{"id":83167,"date":"2025-12-10T14:46:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T14:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/83167\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T14:46:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T14:46:22","slug":"jacob-latz-represents-key-piece-in-texas-rangers-offseason-financial-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/83167\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Latz represents key piece in Texas Rangers\u2019 offseason financial puzzle"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. \u2014 About the Rangers<\/a>‘ offseason pursuits of catchers and relievers, um, it\u2019s not really going anywhere at the minute. It\u2019s weird that way sometimes when you don\u2019t have much in the way of money or prospects to offer. <\/p>\n

As sales pitches go, \u201cwho is willing to take the least,\u201d ranks right up there with \u201cbut there is no state income tax in Texas.\u201d The Rangers are working on it; the market isn\u2019t exactly coming to them.<\/p>\n

So the Rangers are left locked up in their suite, talking to themselves as much as to other clubs and agents. Which isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing. The suite, after all, is in the Waldorf-Astoria. Second, talking amongst themselves may just give them some clarity on other issues they are facing this offseason. <\/p>\n

Like this, for instance: Chris Young has mentioned the Rangers would like to bolster starting pitching. He always mentions that. Usually follows through, too. Then again, he usually had some money available to work with. On this front, though, there is at least some hope the Rangers could find an answer internally. They could commit to Jacob Latz as a starter.<\/p>\n

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When last we left this topic, a week after Latz had pitched into the sixth inning on the penultimate day of the season<\/a>, Young said the Rangers \u201chave to determine the best utilization of Jacob to help the team win.\u201d <\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t read as a full-throated endorsement of Latz the starter, which, given his performance and the club\u2019s financial pickle, was a bit surprising. There is also solid rationale behind holding off; we\u2019ll get to that in a moment. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a little had changed. But not much. GM Ross Fenstermaker allowed that Latz is preparing as a starter this offseason. However, that\u2019s Latz\u2019s choice. When pressed, Fenstermaker didn\u2019t say the Rangers had instructed him to do so. It\u2019s an important distinction. It\u2019s the difference between a player\u2019s ambition and a team\u2019s plan. The Rangers have no problem with it. It\u2019s easier to reduce workload than add it, though they certainly added it last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say we have defined that yet,\u201d Fenstermaker said of Latz\u2019s role. \u201cRight now, Jacob is preparing as a starter. His ultimate role will be determined by performance and spring training and some of the other things that we do the rest of this offseason. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut right now, he is preparing as a starter, and we will revisit that come spring training. We are still discussing and assessing where things are at. I know Jacob wants to prepare as a starter. He has shown that he\u2019s capable of doing such, and that\u2019s how he\u2019s going to treat his offseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case for Latz, the starter, though, is strong. Despite two minor league options and flopping between the rotation and the bullpen, he was as valuable as any pitcher on the staff whose last name was not \u201cdeGrom\u201d or \u201cEovaldi.\u201d <\/p>\n

The overall numbers were impressive: A 2.84 ERA in 85\u2154 major league innings (it was 2.69 in 100\u2153 innings if you include his minor league stints). In eight starts in the big leagues, he posted a 2.72 ERA, a 1.084 WHIP and a 2.27 strikeout-to-walk rate. It\u2019s more remarkable considering he didn\u2019t get consecutive starting assignments until Aug. 27 and Sept. 2, and when he did, he compiled a 2.49 ERA and allowed a .213 batting average over six appearances in September. And still worked in a couple of relief outings. He averaged more than five innings for those September starts, perfectly acceptable for a major league starter at the end of a season.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

If the Rangers had gotten this kind of performance from any young internal candidate in the last decade, they\u2019d be doing backflips, which, given Young\u2019s height, would be quite a feat. Over his last month of appearances, Latz posted a 2.36 ERA. No homegrown pitcher had done that in the final month of one of their first three years in the majors since Nick Martinez in 2014. Before that it was Yu Darvish (if you want to consider him \u201chomegrown,\u201d considering he\u2019d pitched years in Japan before arriving in MLB) in 2012, Derek Holland 2011. After that: Roger Pavlik in 1993. That was two stadiums ago. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a while. <\/p>\n

Now, about those rational concerns, there are questions about durability, the impact on his health and the possibility his stuff wouldn\u2019t hold up deep into games. They are all valid. But they are not uncommon. This is a concern with virtually any pitcher. There is risk involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s substantial conversation to have on whether he could be a 150 innings starter for the Rangers next year,\u201d Fenstermaker said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue having that dialogue.\u201d <\/p>\n

Look, if the Rangers had real resources to work with this offseason, it would make sense to hedge bets. But they don\u2019t have the same resources. They must scrounge up all the money they can find just to try to fill out catcher and the bullpen. What money is left over might go to a starter or two, sure. But starters are generally more expensive than relievers (even if Edwin Diaz is going to get $23 million a year). It would seem to make sense that if they commit to Latz and his approximate $800,000 salary, there would be more money left to get better quality relievers. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s part of what we\u2019re assessing here in terms of which direction we want to go,\u201d Fenstermaker said. <\/p>\n

Well, the good thing is they\u2019ve had plenty of time up there in the suite to keep assessing.<\/p>\n

MLB teams have interest in Corey Seager, but would Rangers be willing to trade him?<\/a>As Texas Rangers try to build bullpen from scratch again, their philosophy is clear<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. \u2014 About the Rangers‘ offseason pursuits of catchers and relievers, um, it\u2019s not really…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[732,1816,7866,6812,154,27,29,28,429],"class_list":{"0":"post-83167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-chris-young","11":"tag-rangers","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-news","16":"tag-texas-rangers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83167","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=83167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}