ARLINGTON — This seems a bit problematic. The most frequently thrown pitch in baseball is a four-seam fastball. In general, the Rangers did not hit four-seam fastballs in 2024.
They plan to count on the same guys to hit fastballs in 2025.
See the potential issue?
It raises this singular question: Can you teach a team of major leaguers to suddenly start hitting fastballs?
Yes, the Rangers have other issues heading into the long offseason. There is a flock of starting pitchers to replace and a bunch of back-end bullpen pieces. Above all else, though, is fixing an offense that went from the top three in the league to the bottom tier in a year’s time. And the only real difference was just how poorly the Rangers did against the fastball.
“Our identity in 2023 was an elite offensive unit and we obviously regressed this year,” President of Baseball Operations Chris Young said Tuesday during a mostly somber post-mortem of the Rangers’ 78-84 third-place finish that was barely 48 hours old. “I think there’s an explanation for that regression. The biggest remedy, in my opinion, is improving the guys we currently have. Our internal focus is going to be a heavy priority for us in terms of getting the best out of those players.”
In other words: Don’t expect the Rangers to be shopping at Free Agency Depot this winter, they’ll be too busy at Pitchers-R-Us. They need the same offensive faces to simply play better or in some cases to simply play. This is your reminder that Josh Jung, the Rangers’ best fastball hitter, and Evan Carter played together exactly three times in 2024 and not once after April Fools’ Day due to injuries.
Doesn’t mean there won’t be some juggling, too. Manager Bruce Bochy, for example, mentioned the possibility of moving Marcus Semien out of the leadoff spot where he’s taken nearly 2,000 plate appearances over the last three years. A healthy Carter would give the Rangers an attractive option in the leadoff spot. Oh, the Rangers might ask Semien to take a few days off over the course of the season, too, Bochy said. Even discussed it in Semien’s exit interview. Nobody had shiners, so it must have gone OK.
At the heart of the matter, though, is this: The Rangers will be depending on a number of guys to hit fastballs who haven’t been very good fastball hitters in the past. They weren’t great on the pitch in 2023, when the rest of the league was slow to catch on. In 2024, it was no longer a secret. It became a glaring weakness. The Rangers slugged only .380 against four-seamers in 2024, the third lowest in the majors. Can guys suddenly just start swinging faster? Asking for ourselves. It’s just that of all the problems the Rangers have encountered in 53 years, hitting fastballs hasn’t been among them. It’s definitely a new age.
“We need Adolis [García] to bounce back,” Young said, naming names. “We need Jonah [Heim] to bounce back. We need Leody Taveras to take the next step in his development.”
While the idea of sliding Semien down in the order a couple of spots seemed like the most surprising pronouncement of Wrapup Tuesday, the fact that Young singled out García, Heim and Taveras was no coincidence.
There were 195 players who saw at least 500 four-seam fastballs in the majors this season. Each one of those three ranked in the bottom 11. And that’s with Heim and García having some moderate success in the final week of the season due to some swing changes. Here’s the hitch: The Rangers had been asking the duo to make changes for more than half the season.
García will be 32 next year on Opening Day, and Heim will be 30 (middle-aged for a catcher) next June. Maybe a little extra time off for each will help them stay a bit fresher, but it’s hard to otherwise expect bats to suddenly speed up.
Despite everything the Rangers have tried with the switch-hitting Taveras, he’s never found success against lefties. Taveras went 4-for-42 (.095) with no extra-base hits against four-seamers from lefties in 2024 and looked very much like he was transitioning into a platoon player. He faced only one lefty starter after July 1.
Together, the trio combined to hit .213 with nine homers in 525 at-bats against four-seamers.
“The main thing is the main thing, which is, if you have a massive deficiency against fastball pitch types, it is going to be fairly easy to navigate a lineup,” said offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker during the last week of the season. “If I’m a pitcher, and I can go through a pocket in your lineup and only throw my fastball, and I have to worry about the slug there is a compound effect. When we are attacking pitchers, it’s about the totality of nine individuals against that pitcher. And we have to get back to that.”
The question is: Can they?
Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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