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Right on Rangers is where Rangers fans ride the season in real time.
The LIVE shows are the heartbeat. Big wins, ugly losses, bullpen chaos, breakout heaters, trade rumors, roster debates, and the takes that come with actually caring about this team.
Sometimes those takes get hot. Thatās part of watching 162 with people who are invested. But the reaction still has receipts. We use stats, film, history, roster context, and whatās happening on the field to figure out what the game actually revealed.
Between LIVE shows, we go deeper on the players, decisions, stories, and moments shaping Texas baseball.
Rangers first, always. When the calendar turns, the Cowboys, Longhorns, Mavericks, and the biggest Texas sports stories get their run too.
If you want sterile box-score recaps, this probably isnāt your show. If you want passionate Rangers talk with actual baseball underneath it, welcome in.
Hi and welcome to another edition of Right
on Rangers Live coming at you.
First off-season show of the year and
we are doing some hate watching today.
Not even gonna hide behind it.
Houston Astros currently losing 7-3 to the
White Sox.
Gotta love it.
I love how Astros fans like to think
it's some kind of flex.
Like, why are you watching the game?
A, I love baseball.
B, I love watching your team lose.
I don't know that it's more complicated than
that.
Just throwing that out there.
And the Astros right now trailing 7-3
to the Fighting Will Venables of Chicago.
The White Sox out to an early 4
-0 lead.
Add on a three-run bomb.
Chase Meidroth just extended the lead and it's
looking like Houston is on the brink here.
We'll see what happens.
That'll be a fun to watch as our
show continues on.
But of course, we've got a lot of
off-season topics to cover.
We had Chris Young and we had Skip
Schumaker and Ross Fenstermaker giving their end-of
-the-year press conferences respectively.
It was, you know, held all together but
each was able to give their opinion here
and there throughout the course of the presser.
And so we will go through some of
the quotes from that.
We'll talk through our reaction to some of
the specifics that were said in terms of
next year, in terms of the off-season,
in terms of philosophy.
But for all y'all that are brand
new to this, this is what we do
every Wednesday.
Every Wednesday we hop on right around, you
know, 6.30 at the worst, 7 p
.m. Central time, Texas time.
And we just talk ball.
Talk Rangers, baseball, football, a little bit more
for the weekends.
So we'll do our Saturday college football Texas
Longhorn Show Sunday.
Dallas Cowboys or whatever night the Cowboys are
playing.
But this is Wednesdays.
Rangers are always going to be first on
this channel.
You guys know this.
But we are going to start opening up
the the content ledger a little bit and
I'm looking forward to mixing it up a
little bit.
A little more football, a little basketball.
But baseball, my first love, always going to
be our first priority here on the channel.
So appreciate all y'all hanging out.
And for anyone that doesn't know the drill
here, Right on Rangers, we cover everything Texas
sports.
But we put a huge emphasis on the
Rangers during the MLB season.
And we thank you so much for choosing
Right on Rangers for all of your Texas
Rangers content.
As you know, drop a comment, drop a
question.
We have a lot of different apps running
right now.
We've got Instagram, we got TikTok, we got
X Facebook, YouTube, a little bit of everything.
Definitely feel free to copy and paste.
If I miss a comment, we will kind
of do this a little bit of hybrid
today of, you know, podcast, me talking it
up, and then me giving you guys an
opportunity to make your voice heard as well.
I will absolutely be checking here and there
as the show goes on.
So thanks so much.
Dev, what's good?
What do I think about Walcott next year?
Think he probably should be in the big
leagues.
That would be my strong preference.
Can we get Sebastian Walcott in the big
leagues, please?
That would be the plan for me.
So I do think at this point, you
are going to see a pretty nice competition.
I think that that should be what you
have for third base for shortstop.
Who knows?
Shortstop is probably going to be Corey Seager.
I don't think they're going to be able
to convince him to go off of that,
but you never know.
Never know.
We'll see what happens.
All right, let's get into this a little
bit.
Appreciate all you guys.
We will keep on rolling.
Sorry, by the way, I thought I had
updated my titles and descriptions and all that.
I'll have to do that while we're going
live here while we're chatting.
But like I said earlier, we are going
to keep our eye on some of the
playoff games going on right now.
We have Boston, New York.
We have San Diego.
We have Chicago.
Right now we are in the bottom of
the seventh inning, Houston losing seven to three
to the White Sox on the brink of
elimination here.
Early start by Chicago.
Good to see that.
Who's the biggest must sign free agent?
I really am hesitant to talk too much
free agent, Paul, just because you really don't
know what the Rangers are going to be
willing to do.
I mean, that being said, I am happy
to go through as much as I possibly
can in terms of who's actually going to
be available.
We do have a part of the show
plan where we're going to be talking about
that pretty exclusively.
So we'll roll through it and hopefully we
can see a little bit more spending from
Chris Young, from Ray Davis, I guess more
particularly.
Ray is probably going to be the one
controlling how much is actually going to be
spent.
So we will see what ends up happening
there.
But you've got a number of players that
are up for free agency, right?
You have a number of them and we'll
roll through as many as we possibly can.
So next year, you've got Bo Bichette, Tarik
Skubal.
Those are probably two of the bigger names.
You have other smaller names as well.
I mean, look, we have Robbie Ray.
He's one, although I think there's some opt
outs here to work through.
Sonny Gray, there's a mutual option for him.
There's a lot of, I think, I feel
like more pitchers than hitters that you probably
would be interested in.
A lot of pitchers.
And we will definitely talk through as much
as we can, but we'll start here.
Let's go back to the presser.
Let's go back to the opening and hopefully
we will be able to sift through some
of the PC, some of the political stuff
and really just get down to the heart
of this.
So first of all, Chris Young absolutely put
the responsibility back on himself at the opening
presser.
Said Texas needs to get younger, needs to
get more athletic, more dynamic, healthier, more reliable.
Saying all the right things.
That definitely, I think, is not necessarily rocket
science.
All those things that CY mentioned, that list.
They definitely need more than just better luck.
I know that's kind of one of the
copes that went around this year among some
of the fan base.
You had just bad luck.
Josh Jung, the injury to him, bad luck.
You had some of the pitching injuries.
Jack Leiter slipping on the on-deck circle,
needing surgery, bad luck.
I would say there's definitely more going on
here than just bad luck.
In fact, I said during the course of
the season, getting those guys back, getting Jack
Leiter back, even getting some of the injured
players back, Josh Jung was definitely going to
be helpful.
There's no denying that when Josh Jung came
back from his injury, in September, no denying
that Texas was better for it.
In fact, they went on a really good
run with him.
I don't know what they finished with Josh
Young back in the lineup in the month
of September, but it was surely over 500.
Maybe not much over 500 based on how
the team finished, but it was definitely over
500.
Nevertheless, I always felt like just getting the
team fully healthy was not enough.
I feel like that was kind of a
really bad misconception.
