“We do a lot of analysis in terms of what are the best ways to make this team even stronger,” president of baseball operations Chris Young said on Thursday. “Sometimes, that’s adding to a strength, and sometimes, that’s improving a weakness.”
“So much of this is dictated by what’s out there and available in the market and ways in which we can upgrade the club,” added general manager Ross Fenstermaker. “We were fortifying what has been a strength for us this year, and just continuing to build upon that as we try to complete this roster. We feel good with what we were able to accomplish here and how we were able to round out this group.”
The Rangers’ front office clearly bet on a few things.First was that pitching wins championships. It’s a philosophy that plays when you remember that the president of baseball operations was a longtime big league pitcher.
But the thing they bet on was the continued improvement of the offense.
The Rangers dismissed offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker on May 5 and replaced him with Bret Boone, who had no coaching history prior.
Through the end of June, the club was slashing .226/.293/.363, ranking 29th in average, 29th in on-base percentage and 28th in slugging percentage.
But when the calendar flipped to July, the offense turned a corner. Despite being held scoreless in the final game of the month on Thursday in Seattle, the Rangers slashed .252/.325/.423 with 31 home runs and 5.52 runs per game over 25 games in July, by far the best month of the season for the club.
“We have immense confidence in our guys and our position player core,” Young said. “I’ve said this all along. I said this going back to last offseason. The best upgrades that we can have to our team is just the standard performance from our 13 position players.
“We really believe in these guys. Since June 1 and into July, these guys have been very, very good, and the run production has increased immensely. Our hitting group has done a great job of getting these guys on the same page. I really am happy with what we’ve seen. Now, it’s about continuing that.”
Though this current road trip clearly hasn’t gone according to plan (2-4 against the Angels and Mariners entering Sunday), the front office saw enough signs of improvement across the board to invest in the club at the Deadline.
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