Mid-term front office grades: Astros, Rangers, and the AL West mess
By Bill Felber
Texas Rangers: Chris Young, executive vice president and general manager. Grade: C
Give Chris Young this much: He didn’t sit still on his world championship. Since the triumphal end to the 2023 postseason, the Rangers' front office has made 30 personnel moves impacting the team’s big league fortunes.
Unfortunately, those moves have produced minimal cumulative impact, only 15 of them being positive against 13 negative and two neutral.
The loss to free agency of star pitcher Jordan Montgomery has turned out to be a plus, since Montgomery (-1.4 WAA) has bombed in Arizona. The problem has been his replacements.
Without Montgomery, Jacob deGrom or Max Scherzer, Young has counted on bolstering the pitching staff from within. He called up Jack Leiter and Grant Anderson, who between them have made 19 appearances, most of them sub-standard. Leiter has a 16.39 ERA in three starts, Anderson a 9.53 ERA in 16 relief showings. Their cumulative impact amounts to -2.2 games.
The brutal truth is that the Texas rookie class as a group has been awful. Young has called on 11 first-year players, including touted outfielders Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford, to a cumulative impact of -3.9 games. That’s easily the least productive rookie class of any 2024 team.
Overall score: -0.3. Grade: C.