You had a lot of people, I think,
convincing themselves, man, if this team could just
play at full health, you would see a
completely different night and day squad.
I always felt like there were limits for
this team.
I don't think one time this year did
I really start hyping up Texas as an
actual contender or a team that was primed
for a deep playoff run.
I think I said, I hope they make
it.
I hope that they can maybe win a
series or two, but just based on what
they did in the offseason, I don't know
how you guys felt, but I never felt
in my heart that they were going to
be a competitive world series, potentially winning team.
I thought maybe they'll sneak into October.
Maybe they'll surprise win a round or two,
maybe make it to the ALCS if we're
getting really greedy.
But even that felt like a little bit
of a stretch to me.
It did felt like a bit of a
stretch.
I think that the Rangers were always limited
in what they were going to be able
to accomplish.
And so I think this offseason is going
to be really important, but it's also going
to be a little uncertain because you really
don't know what they are going to do,
first of all, with the budget, but second
of all, with the lockout looming.
Lockout looming, I think, is going to make
a really big difference in what the Rangers
actually end up doing.
And they asked some good questions to see
why.
They asked him, hey, last time this happened,
you kind of got some deals done before
the lockout.
What do you think you're going to be
doing this time?
And Chris Young essentially punted that question, said
going to have to look at everything, blah,
blah, blah.
That is interesting though.
If you're the Rangers, do you decide, hey,
we're going to try and sneak some things
in before the CBA, before the lockout happens?
Or if you feel like gambling, hey, maybe
we want to wait.
Maybe a salary cap is something that we
think is going to happen.
I personally don't think a salary cap is
going to happen, but the Rangers might decide
to gamble on something like that.
If you did see a salary cap enacted,
which again, I think is a very low
probability, just want to be clear, don't want
anybody to get that twisted.
You could see more teams, maybe like the
Rangers, willing to spend.
My fear though, even if there's a salary
cap, you're always going to have teams nickeling
and diming.
You just are.
I think salary cap is going to help
a little bit, but I also think there's
always ways to game the system.
And it's just a matter of time before
teams figure it out.
So I don't feel like the Rangers are
going to be big time spenders.
I hope to be wrong on that, but
I just don't feel like they will be
big time spenders.
Maybe they will really come out of nowhere
and surprise us.
But I just don't personally believe that that's
going to happen.
Y'all we'll see.
How do I think the, how long do
I think the lockout is going to be?
Not sure what's good, man.
I think that it's probably going to be
delayed about a month.
If I had to guess, I think it'll
be about a month or so.
Maybe I'm wrong.
I feel like spring training is going to
be, you know, probably late March to late
April.
And then maybe you have opening day around
May.
So you have things pushed back a little
bit.
So you're playing baseball into November.
I think there is maybe a lesser, a
lesser chance that you have a couple of
months, but I don't see it being much
longer than a month.
It's not in anybody's best interest, owners or
players to not play baseball.
It's just not.
I do think that they'll get a deal
done.
How long it takes is uncertain, but I
would say I just me totally musing here.
I don't have any inside sources or knowledge.
I just think it'll be less than a
month's time.
I think we'll be doing opening day by
late April, early May at the earliest.
Showing the Meidroth home run again, that put
them up, put the White Sox up seven
to three.
Man, he is hyped.
He was hyped.
I feel like, I feel like this dude,
we're talking about the White Sox Astros game
a little bit too, as we do our
Rangers off season show as well.
I feel like he terrorized Texas too.
I hate, um, my draw, I feel like
hit really well against the Rangers.
Anytime we played him and we had what
multiple series against the White Sox.
Maybe I'm just imagining that, but I feel
like my draw was, was pretty good against
Texas.
Dude apparently likes playing the Texas teams.
He has been on fire today for the
White Sox.
He's going to walk right here.
A brave walk in him in the top
of the eighth with two outs.
White Sox looking to tack onto their seven
three lead here.
So what's your, what's good, Leiter and Rocker
have to take the next step if they
are what the organization thinks they are.
deGrom and Evo no longer front end starters.
Yeah.
I think that at this point I'm not
counting on that and I have to be
just totally transparent.
Keep it a buck with you guys.
I'm not counting on Leiter and Rocker to
make the next step.
If I'm Chris Young, I think that in
some ways we're waiting for something that, that
may not happen.
And let me clarify.
I think that Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker
can be serviceable pitchers in this league.
I'm not sure that I see front end
starter, you know, one or two ACE written
all over those guys.
I would love to be wrong, but this
is not a show where we sugarcoat.
This is not a show where we give
lukewarm takes that say a whole lot of
nothing.
I'm just not seeing it.
And you know what?
It's very possible.
Jack Leiter in year four, year five, whatever
it is, might become a different pitcher.
But my gut feeling on both those guys
is solid middle of the rotation starters, not
necessarily ACE level material.
You tell me if I'm wrong, you tell
me what you think in the chat.
I would love to hear from you.
I'm just not seeing it.
I would love for Texas to go out
and get a legitimate ACE pitcher.
I don't think deGrom is there anymore.
I don't think Nathan Eovaldi is
there anymore.
If for no other reason, then they just
cannot be consistent with their health, with the
durability.
I think you do need to go out
and get a pitcher next year.
And there are some guys available.
I mean, clearly Tarik scuba is available.
Rangers aren't going to be signing Tarik scuba.
I think the Dodgers will probably get him
back if I had to guess, but you've
got some other names, like, you know, you've
got, uh, again, a Sonny Gray type that
you could go out and sign.
You've got a Robbie Ray that you could
go out and sign.
He's an unrestricted free agent, Brandon Woodruff.
You've got some other guys, Zac Gallen.
I mean, he's a little bit down this
year, obviously, uh, Gausman from the Toronto blue
Jays.
He's available BerrĆos is available.
There's a number of guys that are available.
You definitely have your pick of some solid
veterans.
I don't know if there's a bona fide
ACE that you're going to be able to
afford against scuba.
I'm assuming is going to be off the
table for Texas.
Sonny gray, I think is a good, like
one, one, a one B, whatever you want
to call it.
I think that would be a nice guy
to sign maybe on a one or two
year contract, but you might be looking for
something more there.
We'll see what the Rangers decide to do,
but man, I am thinking they definitely need
to go out and get a picture.
That would be, I think one of the
priorities along with going out and getting some
baths.
Sonny's retiring.
Is he retiring?
I gotta be honest with you guys.
I'm not, uh, up to date on every
single name and what they are aren't going
to do around the league.
I'm just looking at a free agent list
right now.
So if he is, yeah, then there's another
name off.
Uh, Severino has a player option with the
A's, but he's been hurt a little bit
this year.
He's been hurt a little bit.
Don't get me wrong.
That's need to be prioritized.
No doubt.
But when you think about it, they need
a picture.
They can't roll with deGrom Evo, uh,
Gore Rocker Leiter.
They, they cannot roll that back out, man.
That is not to me.
I feel like I've been saying this expression
a lot.
That is not going to work.
