when you factor in that he never crossed 30 with the Dodgers, even though, surrounded by Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson and Max Muncy, he never really needed to. And now that Seager's paired with Pedey again, uh...Pedey's not really hitting too well. No matter. Seager's hitting .304 with 4 homers and 6 RBIs already.

The thing about Seager, which is interesting to talk about the week he faces the battery of Betts, Ohtani and Freeman, three surefire future HOFers, is that Seager's HOF case is...borderline. He played on some of the biggest teams of the decade and was the difference-maker on them, had 4 seasons of 5 WAR or more, and placed high among the best contact hitters of his day. His career WAR at the moment is 38, which isn't...crazy, but you also think that if he hadn't gotten injured a bunch of times that'd be in the 50 zone by now. And that would be the factor that keeps Seager from fully recognized greatness, those injury numbers, especially during the Dodgers years. It's why the Dodgers were so willing to let him go...and why the Rangers were so pleasantly surprised that, by and large, he's held together ever since. 

As Seager has become one of the more crucial Rangers, somehow Teoscar Hernandez has fit into LA perfectly. I wasn't sure how much of a presence he'd have in LA, after a fairly middle of the road 2023 in Seattle, but Teoscar has become one of the most lovable parts of an already easy to enjoy Dodgers lineup. Last season with the Dodgers, Teoscar topped his old single season HR total with 33, not counting the 3 he'd blast during the postseason. Three more and he'll top 200 total, as he's already knocked 5 this season. Tesocar is the new cheesy power guy, and unlike your standard grade Max Muncy, he's got the occasional defensive perk and some contact moments. He's now started two different all-star games for two different teams, and he's still a big part of this current Dodgers lineup. Arguably there are more versatile bats, but somebody like Teoscar is perfect for this team, and it's no wonder he's already found his fanbase in LA.

The success of Tesocar, and the Dodgers' lineup in general, is distracting from some pitching woes, like some more starting roulette. Already Snell and Glasnow have gotten hurt, and Landon Knack, Bobby Miller and Justin Wrobleski have all struggled in fill-in starts. It helps that the core of the rotation, Yamamoto, Sasaki and May, has been pretty good so far, but this is the exact kind of musical chairs shit they went through last year, and you'd think they'd have ironed out the kinks by now. Half the guys who should be here, Gonsolin and Kershaw mostly, are still rehabbing. Now even relievers are getting in on the fun, as Blake Treinen and Michael Kopech are out for a bit. You really shouldn't be putting that many eggs in Luis Garcia's basket, not at this age. At the very least a new reliever named Jack Dreyer who I've never heard of has been phenomenal in that position, but who knows how long it'll be before he burns out as well.

Like...it says a lot where, of the two teams, LA's rotation is more of a liability. The Rangers have Jacob deGrom, Tyler Mahle and Nate Eovaldi. And their backup choice is Patrick Corbin, who's been surprisingly pretty good despite being bitten by an animal before his last start, which is genuinely one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Falling in the shower is nothing, here's Patrick Corbin getting bitten by a spider and suddenly becoming phenomenal. After Wade Miley and Noah Syndergaard, the Marvel superhero motifs are just gonna work for me every time.

Anyway, Rangers-Dodgers is fascinating even now. We may see it again later. It may be even more fascinating. 

Coming Tomorrow- He's already hit a ton of home runs this season, but it's one he didn't hit that people are talking about. 

Hello Nasty

 

Ten years it's been since the 'Nasty Nate' season in New York, where, in a rotation featuring C.C. Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and eventually Luis Severino, arguably the most consistent, dominant guy there was Nathan Eovaldi, who led the team in wins despite a 4.20 ERA and a 1.450 WHIP. 2015 had a lot of guys rack up plenty of wins without having the dominance behind them, that's what happened with Drew Hutchison in Toronto as well. But Eovaldi put everything on the line in 2015, which led to an injury-shortened 2016 and a completely missed 2017. 

What I'm saying is that given that novelty, and that response, it's very impressive that Eo's 30s have been so dominant, and so consistent. His Red Sox and Rangers numbers have been excellent, resulting in 2 World Series rings and 2 ASG nods. The issue has ultimately been sustained health, but the idea is he maybe misses a month or so and still manages to make an impact. Last season he missed maybe 4 starts and still was one of the best starters in Texas, with a 3.80 ERA and 168 Ks, his second highest career total. In 2023 he missed even more time but made it back for the postseason, and...went 5-0 with a 2.95 ERA and 41 Ks in 6 starts. Eovaldi's strong performance helps them get the ring, and ensures they can keep building 2 years later. 

So given that Eo is 35, and one of many Rangers starters that have struggled with injuries recently, it was definitely promising that Eovaldi's second start was a complete game shutout against the Cincinnati Reds. In an era where the CGSO is less and less prevalent [due to people burning out their arms by inning 5], Eovaldi feels like he comes from the grand tradition of the long-game hurler who can still be reliable by pitch 100. The Rangers have seen a few of those. Kevin Brown, Nolan Ryan, Charlie Hough. But Eo, even surrounded by Jacob deGrom, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker, may be the most reliable one they have.

Something really interesting, by the way, is the fact that both yesterday's win over the Reds and today's, led by a terrific Jack Leiter start, were 1-0 victories. Today you can at least acknowledge that they had to face Hunter Greene, on pace for another career year, and that's hard to get runs off of. But yesterday that had Carson Spiers, a career depth option for the Reds. Only Wyatt Langford was able to score a run off him, and none could do any off the bullpen. 

Not sure if you remember this, but way back in 2023, the Rangers were the '10 runs or more' team for the first half of the season. This team isn't that different power-wise than that one. If anything, it's better refined. Now Joc Pederson, Kyle Higashioka, Jake Burger and Kevin Pillar are a part of this offense, and...they're winning games by one run. That is the flaw so far, that as well stocked as this team is, there are still a few people who are taking longer to truly wake up. Seager's not there yet, Pederson's not there yet, Semien's not there but to be fair it regularly takes him a month or two to heat him up anyway. Adolis Garcia and Wyatt Langford have been doing well, and Josh Smith had the RBI today, but it's not going much deeper than that. All the while deGrom, Eo and Leiter have all been fantastic.

If the Rangers want to finally dethrone the Astros and shift the balance of the AL West, they need everybody to sync up and stay hot. Having the pitching lead the way is a nice start, but 1-0 victories don't win World Series's, at least not in August. 

Coming Tomorrow- He missed the playoffs but got the ring. Knowing him, the work's far from over.