Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young joined the Musers on Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM) to discuss the Rangers’ offensive regression, expectations for the pitching staff and chances of retaining free agent pitcher Nathan Eovaldi.
Below are highlights from the interview, edited lightly for clarity.
The offense was a bit of a mystery this season, but guys like Adolis Garcia and Jonah Heim took a step back. Was 2023 just a career year for them, or do you expect those guys to bounce back?
Chris Young: I do think there is obviously some natural regression that happens, and whether or not those were career years in 2023 for those guys, our hope is that it wasn’t. Our hope is that that’s more the norm. But that said, we don’t go into the season projecting those players to perform at the same level they did. There’s always some balance there in our projections and so, but what we didn’t expect them to do is drop into their 20th percentile outcomes, where, it was really going to impact the overall performance of the team, and then you add a couple significant injuries to that with the underperformance, and it really explains why, offensively, we regressed, I think close to 200 runs less than we scored in 2023 and I think even if we had just regressed 100 runs less, we’re probably a playoff team.
So we do have work to do in terms of finding out if these guys are going to bounce back. I have great conviction in them, mainly in the people, in the character of these players, that I know that they’re not satisfied, I know that they’re hungry. I know they were disappointed, and I know they believe they can be better Major League performers. And frankly, they have to be major league performers for their careers to continue. So I think they understand the stakes, and I think they understand the work and the foundation that needs to be put in and built this off season. And most importantly, they’re hungry, and so I do have conviction in these players. I believe that they’re they’re going to do what it takes, and my hope is that we can continue to support them and then find some other players to bring in as well that will continue to supplement if these guys do not bounce back.
As a former pitcher, how encouraged are you at the young arms that you got to take a look at this year like Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker and Cody Bradford?
Young: I am, and I think just beyond the the young arms that we saw this year, it’s really where our pitching development has gone over the past couple seasons, and I think it’s a collective effort from our amateur scouting group and targeting the right players, to our player development group, our assistant GM who oversees player development, Ross Fenstermaker, our pitching coordinators, Jordan Tiegs and Sam Niedorf, and then, of course, all of our pitching coaches, and really the alignment and velocity and continuity from top to bottom throughout the organization.
And when I came here four years ago, obviously, the Rangers have never been known for developing pitching, and it’s been one of my goals that we get to a spot where we can have homegrown pitching to support our major league team. While we’re not perfectly there yet, I do think over the last two years, we’ve had a lot of success with developing starting pitching. Cole Ragans, the success he’s having in Kansas City, and I hate even bringing up his name, because how well he’s pitching. We certainly miss him. But our development group got him to the big leagues, and then Cody Bradford, and then we have Kumar and Jack and many others that are in Double-A that my hope is that they’ll make their debut next year. So we’ve come a long way, but I’m not going to say that we’re there yet until we have established Major League starters in our rotation. I’m not going to say that we’ve figured this out, so we have work to do, but I think we’ve got a good thing going, and my hope is that that momentum continues.
How encouraged were you in how Jacob deGrom looked in his few starts back?
Young: Well, first of all, Jacob, it was so fun seeing him back out there, and I think we all saw the pain on his face and the emotion when we announced that he needed Tommy John. I know Jacob has carried this burden with him of feeling like he’s let people down or let the organization down, and that’s not the case. I believe the best is yet to come with Jacob, that we’re due for a long run of a healthy Jacob deGrom here, and it was so fun seeing him out there. I think most importantly, more than the performance, it was just being a guy with a smile on his face day-to-day, knowing that he was happy, he was healthy and I think that’s, to me, a sign. I’ve been through plenty of injuries during my career, and I know how that can weigh you down, and Jacob didn’t seem to be carrying that weight when we have our normal day to day interaction. So I was really, really happy for him. Kumar Rocker as well. He had gone through Tommy John rehab, similar timeline to Jacob, and to see the progress he made and to actually get to the big leagues and make his debut and establish himself to some degree as a capable major league pitcher, was really neat. So, huge victories for those two guys and our medical group, but we’ve got to continue. We’ve got to continue that momentum.
How confident are you that Nathan Eovaldi comes back next season?
Young: With Eovaldi, he’s just such a great competitor, a great leader, just someone we wouldn’t win the World Series without. What he did coming here and signing and establishing the pitching culture that we have. He’s been so important to us, and I would absolutely love to have him back. We’re going to explore every way to try to make that happen.
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