It is not going to work rolling back
out deGrom Evo Gore Leiter Rocker.
I mean, you, you may be right on
this one, a comment from TikTok.
I feel like we're pretty stuck with some
of the contracts we have.
I'm not saying you're wrong on that.
I think you're onto something actually, but they
got to get creative.
They definitely have some cheap arms.
MacKenzie Gore's cheap Rocker Leiter or cheap.
It's it's deGrom and Evo that are
the big ones that are really keeping you
away from doing something special in free agency.
If you even have someone that's willing to
sign here, I can't really underscore enough.
I don't know how attractive Arlington is right
now for free agents.
I mean, I, I think that there's some
good dudes there that players around the league
might like playing with.
Like I think deGrom pretty well liked
Evo well liked.
I don't know how attractive Texas is to
free agents.
Now that doesn't necessarily matter if you're throwing
money at them, but I don't know if
Texas is going to throw a bag of
money at somebody.
The no state income tax does help.
That is a good point to bring up,
but I just am kind of curious.
I'd love to be a fly on the
wall.
Some of the conversations players have about Texas.
Clearly they want a world series recently.
Clearly they're a payroll that's in the top
10.
I think they're right around 10 or 11
right now.
I don't think that it's an unattractive place,
but I just don't know how much excitement
is Texas really drumming up among free agents
around the league.
We'll see what happens.
King is definitely a guy.
King is definitely a guy that I'd be
interested in as well.
Darnell what's good, man.
Um, I know that you've got also Gausman
on the mound too.
He has been a dude that I've had
my eye on.
He's always just been a solid vet talking
about Kevin Gausman from the Toronto Blue Jays.
Now with the Cubs, Gausman could be a
dude that just solidifies the rotation.
Not a guy you're expecting to be a
front of the line ace.
I don't know if the Rangers really will
have one.
I think deGrom is going to be the
de facto ace.
I don't really know if the Rangers are
going to be a clear ace next year.
I don't think there's that in the rotation
right now.
I think there's some solid guys.
Wow.
Vargas, what a freaking play.
Sorry.
I'm watching the Astros White Sox.
What a freaking play by Miguel Vargas, third
baseman for the Sox.
Yordan Alvarez just pulverized a ground ball.
Oppo Vargas makes just a beautiful stop at
third base.
That was gorgeous.
Holy crap.
How hard was that off the bat?
That's what I want to know.
How hard was that baseball hit?
That has to be a 105 off the
bat at least.
My goodness.
Let me see what the exit below.
106.2. I was pretty close.
106.2 off the bat.
If you have a chance to go back
and watch that replay, Vargas with one of
the best plays I've seen this post and
it's been a young postseason.
Don't get me wrong, but that one's going
to be hard to top.
Back to comments.
deGrom has her hands tied.
Yeah, he does.
If you could trade deGrom, it definitely could
be opening up some doors for you.
I'm just not sure if he's going to
accept a trade.
I think deGrom probably enjoys a lot of
the guys in that clubhouse.
The fact that no, he doesn't.
It's been the report out there.
Is deGrom willing to accept a trade?
It doesn't look like it for right now.
Look, some of these guys, you have to
be honest about things like no state income
tax.
You know deGrom is thinking about stuff like
that when it comes to getting traded away.
Corey Seager, same thing.
Some of these guys, I'm not trying to
say they're just collecting a paycheck.
I don't want to accuse, but at the
end of their career, it's not always the
most attractive thing.
I'm putting myself in their shoes here to
pick up and move your family somewhere else.
When you are a player like deGrom that's
accomplished a lot in the game, same thing
with Corey Seager, you do have that right.
It's unfortunate if you're thinking about trying to
rebuild or if you're thinking about shedding salary,
but I just don't know how inclined I
think this is the point to make here.
I don't know how inclined those guys really
are to accept a trade.
I could be wrong on that, but I
just don't see Corey Seager and Jacob deGrom
really be gung-ho to pick up their
families and move somewhere else with a year
or two left on the contract.
That would be Eovaldi and deGrom by the
way.
deGrom has the club option.
deGrom has a club option for 2028 I
believe for 20 million a year, which might
not be terrible.
38 million a year, another year of 38
mil for deGrom wouldn't be my favorite, but
deGrom at 20 million in 2028, if he's
still healthy, that's not horrible.
I don't know that he's going to be
effective in a couple of years or not,
but if he's still somewhat effective or just
a solid pitcher, not necessarily an ace, 20
million a year for Jacob deGrom in 2028
might not be the worst thing in the
world.
That's my take right now in 2026 though.
Who knows what's going to happen over the
next couple of years.
Evo to me is a guy that I'd
like to see stay around.
I'm not really trying to trade Nathan Eovaldi.
That guy's a Texas legend for me at
this point.
I do think Evo is going to go
down as one of the better pitchers in
Texas Rangers franchise history when you consider the
weight of 2023 also.
When you consider just some of the big
moments that he's had, I think the really
latched onto him.
I think that would be foul to trade
him away with a year left on his
deal.
Now deGrom, let's just be real.
He didn't really have a strong connection in
2023 with the fan base because of the
injury.
Yeah, he pitched a couple months, but he
wasn't there during the 2023 run on the
field.
He wasn't the dugout.
Obviously he has a part in that championship.
He pitched however many outings it was.
Definitely won some games for Texas in 2023.
It's not like he contributed none, but he
didn't contribute in the postseason.
Because of that, I do think there's a
little bit of a disattachment there.
There's a little bit of an unattachment.
Not to be making up words here on
the show, but I think you catch my
drift.
I just don't think the fan base is
as attached to deGrom.
I think much more attached to Evo.
I think with a player like Evo, you
try and get him to retire a Ranger.
I don't know that Evo is going to
the Hall of Fame or anything like that,
but I just think you probably try and
do the right thing and get Evo to
the finish line of his career as a
Ranger if at all possible.
deGrom, to me, is a different story.
If you could trade deGrom, I think it's
definitely something you're considering.
Just with the state of the team right
now, I don't want to make deGrom into
this replaceable bum, no good, washed up piece
of trash.
I feel like some fans were starting to
go that direction with deGrom.
I can't say I'm there.
deGrom did not have a good finish to
2026.
It was very disappointing, very unclutch.
There's no way around that.
But at the end of the day, deGrom,
I think, still can be an elite pitcher.
Let me maybe say above average.
I don't know if I want to use
the word elite, actually.
I would say he could still be an
above average pitcher at this point in his
career.
But is that going to happen?
Is he going to continue to slide down,
down, down?
Those are all things you've got to think
about when you consider potentially trading Jacob deGrom.
But the biggest thing might be the money,
even beyond guessing what kind of season he's
going to have.
If you can shed $38 million, that's huge.
Here's my fear, though.
If you do trade or find a way
to get Jacob deGrom to accept that no
trade, is Ray Davis really going to repurpose
that money or is he just going to
pocket it?
Because if we're just pocketing cash, I'd rather
have Jacob deGrom on the team.
