Texas Rangers: Horrible Start Signals Time to Rebuild
By Reid Hanson
In light of an epically terrible start to the 2017 MLB season, it’s time for the Texas Rangers to starting thinking ‘rebuild’.
The 11-17 Texas Rangers are now in last place in the AL West, eight games back in the race. They are without their ace pitcher, Cole Hamels, until the All-Star break. Texas is batting .221, striking out in embarrassing fashion nightly. With their starting rotation in shambles and their bullpen in flux, pitching has an ERA of 4.11.
It’s not all bad news. The silver lining in this whole thing is that it’s still the first week of May. The Texas Rangers have climbed from these depths before, right?
Right, but that’s just not enough. Some were arguing the Texas Rangers should have taken the time to rebuild even before the season began. It was clear the defending AL West champs were on their last leg. Age and contract situations dictated the Rangers should start thinking long-term before it’s too late.
The Texas Rangers were in an ugly situation with their roster and 2018 was likely to be a season of reckoning regardless of what kind of success could be achieved in 2017.
Too late is now fast approaching.
With the deadline still months away, Jon Daniels isn’t under the gun to pull something off this moment. But that doesn’t mean sit back and do nothing until the 11th hour. It’s becoming clear that the Rangers aren’t going to be retaining Yu Darvish after this season. If the Texas Rangers don’t consider themselves legitimate contenders, they simply must trade him.
Before the season began, I said if the Rangers weren’t far ahead in the AL West by the deadline, they needed to trade Darvish. Now, it appears they would be lucky to even snag a wild card spot. Moving Darvish seems a no-brainer at this point. They can’t afford to let him slip away for nothing. Even if they do somehow get back in the thick of the race.
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Nobody wants to start from scratch. Not being so close for so many years. But that’s exactly what the Rangers risk if they don’t actively trade away players this season. They need on-the-cusp pitching injected into their system if they want to compete any time in the next few seasons.
The Sky is Falling
It’s easy to call this being a ‘prisoner of the moment’. Or a sky is falling overreaction to a bad stretch in a long season. But the sky was falling even before the putrid start. The Texas Rangers were in an ugly situation with their roster and 2018 was likely to be a season of reckoning regardless of what kind of success could be achieved in 2017.
If anything, the poor start to this season makes it easier to do what needs to be done. Exactly which pieces besides Darvish need to move is a topic that can be discussed in coming weeks. But we need to commit to the discussion and accept that major changes are afoot.
Next: How Long to Expect Hamels to be Out Now?
This has been a surprisingly horrible start for the Texas Rangers but Jon Daniels and company have a chance to significantly help the Rangers organization if they start selling sooner rather than later. The market place will obviously decide when the time is right, but it’s not too early to throw in the towel and start thinking long-term.