How Rangers can balance avoiding tanking without ruining draft position in final week of the season

Chris Woodward is firmly invested in the Rangers' future. He’s sat in on draft meetings in each of his two seasons as manager. He will almost certainly do so again next year when the Rangers could have their highest first-round pick in more than 30 years.

So, he was asked Monday, how difficult is it to separate himself from the implications a strong final week could have on the team’s potential draft position?

“So, you are asking me if I should tank or not?” Woodward said with a dry smile.

Well, maybe. But politely.

“No, it is what it is,” Woodward said. “I don’t ever want our guys to feel [like that]. We’re playing these guys, supporting them, growing them. I want to win every game. I’m too competitive. At no point am I ever going to think about losing a game or trying to lose a game. But, yes, it’s definitely in the back of your mind when you step outside of the game. But, yeah, I hope we win the last seven games and screw that all up.”

No worries, there. At least not Monday. Five days after the first shutout of his career, Kyle Gibson walked four, hit one and gave up a grand slam in an 8-5 loss to the Los Angeles Angels. Three of the runs he allowed sprang to life as walks. Gibson loaded the bases twice with no outs. He escaped the first time allowing only a run. He was not so lucky the second instance. Brendan Walsh’s grand slam — the eighth the Rangers have allowed this year — capped a seven-run fourth inning. The loss dropped the Rangers to 19-35 at the start of a huge week.

No. Seriously.

At .352, the Rangers have the second-worst winning percentage in baseball with six games to play. They probably can’t “catch” Pittsburgh for the worst record. Pittsburgh has blundering down to an art. The Pirates, 15-38, need only lose four of their last seven to “clinch” and earn the right to select Vanderbilt righty Kumar Rocker, the consensus favorite. The Rangers may not be able to lose enough to improve their position, but they can win enough to damage it.

Especially over the next two days. The Rangers begin a two-game series at Arizona Tuesday, just one game worse than both the Diamondbacks and Red Sox. The Rangers finish the season with four games at home against Houston. Have a good week and they could have a lesser pick.

It’s happened before. In 2014, the Rangers had the worst record in baseball with 20 games to play. They had the second-worst record — just a half-game worse than Arizona — with seven to play. But they went 5-2 and finished better than the Diamondbacks and Colorado. The Astros, who had failed to sign overall No. 1 pick Brady Aiken a year earlier, slotted as No. 2 overall as compensation. At No. 1 Arizona took Dansby Swanson. At No. 2 the Astros selected Alex Bregman. The Rangers ended up with Dillon Tate. That, um, didn’t work out.

“It’s more or less out of our control,” general manager Jon Daniels said Monday. "Naturally you’d like to access the best talent available, but we’re not trying to manipulate the standings. We’re going to have a top pick regardless. In 2014, it may have cost us a shot at Bregman, but there were still some really good players available. It’ll be that way next year regardless of which pick we end up with. We’ve just got to make it count.

“I’d like to see us play well this week. The priority is individual development, but ultimately that leads to wins.”

There is also this uncertainty: There is no guarantee that the 2021 draft order will be directly tied to 2020 winning percentage. Though that is typically the process, Commissioner Rob Manfred reserved the right to change criteria due to the pandemic-shortened schedule. The expectation, though, is that customary practice will prevail.

Back to the Rangers and “individual development.” That means giving young, unproven players more opportunity to, well, develop. The roster has skewed younger and younger as the season has spun more out of control. The lineup could tilt even younger this week with Ronald Guzmán out with a hamstring issue.

The Rangers could use 21-year-old Sherten Apostel, the youngest player on the roster, at first, along with 22-year-old Sam Huff, called up just 10 days ago, to field a lineup that features four players 22 and younger. They could put together a lineup of position players that averages 25 years and less than 30 days before the end of the week.

“Might be tomorrow,” Woodward said Monday. “I feel like most of them have been playing together, but there have been some left-right matchups. Tuesday or Wednesday, that might be the day you are talking about.”

It would be all about the development.

It might also help determine where the Rangers draft next summer.

Getting drafty

The Rangers enter the week in position to land the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft if MLB holds to customary draft order determination. A look at the occasions the club has drafted in the top four since moving to Texas:

Source: Baseball-reference.com

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