If you're actually going to go and use
that $38 million to make the team better,
okay, now we're cooking.
But I do not want to see, hey,
trade deGrom.
All right, now let's just sit on it.
Oh, nothing ever came to fruition.
We tried.
We tried to sign Tarik Skubal.
It didn't work out.
I mean, can't you see that, though?
Would anybody be shocked by that?
Would anybody be surprised if you trade deGrom,
you find a way, or even you trade
Corey Seager, which I'm a little bit on
the fence about as well.
I just think Seager, maybe it was just
a bad year.
He definitely needs to be on the field
more.
I do think if you can find trade
partners, you're definitely interested and you're picking up
the phone.
But if this franchise does that, they trade
both those big names and they sit on
the cash and try and sell us a
sack of crap that they tried, we tried
to go out there and get the top
three agents.
It just didn't work out.
Or what's the classic CY line?
Sometimes the best deals are the ones you
don't do.
Wise words from our president of baseball operations,
am I right?
Like the political correct BS, man, I'm just
not here for it.
So I just would not at all be
thrown off by trading and freeing up some
of this cash and then doing nothing with
it.
Do we need to rebuild?
Good question.
Hey, this is Garcia.
Appreciate you, man.
Thank you for the comment.
I'm in favor of a soft rebuild.
Soft rebuild.
What do I mean by that?
Trade some of your aging stars if you
can.
Don't trade everybody.
I know that we kind of talked about
as the season ended.
Well, you know, everybody's on the table.
Nobody is untouchable.
I wouldn't be trading everybody.
I definitely wouldn't be trading Ezequiel Duran.
I mean, surely would not be trading away
him.
He's cheap and he plays pretty much every
position.
I think the only position he didn't play
was what?
Maybe catcher.
And did he pitch this year?
Did he pitch?
I forget what other position besides catcher he
didn't play.
I thought he played some first base.
We know he played every outfield position like
Zeke.
I would be keeping.
I wouldn't be trading Zeke at all.
I think what he gave you this year
was special.
And let's just look at some of the
numbers right now.
I took some notes on his season.
Duran, I mean, 17 bombs, 83 RBI, career
highs, by the way, 12 steals.
One of the faster players in the game.
This is a guy who gives you options.
And by the way, I don't at all
mean that Texas needs like 13 Ezequiel Durans.
Let's be clear here.
You got to have different types of players,
but I want a lot more players like
Zeke if I'm building a roster.
And by the way, there's a difference between
like being a straight up utility guy and
being a guy who's truly versatile.
And I think Zeke Duran is the latter.
I think he is a truly versatile player.
I don't think that Zeke is a superstar,
but I think he's just one of those
solid everyday players that you need to have
on your roster.
Unfortunately, in 2026, we had such a bad
offense that anyone that could hit looked really,
really good and really, really impressive.
It's why some people in Ranger Nation really
feel like Jake Burger had an awesome season.
Because really, when you compare Jake Burger to
everybody else, yeah, he did have pretty good
numbers with the home runs in the RBI.
But if you actually watched all 162, I
think you kind of say to yourself, there's
a lot of meat left on the bone
there with Jake Burger.
And I could say that about a number
of different players, a number of different players
for sure.
But look, if you're really trying to get
more athletic, more reliable, more healthy, durable, and
this is straight from CY, I think Ezequiel
Duran is probably the type of player that
you're interested in getting more of.
Just me, throwing that out there.
Appreciate all you guys.
Adam, what's good?
Comment from Instagram here.
I'd move on from deGrom.
I bet we can get some pieces for
him worth more than having him.
And look, I don't know that deGrom is
actually going to agree to something like that.
But I do think that it's something worth
exploring.
Again, pick up the phone.
Don't not take phone calls on guys like
Jacob deGrom.
Take phone calls.
Let's see what else we got on Instagram.
Coach J.
Taylor, appreciate you, man.
Duran was an error machine.
Don't remember that.
In fact, I feel like Duran's probably, at
this point, most known for going to be
maybe winning that gold glove.
I don't think Duran and the errors are
what's standing out for me, but I'd have
to go back and look.
Zeke Duran is rated pretty highly among all
defensive metrics.
So I'll go back and look at the
error total, but I don't think you're going
to have a lot of people agreeing there
with you, myself included, man.
I don't think Zeke's defense is something that
we need to really be concerned about.
By all accounts, he's one of the best
defenders in the league.
Hey, we got some White Sox fans coming
in the chat.
Love to see that.
And the White Sox, by the way, threatening
right now.
They have two on and I believe two
out now in the top of the ninth.
They're trying to add some insurance on, and
they are right now leading by four.
So already a healthy lead.
Josh Hader, $100 million pitcher in the game.
By the way, this is why I put
out about a week and a half ago.
This is why I put out, I'm glad
the Rangers didn't spend $100 million on Josh
Hader because Josh didn't even have an opportunity
to be impactful in this game.
I had a number of Astros fans clapping
back at me about Hader when I said,
I'm really glad that we didn't do the
Josh Hader deal.
Really glad.
And I think this game is a perfect
example.
And this is me really not trying to
dunk, but dunk on the Astros fans.
Look, it, by the way, don't mind doing
that from time to time.
They love to do it on us, especially
on Sunday as the Rangers season was over,
was brought to a close.
But look, this is why Josh Hader, you
don't spend $100 million on a closer.
He wasn't even relevant today.
Hader did nothing for you today.
He might keep this a four run ball
game, but this is why I made it
clear, like the, the closers that you're spending
close to triple digit millions on, just not
my favorite thing to do.
Now look at the Rangers would have got
him.
I'm sure I would have found a way
to get on board and see it positively.
But I think objectively, as you're just thinking
about a deal like this again, dude, didn't
even pitch in this series until you had
a losing deficit.
And by this point, you're like, well, the
season's on the line, we might as well
burn him.
So you got Hader in a four run
ball game, you're losing by four and you're
paying him 20 million a year.
This is why to me, you definitely develop
closers.
You try and get a closer that has,
you know, upside maybe hasn't been in a
closer role, but I don't know that it's
the most wise thing to try and sign
a closer for triple digit millions.
And I mean, look, this is another point
when you don't have an elite team, it
is tough, very tough when you, when you
have maybe a 500 mediocre team to really
go for a big name closer like Hader
the 'Stros over the last few years.
I mean, they, they haven't had, I wouldn't
say bad teams, but I don't know that
they've had championship caliber teams over the last
three seasons.
We'll say playoff team, sure.
Championship caliber.
No, I think some 'Stros fans would actually
agree.
I mean, I've told you guys, I've got
a few really good buddies that are 'Stros
fans and you know, we like to give
each other a hard time, no doubt.
But they've kind of said that to me
in so many words, like, yeah, we, we,
we finished better than you guys, but not
really sure we're going to be going very
far in this playoff run.
And sure enough, he's in on the brink
right now for the 'Stros.
Keep going.
