- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,200,969
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images attach
Texas Rangers president of baseball operations, Chris Young talks on the phone while watching a spring training workout at the team's training facility on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Surprise, Ariz. (Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer)
The Rangers are in the midst of a pivotal point in their schedule. Entering Friday, Texas held the top spot in the American League West at 47-46 and was set to begin a key three-game series at home against the Astros before the All-Star break. With the trade deadline around the corner, it's now or never for a Rangers team that has hovered around .500 all season.
Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young joined the SportsDay Rangers podcast and discussed the state of the team, Jacob Latz's breakout, trade deadline needs, the importance of Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford's health and so much more.
See highlights of the conversation below, edited lightly for clarity.
Click here to watch the full episode.
With the team hovering about .500 after dealing with injuries and a host of other difficulties, how do you feel about how things stand?
Chris Young: Well, I'd say first of all, I'm very happy with Skip, with his staff. There's been a lot of change, and anytime you have change, there's uncertainty, and it takes a little time for familiarity to set in and everyone to understand their respective roles. I would say, from a front office to a coaching staff perspective, we have 100% alignment. It has been wonderful working with Skip and his staff. The communication, the collaboration has been tremendous, and I think it's put our organization in a very good spot. We certainly, with our record right now, 45-45, .500 90 games in, I wouldn't say that's where we wanted to be, necessarily, in terms of, we'd love to be 10 games over and in first place, but the reality is, given the injuries that we've endured and some of the challenges we faced, we're right in the thick of things. So, I think from that standpoint, it's a victory. Now, looking ahead, my belief is we have not played our best baseball yet, and to play our best baseball, we're going to have to get healthy. I think that's the critical aspect to this, and so where we are right now, I would say we're starting a 72-game season, and it's a race to the finish line, and if we can be 10 games over [.500] over the next 72 games, we're a playoff team, just with the standings and where the American League is right now. So, if our best baseball is ahead and we play to the level that I believe we are capable of with the team we have, we've done some things very, very well. We've also seen some areas where we can continue to improve, but I think getting Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford back are going to be ways just that we're going to have internal improvements, and if we can do that, I feel very good about where we are. But overall, in terms of the health of the organization, I'm very, very happy with the staff, the changes, their communication, and the way they have attacked this season and put our players in the best position to be successful.
The most standout story of the first half is Jacob Latz. When you guys moved him to the bullpen, it was interesting to see how it played out. Can you talk about how Latz has grown and what you've seen in his transition to a closer's role.
Young: We did not envision Jacob pitching the ninth inning for us, coming out of spring training. We thought that he would be a multi-inning leverage reliever, which is unbelievably valuable and important, and he would eventually transition into the rotation and be a very good starting pitcher. I do believe if he had been in both of those roles, he would have equal success, and I say that because I'm a huge fan of Jacob Latz the person. There's nobody in our organization who embodies the winning traits and attributes like Jacob does. I mean, he's as good as it gets. There are others that match that, but Jacob is one who is unbelievably diligent in taking care of himself. He does everything he possibly can to be successful, and that's all you could ask for as a coach, as a front office member. You just want to invest in people who are going to do everything they can to be successful, and Jacob embodies that, and so the success he's having is not necessarily a surprise to me. The role certainly is different than we envisioned coming into the season, but I would tell you that he would be successful in any role on this team, on the pitching staff, because of who he is and the talent that he has, and he's realizing that talent at this point. So I'm so happy for him. I think the second piece of this is, just goes to show as a front office, and there are a lot of organizations that are in similar spots. You come into the season with plans, and you think that you've got players identified for respective roles, and oftentimes we focus on that ninth inning role, the closer role, and probably 30 teams, 15 of them come into the season with a defined closer, and 15 of them don't, and by a month in, it's all rearranged for every team or most teams, and those roles have shifted and changed, and I think this year is a perfect example of that. It shows that when you get talented players, they sort of find their niche, their role, and they can handle different situations, and we've seen that with Jacob this year, and he's been phenomenal at the back of the bullpen.
As you sit four weeks out from the deadline, do you need a more definitive idea in terms of where this team is to commit to either buying or backing off and selling?
Young: Well, the easy answer is yes. The realistic answer is that we may not have that until August 2. It's really hard to predict. I think we have to prepare for a number of different scenarios, and ideally, I'm an optimist by nature, but part of our job is risk management, so to speak, and protecting the downside, and so we've got to always prepare for if we get bad news on Corey or Wyatt, and maybe we have a little losing streak, which I don't anticipate, but nonetheless it's not out of the realm of possibilities, so we have to protect against the downside and prepare. That said, the optimist in me wants to say that we have not played our best baseball, and I really believe in this group. I believe in Skip Schumaker and his coaching staff. I believe in our players, and I think that if we play our brand of baseball the way we saw on that road trip, that we can compete with any team in the league, and I think our record against .500 teams is indicative of a good team, a team that can beat good teams. I would also say that we haven't played at the level of consistency to establish ourselves as a true buyer at this point, because we haven't beaten some of the under-.500 teams, so this is a big homestand for us. Coming out of the break, we've got a tough Atlanta team, and then we've got a lot of games at home in July, and we have an opportunity here to sort of start separating ourselves, and the reality is it's time to do that. My expectation is that we will do that, and as we try to do that, my hope is that it provides some clarity as to where we go from a front office standpoint.
