SAN ANTONIO — Up a couple of flights of escalators, Scott Boras stood atop his portable platform Wednesday morning at the JW Marriott Hill Country Resort & Spa in front of his new, wrinkle-free Boras Corp. backdrop to either workshop material for a Showtime comedy special or spin his hitters to the free agent market.
He reps Alex Bregman and he noted that there were a bunch of teams that could use an AB+ blood transfusion. He reps Juan Soto and noted that while general managers try to create championship magic, every “great magician needs a magic Juan.” He reps Pete Alonso and noted it should be a bullish market for the Polar Bear. We can go on, but you get the picture.
On the comedy front, Nate Bargatze doesn’t have anything to worry about. Not that we, the media, were complaining at the general managers meetings. Copy is copy. And at least Boras’ stuff didn’t require a two-drink minimum.
On free agency, though, it was another stark reminder of the Rangers’ position this winter. They’ve done plenty of business with Boras in the past, but they don’t appear to be his target audience for this tour, which lands in Dallas for the winter meetings next month. Either they can’t afford or aren’t willing to pay the admission prices. Blame inflation. We hear it’s a winning strategy.
Not that the Rangers don’t need help. Look, if you want to point fingers at the 78-84 season, you can point a fistful of them at the offense. It was the single biggest disappointment in a season full of them. But, they’ve got bodies and long-term commitments there. The bodies just didn’t produce.
When Chris Young said after the season that most of the club’s upgrades would come internally, he was looking at you, Adolis García, Marcus Semien and Leody Taveras. Oh, and you, too, Jonah Heim. Whatever dollars the Rangers have available this winter, though, are earmarked for pitching. They are down at least two starters and more relievers.
Which is why the biggest offensive moves have likely already been made in the last week. Donnie Ecker, previously the offensive coordinator/bench coach, will get rid of the slash in his title and focus solely on the offense. He will team with 33-year-old Justin Viele, who spent the last five years with San Francisco. He replaces Tim Hyers as hitting coach. Hyers wasn’t fired — he just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to actually live at home year-round as Atlanta’s hitting coach.
Ecker and Hyers worked well together, but the arrangement was odd in its setup since both had been sitting hitting coaches with different organizations when they joined the Rangers. They brought their own philosophies. Now, at least, the hierarchy, philosophy and communication should be a bit streamlined. Ecker and Viele worked together in similar roles with San Francisco in 2020-21. In 2021, the Giants led the National League in home runs, slugging percentage, OPS, pitches per plate appearance and stolen base percentage. Can’t argue with those results.
“Donnie is like my big brother,” Viele said Wednesday. “We worked together for two years, but we haven’t stopped talking the last three. It was fun going to work with your best friend and it created a great work environment. And I think when the players see how much fun you are having, how engaged you are, it is easier to get the buy-in.
“We were on the same page 99% of the time and the other 1%, we got there before we ever got with the players. There was a lot of alignment.”
The hope is the duo will get similar results from the Rangers. Good communication between coaches and players is important. On today’s expanded hitting staffs, though, it starts with great communication between coaches, then cascades downward.
“We need to be able to adjust our approach a little bit and tailor it to the way we’re being pitched,” Young said. “To some degree, I think that we maybe got a little stubborn last year at times and didn’t really take what was being given to us.
“I think the league adapted to the style we had in 2023 and we came in with a similar mindset and approach. We were a little late to adjust. Part of that was we had some guys banged up and didn’t have our normal lineup out there. But we didn’t put enough pressure on opposing pitchers. I said some of the biggest improvements we can make are going to be internal improvements and getting the best out of our own players. I stand by that.”
In short, the Rangers have to adjust their approach to fastballs. It’s not entirely clear what it was last year, but whatever it was, it wasn’t effective. Manager Bruce Bochy said they were too often caught in between, either waiting on a breaking pitch and late on the fastball or were amped up for the fastball and were out in front of breaking pitches.
And they were antsy. The Rangers had the fifth most at-bats of two or fewer pitches in the majors and did far less than league average with it. These are occasions when they ostensibly got the pitch they were looking for early in at-bats and still didn’t pummel them. They ranked 19th in the majors in both batting average and slugging percentage in those at-bats, and 22nd in expected slugging percentage. When it was a fastball they acted on in those first two pitches, the expected slugging percentage was 23rd. It was a bad combo.
For Viele and Ecker, movement is the key element in the swing decision process. Good balance, vision and timing lead to good pitch recognition and good decisions. Good decisions produce good swings and, just as importantly, good takes and “good” foul balls that extend at-bats.
This was stressed when Viele worked in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization before joining the Giants. He said he didn’t even know what “chase percentage” was before he joined the Dodgers. He knows now. In San Francisco over the last five years, the Giants had a top-tier pitches-per-plate appearance rate. It leads to getting to relievers earlier, which makes everything a little easier.
“We really want to be as aligned as possible with messaging,” Viele said. “If not, it can be detrimental. We want the hitters going to the plate as clearheaded as possible.”
That starts with the coaches.
Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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