Look, I'll continue to check comments.
Definitely have a number of different things that
I'll launch into, and I'll just continue to
check the chat.
You guys know who have been around for
a while.
It's never about me like skipping comments or
not reading comments, but this is definitely not
a show where I just wait on the
edge of my seat for every single comment
to come in.
That being said, I always say I want
to get to everything of substance.
So if you have something to question, something
you want me to read off, I will
definitely do my best to get to everything.
But I would just ask humbly, please don't
take it personal.
If I don't get a comment read out
loud, I'm definitely not trying to ignore.
I got to sift through some nonsense here
and there on the show, but I just
ask that you keep that in mind.
So thank you so much for all your
support means a lot.
A lot of you guys were riding with
me all one 62, and now we're doing
the off season together as well.
So I appreciate that a lot and definitely
just want to say one more time.
This is every Wednesday.
I'll probably mention that a couple more times.
Every Wednesday we do Rangers off season talk
and then Saturday, Sunday, college football and pro
football.
So about three live shows a week.
You guys know we cover a lot of
Texas teams, mostly DFW teams, Longhorns for college
football, a little bit of college basketball and
baseball as well, but mostly Rangers, Cowboys, and
then a little bit of Dallas Mavericks as
well when they get started.
So appreciate y'all hanging out and let's
get into it here.
We already talked about Ezequiel Duran being a
bit of a prototype.
Duran to me definitely is a guy that
you like more of.
Don't need all 13 dudes being just like
Zeke, but he is a guy I think
you definitely would love to have maybe two
or three more of.
There's dudes that can hit the ball, put
the ball in play, hit for a little
pop, 17 homers, have speed on the base
pass, pretty good glove, all those things I
think the Rangers should try and get more
of this year.
A few of you guys were asking about
Burger and Young.
I definitely would try and see what the
value is for those guys on the trade
market.
Josh Jung and Burger to me are just
very one-dimensional players.
They can swing the bat and Burger I
think had his moments this year of looking
really good and looking really bad.
Josh Jung was really good with the bat
pretty much all season long, save maybe the
first weekend of the 2026 season, but I
would be interested in shopping both those players.
I don't think Josh Jung is a particularly
good defender.
He has a tough time staying healthy, bad
luck or not.
He's not very well conditioned.
He's gotten slower every single year in the
league, so not giving you a lot of
base running value, not giving you a lot
of fielding value, definitely giving you value at
the plate, but my concern is the body
breaking down, getting a little older.
Josh is pretty close to 30 at this
point.
Not sure you're going to give Josh another
contract at age 32, 33, whatever he's going
to be a free agent.
I think it's 29.
By 29, he'll be over 30 years old.
I think right now with Young being controllable
for another few seasons, could be an interesting
crossroads to see what you can get from
him.
Then that opens up the infield a little
bit.
You have Walcott coming up.
You have Corey Seager on the left side.
I'm just assuming there's not going to be
a lot of teams really interested in going
out and getting Corey, and Corey's made it
clear he wants to play shortstop.
That's how I'm operating.
I think the Rangers should try and see
what they can get for Seager, if he's
even willing to go.
I think at this point, your phone lines
are open to just about everybody besides Walcott.
I don't think I would be trading Walcott
by any means.
That would probably be the one guy I'm
probably not even taking the call on, just
because I want to see what he looks
like at the big league level.
I think he's shown you enough that you
can feel at least somewhat confident that he
can come up and maybe not light the
league on fire, but at least could come
up and be an impact bat for you.
That is yet to be seen.
Even if Walcott came up and struggled a
little bit, I don't think that is the
end of the world.
There's a lot of top prospects come up
for the very first time and don't necessarily
crush the baseball.
I just do feel like when you think
about the trades, and I actually think there's
a couple of comments that are going to
touch on this, I'm a little worried with
what we're going to get in return.
CY has made a couple of decent trades,
no doubt.
I think you look at the 2023 acquisition
of Aroldis Chapman.
Yeah, we did deal Cole Ragans, but ultimately
Aroldis was very impactful down the stretch for
Texas.
You also had CY going out and getting
Jordan Montgomery.
That was a great trade.
There's been a couple others too.
I'm not going to list them all out,
but I am a little worried.
You trade deGrom, you trade Seager, you trade
Young, you trade Burger.
Are we going to get good returns or
not?
What are we getting?
I think that is definitely a legitimate question.
Nevertheless, I still think if you can get
those guys somewhere else and then maybe bring
in some of the types of players that
you're talking about in return, even if they're
minor league guys, maybe you package Young to
get more of a legitimate major leaguer.
That could definitely be something on the table.
I do think Young could serve as your
major league ready guy.
And you're kind of packaging him maybe with
somebody else, maybe a couple of prospects to
go and get an everyday player that's going
to take you to the next level.
I'm okay with a bigger swing.
I really am, but I definitely do not
want to see this team just run it
back and do nothing.
That would be the worst case scenario for
me.
Moving Josh Jung, John, appreciate the comment to
first base.
I think sounds good in theory.
How good is Josh going to be down
there at first?
That's another story.
He does have an opening.
You definitely can potentially DH him a little
bit, play him at first, but first base
is not a super easy position to learn.
I think you're even seeing with Jake Burger,
who was a third baseman with the White
Sox, and then the Marlins transitioned him to
a first baseman when he was with Skip
Schumaker, of course.
It's not super cut and dry simple.
First base has a lot of nuances to
it.
You're involved on pretty much every single play.
Not every, but a lot of them.
You have to know and have to be
a guy that can cut from a lot
of different positions, center field, right field.
You definitely have a lot of communication.
There's a lot of onus on you to
be a leader out there.
I'm not saying Josh can't do these things.
I'm just saying it's a little bit more
complex, I think, than what some people are
envisioning.
That's not directed at you, John.
I just think it's an easy thing to
say out loud.
Move him to first.
It's harder to actually be a good first
baseman.
I just don't know if Young is going
to fit that bill or not.
You could definitely move him.
Sure, you can move anybody to first base.
Josh Smith played first base.
Ezequiel Duran played first base.
You can move anybody to first base, but
are they actually going to be good over
there?
That, to me, is yet to be determined.
We keep rolling.
Appreciate all you guys.
Look, for me, as I think about this
team, health and reliability is definitely one of
the number one things.
I just don't know if talk is going
to be cheap for CY or if we're
actually going to go out and get players
that are more durable, more athletic.
That, to me, was a big issue.
I even want to take this back to
the preseason.
Skip Schumaker really championed taking the extra base,
stealing more bases.
They really felt like this roster could do
that.
I think it makes sense.
You had Evan Carter.
You had Wyatt Langford.
You had Zeke Duran.
You have all these guys that are among
the fastest in the league.
You had Cam Cauley, who is the fastest
guy in the league.
Then you ended up stealing 50 plus or
something ridiculous.
What was it?
I can't remember the exact number, but the
stolen bases this year were considerably down, down
big time from what Bruce Bochy did in
2025.