You must be registered for see images attach
Texas Rangers designated hitter Wyatt Langford (36) gets a high-five from his teammate Evan Carter (32) after 7-6 victory against Los Angeles Angels at Globe Life Field, Thursday, July 9, 2026, in Arlington. (Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News)
Can you play your best baseball without your two best players in Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford contributing significantly?
Young: Well, I think we have seen us play very good baseball. We just went on a great road trip and won without our two best players. Can you sustain that, and can you win a championship without your All-Star caliber players? I think that's very, very hard to do. And so the reality is we need Corey and we need Wyatt on the field, we need them to post and to play in the second half for us to be the team that we believe we can be. We certainly didn't come into the season planning on not having those guys, and at this point, by the time they each return, they will have played in less than 50% of our games. So I don't want to make this solely about them, but I think it's a huge component to predicting what we can become in the second half, and if we continue to play with the same grit, fight, effort, energy and passion that we showed on this past road trip, and we do that with our two best players in Wyatt and Corey coming back, I believe this team can be a very formidable team in the American League, there's no doubt about that.
READ MORE: Lack of answers on Corey Seager front leaves Rangers, star shortstop in frustrating limbo
The injury to Jack Leiter was a big blow, given the state of the rotation, do you need your starters to go a little deeper into games to give the bullpen some relief?
Young: We are thinned out in the bullpen, there's no doubt about it, especially with Jakob Junis going down. We did get Chris Martin back, but we've got to be smart about how we utilize Chris and not run him into the ground as he's kind of building back up and getting back in game shape. So starters going deeper in the game is always a good thing for a bullpen, and yes, we would love to see a stretch here where they each go seven innings and take some pressure off the pen. The offense can help with that too, if we have a couple offensive games where we score a lot of runs and create a large lead, it can take pressure off the bullpen as well. It's not always the most talented teams that win championships. It's the teams that come together in the right way, and when your hitting picks up your pitching, your starters pick up your relievers, and at times your hitters pick up your pitching, and so it's a balance. My hope is that's what continues to happen here. The last several weeks has been a lot of fun watching us play that style of baseball, and seeing these guys play for each other, and there's going to be bumps in the road, there's no doubt about it, but if we play with fight and grit and effort and in a team mentality, I believe that we can overcome that. The pitching piece, getting Jack, Cody Bradford, and Jordan Montgomery back all within, hopefully, a couple weeks of each other here towards the end of the month, the beginning of August, that could really do wonders for our pitching and the depth from a starting standpoint, obviously it'll help the bullpen. I'm excited about that. If you add Corey and Wyatt in, and I may be getting greedy here asking for too much with all these players' health returning, but I'd like to be optimistic about it and think the best is still yet to come.
READ MORE: ESPN identifies two trade trades for Rangers ahead of August's deadline
Can you give us any insight into what might your priorities be at the trade deadline? A right-handed leverage arm and a right-handed hitting outfielder seem like good options.
Young: I think there's no secret you've identified two areas of need. Some of that again is contingent upon the rotation staying healthy, it's contingent upon Bradford, Montgomery, and Leiter coming back. We'll see where Robert Garcia is. I don't have an update on him yet, but we would love to have Robert back pitching in a leverage role combined with Jacob Latz and Chris Martin and Jakob Junis at the back of the pen, but yes, to get another leverage arm would be tremendous. To have another right-handed bat that could play center field, there's no doubt about it, it some of the pressure off Evan Carter and protecting him a little bit against left-handed pitching, that would be tremendous. As you go around the diamond, obviously, you know, catching, we're in a good spot. Burger at first, we've had really good play from different guys at second base, Nicky Lopez, Ezequiel Duran, Josh Smith has looked a little better here of recent, if we get Corey back at short, Josh Jung at third, you would say the infield is set. Wyatt, Carter and Nimmo, and so the complimentary piece in center field is something that would, I think, be a nice luxury, assuming full health.
Last year you guys added some money at the deadline. Do you believe you'll be able to do the same this year if necessary?
Young: The answer is yes, and I say that because ownership has been unbelievable, in terms of supporting us for the last several years, in terms of that. It's really incumbent upon the team to motivate ownership to do that, and we, at this point in my opinion, have not done that well enough, but again, we've got a month here to go do that, and if we do that, I believe that our ownership wants to win as much as anybody, but we're not going to be reckless with it, and certainly the team has to put us in a spot where we make it very clear this is our opportunity to go make this team better and give them a chance to win a championship.
Subscribe
Sign up for the Morning Roundup, a free newsletter delivering the latest North Texas news each morning.Continue reading...
