Rangers put themselves in position to feel October love
It has become commonplace to describe the 2016 baseball season as a referendum on the happiness of Chicago Cubs fans, both within the framework of this year and within the larger reality that is the team’s 108-year World Series championship drought.
But as the 2016 Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline reached a remarkable conclusion Monday afternoon, another team with a long stretch of futility staked a claim upon the 2016 season.
No team helped itself more than the Texas Rangers, with president and general manager Jon Daniels acquiring the best player available in catcher Jonathan Lucroy, along with a legitimate late-inning relief option in Jeremy Jeffress from the Milwaukee Brewers. He also brought in ageless Carlos Beltran from the New York Yankees for the period of the season in which Beltran shines brightest.
It is hard to begrudge them, even if you live outside of Arlington.
A team that has existed since 1961, first in Washington and then Texas since 1972, hadn’t made so much as a playoff appearance until 1996. It took until 2010 for the Rangers to win the American League pennant, only to see them vanquished in consecutive seasons by the National League highachieving franchises of the last decade, the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.
That 2011 World Series loss particularly rankles, with the bottom-of-the-ninth heroics of David Freese (and perhaps a ball outfielder Nelson Cruz should have caught) keeping the Rangers from a franchise-defining win, the kind of October moment we remember because it fits so neatly into the St. Louis history. It would be discussed as much for the achingly close loss around the national conversation if the Rangers had the same platform as the Cubs or Boston Red Sox.
So considering both what the Rangers have been through and the karma-countering force that was the Aroldis Chapman trade from the Yankees to the Cubs last week, let’s look at how much likelier the Rangers are to be in a position to earn America’s love this October.
First, Lucroy. It isn’t just the 2.6 wins above replacement he has been worth to the Brewers so far this season, a familiar level of play from someone with 6.7, 3.6 and 3.1 WAR seasons on his résumé. It’s how much better Lucroy is than the catchers the Rangers have used. That’s no slight to Bobby Wilson, Robinson Chirinos and company — rather, it reflects the level of play Lucroy, 30, and few other catchers have reached behind and at the plate this year.
Lucroy’s slash line ( batting average/on-base percentage/ slugging percentage) of .299/.359/ .482 is good for a 122 OPS+ (which factors in league and ballparks) this season, well above league averages for any position. But Rangers catchers, collectively, checked in at .233/.287/.422. And catchers as a whole in the AL? .229/.293/.377.
So the Rangers, purely from an offensive production standpoint, have something few of their competitors can lean on.
Lucroy is more than that, of course: He is right-handed, but crushes righties. He’s a strong game caller who has thrown out 40% of would-be basestealers in 2016, providing echoes of Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. And Lucroy can spend time at first base as well, providing additional positional flexibility.
As for the hue and cry over Lucroy nixing a trade to the Cleveland Indians before going to Texas, it is worth keeping in mind that players, like owners, negotiate things into contracts for more than cosmetic reasons. Consider me skeptical that much more than garden variety jealousy over Lucroy’s ability to play baseball for a living is at work when he is criticized by neutral fans for choosing to use his hard-earned leverage to choose his workplace.
As for Jeffress, 28, the strikeouts are down some over last season, but his walks are as well, and that 2.22 ERA is better than that of every Texas reliever save Tony Barnette. And don’t forget his 27 saves in 28 chances. Another viable late-inning relief arm never hurt anyone (except, perhaps, the 2015 Washington Nationals after adding Jonathan Papelbon).
As for Beltran, the future Hall of Famer was hitting .304/.344/ .546 this year, good for the best OPS+ he has posted since 2011. Incredibly, he has managed to navigate the knee injuries that most believed would end his career years, if not a decade, ago.
But here’s the real slash line the Rangers are probably hoping for: .332/.441/.674. That’s what Beltran, now 39, has done over 52 games in the postseason. It’s an incredible amount of production in such a critical time — 16 home runs in 184 at-bats, stretched over appearances ranging from 2004 through 2015, in AL and NL playoff series alike.
That they did all this without dealing super-prospect Joey Gallo and his absurd power, keeping infielder-outfielder Jurickson Profar and allowing themselves to see whether his 2016 marks a true emergence, well, it made it that much sweeter. Texas can say that even if dealing did cost them their best pitching prospect in Luis Ortiz (in the Lucroy trade) and last year’s fourth overall draft pick in Dillon Tate (in the Beltran deal).
But having that extra pitching to trade serves as a reminder that these Rangers are not like Pudge’s Rangers. Not when Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish head the rotation, and the bullpen, even before Jeffress’ arrival, is durable. The lineup depth is reminiscent of those teams, though: Does Elvis Andrus, a .290 hitter with speed, in the No. 9 hole sound good to you?
And if looking for a team worthy of your love come October, is there anyone more deserving than Beltran, who has done at the plate what Mariano Rivera did on the mound in the playoffs, yet doesn’t have a World Series ring?
Maybe that’s what 2016 has in store for us after all. Instead of avenging Steve Bartman and a goat that, let’s face it, really doesn’t belong in a major league ballpark, instead it will be a franchise’s turn that somehow managed to turn Ted Williams and Whitey Herzog into managers with .350 winning percentages, David Clyde from high school phenom into rushed cautionary tale.
The Rangers can do it for Beltran, for Toby Harrah, for Julio Franco, for Dean Palmer and Jose Canseco’s head.