I'm going to get the exact number here.
Long day.
It's escaping me a little bit here.
56 fewer steals this year compared to Bochy's
2025 team.
That's significant.
At the beginning of the year, they were
championing small ball, basically stealing more bags, going
first to third, putting pressure on opposing defenses,
putting the ball in play.
They really felt, or at least they tried
to sell us like the roster was built
for that.
It wasn't.
Here we are, sitting on the couch in
October, hate watching the Astros, who right now,
by the way, just to give you an
update, are in the bottom of the ninth
down to their final out.
Let's tune in here.
Down to their final strike.
Here we go.
Final strike.
Let me turn this up a little bit.
Let's see what we got here.
Cam Smith on the mound, Fedde, Fedde on
the mound, Cam Smith up to bat here.
Foul ball, Astros down by four.
A lot made about the Astros not filling
that stadium.
It looks pretty empty right now, if I
do say so myself.
New York, Boston just started.
Yesterday, upper deck empty at Daikin Park.
Swing and a miss.
There go the Astros.
The fighting Will Venables of Chicago advanced to
the next round.
Good for Will Venable.
Honestly, clearly I don't want to see the
Astros get anything special, but man, happy for
Will Venable, former Ranger bench coach.
How can you not be happy for Will?
Good for him.
And look, the bright side, the positive side
of Skip's rough year.
Think about Will Venable in the year he
had last year with Chicago.
It was a rough year for Will.
And look, I understand that Skip Schumaker has
managed before.
This was Will Venable's first time managing.
But nevertheless, I think it's a good example.
Rough first year, good second year.
That to me, I think is a potential
glass half full scenario, a glass half full
concept with Skip.
Year two, hopefully will be much better than
year one with Skip.
That is, I think, the most glass half
full I can go because I do think
it was a disappointing year from Skip, from
CY.
When you miss the playoffs, everybody deserves a
little bit of the blame.
Everybody.
Good for the White Sox, though.
Can't say I'm like actively rooting for them,
even though Will Venable is a guy that
I appreciate and respect.
And of course, once a Ranger, always a
Ranger, in my opinion.
Nevertheless, if they went on to win it
all, I'm surely not going to be upset.
I'm always kind of pro team that's never
wanted to win it.
You know, I'm not going to lie to
you guys when the Mariners were getting close.
I can't say I really wanted a division
rival like the Mariners to win a World
Series.
And I know I got some Mariners followers,
good people, but I hope you can respect
it.
Like, I don't wish a lot of success
on my division rivals.
Angels, Mariners, Astros.
I know some Rangers fans were like, I
wouldn't mind seeing the Mariners win it.
I just can't do it.
I've cheered against the Mariners way too many
times.
Now the Padres, the Brewers, I know we
played them this year, but I'm not cheering
against the Padres actively.
I'm really not.
I'm not cheering against the Brewers day-to
-day actively.
Every day, Rangers fans, diehards, we're looking at
the scoreboard.
Did Seattle lose?
Did Houston lose?
That's just what you do when you love
the game, when you're competitive, when you want
to see your team win.
It's just what you do.
I definitely am not going to be upset
if White Sox go all the way, but
I'd kind of like to see a team
that hasn't raised the trophy yet in franchise
history take it all.
That'd be great.
Antonio, what's good?
Last Texas team to win a playoff game
at Daikin Park are the Rangers.
Oh, Antonio, that is gold.
My guy is straight up gold.
Is that real?
I believe you.
Trust me.
I believe you.
Whenever I'm doing the show, I always like
to confirm stuff like that, but I'll trust
you, brother.
That is wild.
The Rangers are the last team to have
won a playoff game in Houston.
Hello.
Love that stat.
Absolutely love that stat.
The White Sox made pretty light work of
this Astros team.
I think a lot of people, I mean,
not shocked by this, the AL West was
not good this year.
It just wasn't.
Houston was not a great team.
The Rangers were not a great team.
I think a lot of people assumed the
AL West champion, the AL West division winner
would be a one and done.
I think a lot of people thought Rangers,
if they made it in, would be a
one and done team.
And I know there was a number of
Astros fans that were not convinced.
And clearly, you didn't have a whole lot
of people showing up for game one.
Granted, I mean, I know it was a,
what, a 4 p.m. start.
That's really not terrible for being real.
4 p.m. is not awful.
I mean, you got to leave work a
little early, I guess, to make it happen.
But I don't think this Astros team had
a lot of belief from the fan base
either.
Astros fans are awfully quiet.
I'm sure I'll have a few chiming in
here and there.
I've already been going back and forth with
some.
I never, I don't know about you guys,
if you use this clapback or if you
use this disc in your interactions with Astros
fans, I'm not mad at you, but I
wouldn't encourage it.
So many Astros fans, they're best comeback is
like that Rangers fans watch the Astros.
Well, you know what I say?
I'm like, I think I commented on somebody's,
on somebody's troll attempt for me.
It's like, dude, hell yeah, I watch the
Astros.
I enjoy watching them lose.
They're a division rival.
What do you expect?
Of course I love watching the Astros.
Love watching them get knocked out of the
playoffs.
I'm not going to lie.
I'm not going to pretend like I don't
care.
I do care.
I want to see them lose every chance
I get.
I would just say, yo, if you're a
diehard and you've been through these back and
forths with Houston, we got to play them
13 times a year.
Of course, I want to see Houston lose.
And I like watching baseball.
So it's really not that complicated.
And you know what?
I might go watch some 2023 ALCS highlights
while I'm at it.
After the show today, might just hop on
and go back and relive the 2023 glory
days, baby.
I have no clue why some 'Stros fans
think it's like some kind of flex.
Oh dude, why are you watching the Astros
game?
For the same reason that you watch the
Rangers games, because you know all those people
that comment that are the same people that
are going to show up in my live
after the Rangers get eliminated or after they
lose.
I mean, y'all saw what it was
like on Sunday.
Some of y'all hanging out, just Astros
fans left and right in the comments.
I mean, look, you know, you know exactly
what they do when we lose.
They're watching, they're paying attention.
I'm not afraid to admit I'm hate watching
this Astros team every freaking chance I get.
And it was enjoyable today.
So fun.
And you know what?
The White Sox, probably the team in the
American League I'm going to root for, not
passionately, but at the end of the day,
it's not going to move me either way,
who wins or loses this whole thing.
But if I had to cheer for a
team, I'm cheering for the White Sox in
the American League and go Brewers or Padres
in the National League.
Good stuff.
Astros don't win a playoff game.
They get swept right out of October.
And look, they missed October last year.
They got swept by the Tigers.
Two years ago, AJ Hinch came back to
Houston and did his thing.
That was fun.
I feel like this exact scenario happened.
What?
A couple of years ago, you and I
were doing our first offseason pod together, sadly.
And it was a Wednesday and the Astros
were getting knocked out of the playoffs 2024.
Some of you guys might remember that.
Good stuff.
