It is Cinco de Mayo, but the hangover is supposed to come tomorrow.
But if you woke up Monday morning with your head spinning a little bit, there’s a good reason. After the Rangers broke out of their offensive slump, at least for a day, the club made a couple of dramatic moves by dismissing offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker and placing outfielder Leody Taveras on outright waivers between the time they finished an 8-1 win over Seattle and getting on the plane to go to Boston.
And here you thought optioning Jake Burger to the minors was going to be the biggest news of the week.
Chris Young keeps you on your toes.
With all of that in mind, here are a few morning-after thoughts on what might be next for the Rangers:
Hitting coach/offensive coordinator: The Rangers didn’t name an immediate replacement for Donnie Ecker, which suggests they aren’t just promoting somebody from inside the organization into the role. They did not fire anybody else, so Justin Viele and Seth Conner will still be part of the staff.
And, no, Michael Young is not walking through that door. Though every time the Rangers have an opening (coach, manager, executive) his name is an attractive choice.
It’s a limited pool when you make an in-season coaching change. It’s not a long or thorough interview process. And you aren’t looking to change the broad overall philosophy. You are just hoping somebody can maybe get the message across more effectively. Having somebody with whom either players or staff are familiar would be a plus.
For that reason, the first name that comes to mind is John Mabry, the Miami Marlins hitting coach in 2023-24 under current Rangers senior advisor Skip Schumaker. Mabry played for Bruce Bochy in San Diego in 2000-01 and worked for senior adviser Dayton Moore in Kansas City. Mabry also was the hitting instructor for Burger for much of the previous two years in Miami. That’s a lot of connections for this type of in-season hire.
There are others. The sexiest name might be Mark McGwire because if you want to coax a team that should slug to slug, well, you can’t do much better than Big Mac, who spent most of a decade as a hitting instructor, starting in St. Louis. By the way, McGwire’s assistant hitting coach in 2012, his last year before going to the Dodgers: Mabry.
The Taveras move: The biggest potential windfall for the Rangers of placing Taveras on waivers is that someone might claim him and take the remaining $3.35 million in his contract off their hands. That would give them some further breathing room around the luxury tax threshold.
But regardless if someone claims him or not, it will open a spot on the 40-man roster, which may make for an easier route to eventually get Alejandro Osuna to the major leagues. Osuna, 22, put himself into serious contention for a roster spot with a strong spring. The only reason he didn’t go to Triple-A Round Rock is because the Rangers wanted to have both Osuna and Evan Carter playing center field regularly.
Osuna enters the week on a 16-game hitting streak at Double-A Frisco during which he’s slashing .393/.451/.541/.942. Amazing numbers. But he’s actually hit in 21 of the last 22 games and has a .936 OPS in that stretch. He’s showing all the signs of a guy who is ready to move.
If the Rangers outright Taveras and recall Evan Carter from Triple-A this week, they could push Osuna to everyday play at Triple-A just to up the challenge a bit for a short period. But it could put him in contention for a big league roster spot soon.
What’s next: Carter’s recovery and the surge by Osuna could give the Rangers more options to address issues in the outfield. The next guy on the hot seat could be Adolis García, who is swinging at a career-high rate of 57% of pitches and doing very little damage.
García has just two extra-base hits, both doubles, in his last 50 at-bats and that includes three games in a minor league park where the ball flies. He is slashing just .200/.216/.240/.456 in that stretch and has fallen out of the cleanup spot. If the Rangers deem Osuna ready, he could take playing time away from García, particularly against right-handed pitching. Though we should point out García’s numbers have been worse against lefties this year than right-handers.
García’s increase in swing rates since 2023 are a real concern. He swung at 48 percent of the pitches he saw in 2023, a career year. But it jumped to 52% last year and is now at 57%. It is the fifth-highest swing rate in the majors this year.
According to Fangraphs, García and Taveras rank 115 and 116 of 123 MLB qualifiers in offensive value since the start of last year. If the Rangers have decided they are OK cutting ties with Taveras after those numbers, can a decision of some type on García be far behind?
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