Rangers<\/a>\u2019 front office gathered the media together not to praise the season, but to bury it. And, boy, did they. In a 40-minute presser, President of Baseball Operations Chris Young used lots of roster rebuild-coded words. \u00a0<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s going to be very important in goals of ours to really address the makeup of this team in terms of health, reliability and dependability,\u201d Young said. \u201cWe need to get younger. We need to get more athletic. We need to be more dynamic. And those are going to be offseason goals of ours that we are going to explore and find out how we can improve this roster from that standpoint and put a team together that our fans deserve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are a lot of holes to fill. Given whatever the Rangers\u2019 financial situation is this offseason \u2014 and there is no word on if owner Ray Davis is willing to expand the payroll \u2013 it presents a challenge that might last longer than a traditional offseason to fix. Good thing they may have a lot longer to think about.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And that was just his opening statement. \u00a0<\/p>\n
He saved the kicker for last. \u00a0<\/p>\n
About another shortcoming, the team\u2019s profound road struggles on the road, he actually invoked a lack of \u201ctoughness,\u201d too. Mind you, he wasn\u2019t questioning his players\u2019 physical toughness, but rather a mindset. Think \u201cgrit,\u201d another word he used. Still, \u201ctoughness\u201d is a provocative word. Not necessarily inaccurate, but still provocative and challenging. Something for the front office and the roster to chew on this winter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Road issues have been a hallmark of this club for a decade, but spending on the current roster began five years ago when the team started shelling out money for big free agents. Since then? The Rangers rank 23rd in the majors in road winning percentage at .435. This year, in particular: 23rd at .432. It\u2019s the only thing that\u2019s been consistent about the Rangers \u2014 save for that magical stretch in October of 2023 \u2014 over the last five years. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s really a determination of the intangibles of the players that we choose, the toughness and the grit,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you are on the road, it takes a grit and a toughness to go into an opposing city and have that mindset. And frankly, I don’t think we’ve exuded enough of it the last several seasons when we have not been a good road team. There are some things that we need to change in terms of bringing out that grit and toughness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He doubled down on it when the words were brought back up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can’t be as far under .500 on the road as we were and say that we were as tough as we needed to be. There were times where the team showed great fight and great resilience, but the consistency of it wasn’t to the level that was needed for us to be a playoff team, and that’s why that’s just very honest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t the only one. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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From manager Skip Schumaker: \u201cWe need to figure out how to get better playing teams on the road. It\u2019s a mental toughness\/mindset going into someone else\u2019s stadium where you need to win a series.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rangers haven\u2019t done the things to win close games on the road. Didn\u2019t run aggressively. Some guys were tentative; some guys were managing health situations. More specifically: Evan Carter didn\u2019t run (or reach base) enough; Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford and Josh Jung, to name three, weren\u2019t very aggressive because their bodies wouldn\u2019t allow it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The perfect example: Back in June, Seager, returning from a back issue, didn\u2019t push himself going from first on a Brandon Nimmo double. He was late to see he was being waved to score. He slid into home safe but ended up with a concussion and missed two more weeks. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Young suggested all of that has to change. Now, self-awareness is a great trait. But it\u2019s one thing to understand the issue; another to actually address it.<\/p>\n
Is there flexibility to the roster? Not if the Rangers don\u2019t have increased resources. Speaking of needing to get younger, Jacob deGrom (39 next year), Nathan Eovaldi (37) and Seager (33) will make $92 million between them. That\u2019s equal to about half of the Rangers\u2019 total salaries for 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Can they get more dependable? Seager missed 60 games, Josh Jung 58 and Wyatt Langford 52 this year. Over a three-year period, they\u2019ve each missed more than 100. They are supposed to be core pieces. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Can they get younger? The Rangers counted on four players ages 26 or younger in 2026 \u2014 Langford, Carter, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker. None of them took steps forward, though Rocker did log almost 150 innings. And it seemed like Young was looking in the direction of Carter and Langford when he talked about the need to create competition. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there’s a level of performance and a step we expected all of those guys to take that maybe we didn’t quite see and realize,\u201d Young said. \u201cThe opportunity to be a major league player does not last forever, and next year will be a big year for all of these players.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the specter of a work stoppage looming this winter, it only makes planning to address all of these pretty fundamental issues that much more challenging. \u00a0<\/p>\n
On that front, though, Young said he was up for the challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cAccountability starts with me,\u201d he said. \u201cCertainly, I am the one responsible for putting this roster together. We did our best over the course of the year, but ultimately it wasn’t good enough to have to overcome some of the things, some of the shortcomings, and that’s on me. Our job is tirelessly to look for ways to upgrade the roster.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
And if there\u2019s one thing he\u2019s sure of, it\u2019s that he\u2019s got the toughness, mindset and grit to do whatever it takes to keep the Bananas from having the last sellout of the season next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers Manager Skip Schumaker (seated, left) President of Baseball Operations Chris Young (center) and General Manager Ross Fenstermaker right) answered questions from the media during their season ending press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, September 28, 2026. The Rangers failed to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young (center) and General Manager Ross Fenstermaker (right) listens to Manager Skip Schumaker respond to a question from the media during their season ending press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, September 28, 2026. The Rangers failed to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers Manager Skip Schumaker responded to a question from the media during their season ending press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, September 28, 2026. The Rangers failed to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers General Manager Ross Fenstermaker responded to questions from the media during their season ending press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, September 28, 2026. The Rangers failed to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers General Manager Ross Fenstermaker responds to questions from the media during their season ending press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, September 28, 2026. The Rangers failed to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young answered questions from the media during their season ending press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, September 28, 2026. The Rangers failed to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers Manager Skip Schumaker answers a question from the media during their season ending press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, September 28, 2026. The Rangers failed to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers Manager Skip Schumaker (left) listens to President of Baseball Operations Chris Young answer questions from the media during their season ending press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, September 28, 2026. The Rangers failed to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young responds to a question from the media during their season ending press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, September 28, 2026. Manager Skip Schumaker is seated, left. The Rangers failed to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News![\"Texas]()
<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers Manager Skip Schumaker (left) President of Baseball Operations Chris Young (center) and General Manager Ross Fenstermaker answered questions from the media during their season ending press conference at Globe Life Field in Arlington, September 28, 2026. The Rangers failed to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young responds to a question from the media during their season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,732,92540,89898],"class_list":["post-450737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-article","tag-tp-chris-young","tag-tp-skip-schumaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450737","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=450737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}