<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jacob deGrom looks on after pitching to the Los Angeles Angels during the fourth inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, July 7, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/Julio Cortez)<\/p>\n
Julio Cortez\/AP Photo\/Julio Cortez<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON \u2014 On Monday,\u00a0Rangers<\/a> players spent the day monitoring trade rumors and reports, watching as other teams bought and sold aggressively, heard that Jacob deGrom elected to stick with his teammates<\/a> rather than hire on as a mercenary elsewhere, then waited for reinforcements to improve their chances.\u00a0<\/p>\n And after none came, they went out and played perhaps their worst game of the season<\/a> in a five-error, 5-1 loss to San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe it was just a coincidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Or maybe it was confluence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Which led to asking manager Skip Schumaker if he thought the series of events that ended with the Rangers having the exact same 26-man roster at game time that they had the previous day played a role. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPotentially, yeah,\u201d Schumaker said Tuesday afternoon. \u201cBut that\u2019s human nature. That\u2019s OK. There were a lot of things that could have or not happened, based on whatever report you read.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe day of the deadline, you can have whatever emotions you want to have, good or bad. But the game doesn\u2019t stop. It moves on for everybody. It never stops for anybody. The next day it\u2019s, like you go. That is part of being a professional. I\u2019ve been on both sides of it. And it can suck if you trade away a really good player who was a clubhouse inflator. But the next day you have to move on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Rangers deadline<\/a> day was confusing. It began with the club willing to listen to offers, including one from Atlanta for deGrom. But deGrom told Rangers officials he wanted to stay with the current team, had belief in its ability and blamed himself, as much as anybody, for the Rangers not being in first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Moved by deGrom\u2019s belief and the lack of aggressive offers on other players, the Rangers chose to continue their belief in the current club, too. At least that\u2019s what they said publicly. They said all the right things. But this may be one of those cases where actions speak louder than words. There was no action taken to fortify the current roster. Yes, the Rangers acquired Chase Silseth <\/a>to help the bullpen five days earlier, but they also lost Jakob Junis to an injury at the same time<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Rangers didn\u2019t have the prospect capital to land a big name the way Boston spent for Baltimore\u2019s Adley Rutschman. It also appears they weren\u2019t given the financial wherewithal to make even marginal additions to payroll by taking on guys with expiring contracts. \u00a0<\/p>\n When all was said and done, the Rangers added about $60,000 to their bottom line for a payroll that had already been slashed from $229 million (before benefits were included) at the end of 2025 to $185 million at the start of 2026. Owner Ray Davis was not available to comment on the payroll issue Tuesday, though with ongoing labor negotiations about the CBA, many owners have kept an even-lower-than-usual public profile.\u00a0<\/p>\n The lack of additions is not lost on veteran players. The Rangers are one of the league\u2019s more veteran teams. They are well-versed in optics. All teams, save for maybe the Dodgers, have flaws. Teams with legitimate chances to win, including the Dodgers, seek to address those flaws before the deadline. Addressing them requires either prospect or financial capital. The Rangers apparently had neither. \u00a0<\/p>\n Asked about the message the lack of moves sends to the clubhouse, Joc Pederson, with a pair of World Series rings, declined to comment. Others chose words very carefully, rightfully placing much of the blame on themselves for any lack of action by ownership\/the front office.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n And, in particular, the aces, deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, said the Rangers could get a more meaningful lift if they simply performed to their career norms.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think we can do something cool,\u201d deGrom said Tuesday. \u201cAnd that was part of my thing [with management]. I feel like I\u2019ve underperformed. If we win the four or five games I\u2019ve pitched terrible in, we\u2019re still first. So, I told them I should stay and try to help this team win. I feel like I haven\u2019t pitched to the best of my ability and didn\u2019t feel right leaving under that circumstance.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Said Eovaldi: \u201cWe have the ability to do great things. I feel like we haven\u2019t thrown the ball as well as we all know we\u2019re capable of. The starting rotation sets the tone for everybody. I\u2019ve been on teams that made trades and you see the impact it can have, but, at the same time, I feel like having guys come back that are healthy will have an ability, too. I think the majority of guys in here feel like they haven\u2019t played up to their standard and, if we do, we can get hot and make good things happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And if the Rangers weren\u2019t able to add millions to the payroll, there may be an opportunity to send an action of belief if the front office is granted a couple hundred thousand dollars here or there to pick up veterans who get jettisoned in August. Seattle, for example, DFA\u2019d former Rangers Rob Refsnyder and Mitch Garver on Tuesday. Refsnyder has a track record of success against left-handed pitching; Garver might add a bit of pop behind the plate. It would be a gamble, though. Both have had subpar seasons. If they clear waivers, however, the Rangers could add them theoretically for a pro-rated portion of the major league minimum of $750,000. At the moment, that\u2019s less than $250,000 apiece.\u00a0<\/p>\n If nothing else, it might be a message: We tried. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI think the most important message was sent by Jacob,\u201d said first baseman Jake Burger. \u201cThat sets the tone. He wants to be here and win here. He could have taken the easy route, but he wants to stay here. That message should bring us energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever other messages are sent, are sent. We\u2019ll keep that in the clubhouse, and we\u2019ll trust the guys in this clubhouse to go out and win.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jacob deGrom looks on after pitching to the Los Angeles Angels during the fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,89744],"class_list":["post-397893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-tp-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n