Good stuff, baby.
Omar, we will keep talking about you guys.
We will.
We enjoy it.
I'm enjoying talking about the Astros getting knocked
out of October.
No shame.
No hiding behind anything here.
Thoroughly enjoyed today's ballgame.
Hey, Zachary, appreciate the gift, man.
Not needed, but much appreciated, brother.
Truly, thank you so much.
Look, here's the comment.
I want to make sure we get this
read out.
With wanting a younger team, comment from YouTube
here, who would you like?
And then Zach brings up Arraez with the
contact ability.
Look, you can't go, in my opinion, you
shouldn't go just straight up youth movement and
get a bunch of young 20-somethings.
You need some vets.
I would love to get a guy like
Arraez.
I mean, we talked about Arraez.
Antonio, I know you're not going to be
a fan of this, but I would like
to get more contact type hitters.
Now, does it have to be Luis Arraez?
No, it doesn't.
But I would love to go get more
contact hitters.
Guys that put the ball in play, less
prone to the strikeout.
Man, we saw a lot of games where
this team struck out double-digit times, didn't
we?
What was it?
A couple of weeks ago, Texas struck out
like 15 times.
It was brutal.
Absolutely brutal.
We cannot have a team that strikes out
that much again in 27 and expect to
do good things.
Good for the White Sox here.
They have a lot of young guys, man.
They are partying in the dugout here at
Houston.
Good stuff.
A lot of young guys on this team.
Hey, good for them.
Good for them.
Yeah, continuing on with the comment section here,
another YouTube comment here.
Team's inability to use Osuna makes me so
upset.
Osuna, I would love to get a little
bit more of a fair shot next year.
I think he needs to learn how to
play first base so he can at least
be a platoon option at first base.
And you guys know, full disclosure, I love
Alejandro Osuna, one of my favorite Rangers.
I have not been shy about it.
But I feel like I can be a
little bit unbiased at times, not always, but
me being as objective as possible here.
Alejandro, I'm not sure he's an everyday player
or not yet.
I think the jury's out.
I do think if you gave him a
consistent role and didn't just use him every
blue moon, I think he would flourish.
Even if you just made him, hey, anytime
a righty's out there, we're giving you an
opportunity at either first base or in the
outfield.
You know, lefties, whatever.
Or maybe his path is lefty lefty.
He showed that he could hit lefties this
year.
He didn't get a very big sample size,
but man, I would love to get hitters
like Osuna though that give you quality at
bats more often than not.
They're not up there striking out on three
pitches.
Osuna to me, Antonio, you just nailed it.
Comment from YouTube here.
Only thing lacking for him is just a
bit more pop.
If he could get to 10 to 15
homers a year, that would be so ideal.
Nobody's expecting Alejandro to become Juan Soto, but
I mean, look, I'll take it if he
does, but I would take Juan Soto light.
He'll give me a guy that hits 10
to 15 bombs.
Give me a guy that is going to
hit about 275, 280.
Get on base maybe at a 370, 375
clip.
I'll take that all day long.
Comment from YouTube here.
Do I think there's any chance that we
keep Latz?
I think that Latz is going to stay
through the remainder of the contract unless Texas
just goes into the dark ages.
Latz is kind of an interesting conversation.
I had a couple of different posts I
read through on X over the last week.
Some Rangers fans wondering, musing, or even thinking
maybe the team should try and make Latz
a starter again.
I'm a little bit mixed on that personally
myself because the second you move Latz into
the starting rotation, you know we're going to
have ninth inning nightmares again.
You know that's going to happen.
I'm a little bit hesitant, but I get
the thinking.
I actually understand the thought process here because
if you're not going to go out and
get a top-of-the-line starter, Jacob
Latz, I think, does become a really interesting
option in the starting rotation because you have
right now deGrom, Evo, Gore, Rocker, Leiter.
I'd love if they decided to maybe start
one of those guys down in AAA.
I know Kumar pitched really well at the
end of the year.
I don't know if either one of these
guys, Jack Leiter or Kumar Rocker, is really
ready at this point.
Leiter to me has stayed like steps here
and there, but it's always followed by a
rough patch.
Rocker is just so inconsistent.
Gore, we know, has been so up and
down.
I'm not really excited about another year of
MacKenzie.
That's a dude that really has to prove
it.
MacKenzie Gore was such a disappointment this year.
The Rangers really need more from him if
they're going to run it back with MacKenzie
as your number three starter.
But I do think Latz going to the
rotation is interesting.
Very interesting.
That said, you have to have a closer
plan.
We can't roll with internal options at the
closer position if you are going to move
Latz.
Moving him into the starting rotation, though, definitely
not something I've thought about a lot, but
I was intrigued when I saw a little
bit of banter about it on X.
It doesn't seem like a left-field wild
notion to me.
It actually makes sense, but you just have
to have a plan for the ninth inning.
Big game, James.
What's good?
I hope you're wrong.
TikTok comment here.
2027 season not going to happen.
Next time our favorite teams are on the
field will be February 2028.
I hope you're wrong.
I do think that there's a chance that
they work it out.
Maybe you miss a month of ball, but
it just doesn't make a lot of sense
to me that either side would want to
sit out the whole season.
Could be wrong.
Don't have any information, but I'm going to
choose to be optimistic, a little realistic.
Honestly, I don't know that they're going to
start on time, but I choose to believe
that they're going to find a way.
That's me.
Nano, what's good?
Thanks for hanging out, man.
We're just talking Rangers ball, talking Houston Astros,
getting swept out of the wild card round.
Things you love to see.
Jerry, appreciate the comment, man.
Do I see the Rangers going after Teruaki
Sato?
Yeah, there's some interesting names coming out of
Japan.
I feel like the Rangers definitely are interested
in these types of players like, you know,
Sasaki signed with the Dodgers, ultimately see why
I went over to scout out Roki Sasaki.
And so I do think that there is
interest in these Japanese players by the Rangers
front office.
It's just, you know, that joke that I
threw out earlier in the show, like, are
we just going to get that response?
We tried.
We went over, we scouted it out over
in Japan.
You know, we threw a little money at
the situation, but, you know, just didn't work
out.
Rangers got to find a way to get
some of these deals over the finish line.
And that might include overspending a little bit,
but as long as you pick the right
player, that's not going to take a dump
immediately after they sign a big contract, which
is hard to do.
Nobody has a crystal ball, but we have
to remember, I say this very often throughout
the course of a season.
So for some of you, this is going
to be nothing new, but we have to
remember that Chris Young, Fenstermaker, all these guys
in the front office get paid the big
bucks for being right, for forecasting properly.
So many Rangers fans like to play the
hindsight game where it's like, how could Chris
Young have known that Joc Pederson was going
to craft the bet in 2025?
How could he have known?
How could you have known that Jacob deGrom
was going to fall off at this point
based on when you signed him in 2023?
How could you have known?
These guys get paid for knowing this stuff.
