Pitching must be offseason priority
Organization’s arms can’t be dealt for nothing any longer.
The Rangers need to add starting pitching this winter. They need to retain starting pitching this winter. Those are projects that will require time, energy and creativity.
But they must also find time for one other significant pitching project this winter.
They must re-examine the process by which they identify and develop starting pitching. Carlos Beltran (Dillon Tate).
Not sure the Rangers could have changed anything on those deals, though it has been suggested to me they could have put Chi Chi Gonzalez in the Philadelphia deal instead of Thompson. If so, it’s significant. Gonzalez took a step backward this year and had an 8.71 ERA in just three major league starts. Thompson reached the majors for the first time and made 10 starts with a 3.41 ERA for the last six. Small sample sizes for both, for sure, but also attention-worthy.
Of more concern should be what the Rangers saw in the playoffs. They see Kyle Hendricks making starts for the Cubs and saw Tanner Roark start for Washington. They traded both in deals that brought no tangible return whatsoever.
There is probably some draft rehash to be done, too. In particular, the Rangers may want to look back at 2010 and their process then. They had five picks in the top 50, starting with No. 15. They took outfielder Jake Skole, a major bust, at 15, catcher Kellin Deglan at 22, right-hander Luke Jackson at 45 and third baseman Mike Olt at 49.
In between the pick of Skole and the pick of Jackson, the following pitchers were snapped up: Mike Foltynewicz (19), Aaron Sanchez (34), Taijuan Walker (43) and, perhaps most significantly, Mansfield Legacy’s Noah Syndergaard (38).
It hurts to lose out on pitchers, hurts to have multiple opportunities to draft them and is particularly painful when they are growing up less than 20 miles from the home office.
The Rangers still have some pitching talent at the upper levels of the minors in Gonzalez, Nick Martinez, Connor Sadzeck, Yohander Mendez and Jose Leclerc and a potential fast-comer in Brett Martin. It’s a thinner group of talent than three months ago, which makes it all the more important to not make mistakes in evaluations or development.