You get paid for properly predicting the future
at a high level, predicting which prospects are
going to pop and become major league ballplayers,
which free agent signings are going to work
out as a net positive for the team,
which trades are going to lead to good
results for the franchise.
These guys literally get paid to properly predict
the future.
Can they do it with 100% accuracy?
No, nobody can, but let's not pretend like
the main job of these guys is to
set up the franchise in the present, but
also for future years to come.
So anybody that is coming at it from
an angle of how could they have known,
well, if that is the excuse that we're
giving to Chris Young and Fenstermaker and all
those guys in the front office, you or
I might as well be the GM.
I mean, seriously, you or me might as
well be in that front office running the
team.
If we're always just going to qualify the
results with how could they have known there
was a good past history.
So Joc falling off a cliff in 2025,
no one could have predicted that.
I don't know if that's completely true or
not.
I don't buy into that.
I buy into these guys are getting paid
handsomely, hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars
in the case of Chris Young.
You get paid to be right.
And I'm not going to feel sorry for
you or give you a bunch of excuses
when you're not right about future predictions.
Sermon over.
JK, see why I still believe this team
can make a run and is capable of
special digs.
Yeah.
And then there's that.
See why actually, I think said a lot
of the right things in the presser.
But talk is cheap.
OK, so you're going to go get more
athletic, more durable players, but talk is cheap,
man.
You got to actually go out and get
them.
You actually have to go out and get
the type of player that you're saying that
we need to have more of.
We can't just go make a trade, let
one guy walk and call it a day,
man.
We keep rolling.
Going to be hard when our two starting
pitchers have a no trade clause.
I mean, yeah, I don't think trading of
all the trading deGrom is going to
necessarily be a shoe in.
I think that is going to be tough.
Progress.
Patience.
What's good?
Comment here.
Speaking of dumps, Langford, the new big dumper,
Langford, that is a guy that they have
got to get right.
That dude needs to be in the lab
all offseason.
And I know he had a lot of
hype and maybe too much pressure coming into
this year.
Langford is a guy you have to get
right.
Evan Carter, the other guy.
Some people I think need to appreciate Josh
Young, the rebound.
I think you have to give credit to
some of the coaches at the major league
level for helping him.
Clearly, Young probably has his own swing doctor
too, but the resurgence of Josh Jung, I
do think that's a positive.
The emergence of Zeke Duran, I think that's
a positive for the coaching staff.
But I think the fact that Langford and
Carter took such a big step back this
year outweighs any of the positives.
You're positive about Josh Jung.
You're positive about Zeke Duran.
But your two top prospects from two years
ago both took a pretty big step back
this year, in my opinion, for the expectations
that you had for them.
And Evan Carter stayed healthy this year.
And a lot of people thought, man, if
Evan's just healthy all year long.
And I know he got hurt a little
bit there in the summer months, but by
and large, Evan Carter was healthy.
Still struggled.
We have to figure out how to get
those two guys right.
Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford, they have to
be better contributors in 2027.
If not, you cannot continue to give them
a lineup spot every single day.
That's the issue.
And it's always kind of hamstrung this team
is you have these two players that have
really massive potential.
Evan Carter, high ceiling.
We all saw it in 2023.
Wyatt Langford, pretty high ceiling.
I don't think there's any denying that based
on what he's got in the tool bag.
He's got a lot of raw power.
He's got speed.
He's got a lot of tangibles.
But at the end of the day, the
results weren't there.
Does it mean he's a bust?
I don't want to go there yet, but
you have to get it right with these
players.
You can't just continually play both of them
every day based on principle, based on the
past and what they've done in the past,
based on their status as top prospects.
If they're not going to produce, you have
to be willing to go a different direction.
You have to be willing to do something
different.
They weren't really willing to do that this
year with Carter.
They really weren't.
They continue to play Evan Carter until the
bitter end.
I'm not sure they can run that back
in 2027.
Amazing glove.
Antonio, I'm with you on this.
It's an amazing glove.
He plays great defense, but the bat was
a black hole.
I mean, the bat was non-existent this
year.
Just can't happen.
Chris, exactly.
Evan Carter below 190.
If Carter was like a 230, 240 hitter,
I think you could justify a lot more
playing him nearly every day when you're not
even a 200 hitter and you don't hit
home runs.
It's really not justifiable to Evan Carter against
righties every single time.
It's more justifiable to use Evan Carter as
a bench player, a guy who could come
in and replace defensively late, lay down a
bunt, steal a bag late, not be an
everyday player.
I'm Himmelwitzgood.
Chris, you said the same thing.
Yeah, for me, I'm not picking up the
mutual option on Joc.
If I had to guess, Joc is praying
that the Rangers pick up the mutual option.
Let's be clear, Joc has to agree and
Texas has to agree for it to work
out.
I'm not trying to talk down to anybody.
I'm not trying to be condescending, but just
explaining it for anybody that's not in touch
with contracts and how they work.
Again, the Rangers would have to agree to
another 18.5 million for Joc in 2027,
and Joc would have to agree to that
as well.
18.5 million is the price.
I wouldn't be doing 18.5 of Joc
Pederson.
That, to me, is not really worth it
at this point.
I think that you could see if Joc
wants to come back for something cheaper, I'm
not resigning Joc for 18.5 million.
Part-time player, not helping you in the
other components and facets of the game.
Joc is another one-trick pony.
He can only hit against righties, and he's
a power hitter.
That's all Joc is really giving you.
He doesn't really play a great defense, first
base, outfield.
He doesn't run the base as well.
He can't score first to home anymore.
He could in his Dodgers days, but he
can't do that anymore.
Joc, to me, is a one-trick pony
that you're going to pay 18.5 million
for.
No, thank you.
Now, 9 to 11 million, like Antonio was
saying, absolutely.
Zachary, I'm with you on this.
Resigning Elias Diaz, that would be something I
would prioritize.
I don't know how much he's going to
cost.
Yeah, JK, I'm with you.
A part-time player that really is just
a hit-for-pop kind of guy, that
would not be what I would want to
spend 18.5 million on.
Cal Quantrill, some of you guys were talking
about Cal earlier.
I don't think there's any way the Rangers
re-sign him, and it's kind of the
same thing as Tyler Mahle.
I just don't think the Rangers are going
to want to pony up to what Tyler
Mahle, to what obviously Cal after his season
is going to probably want to try and
get on the open market.
I don't see them bringing back Cal.
I think they are going to go the
route of, we kind of hit lightning in
a bottle with Cal, and so let's let
him walk and see if he can repeat
it.
Hopefully a non-AL West team, hopefully an
NL team signs Cal so you don't have
to face him in the American League, but
I think they're going to bank on Cal
one-hit wonder, and I'm not saying that
to be disrespectful to Cal.
I love Cal Quantrill this year.
I was a hater to start the year
in spring training.
He was awful.
I made it known, and then he proved
me wrong and made me and a lot
of Rangers fans eat a massive plate of
crow.
I would probably say smart to not bring
him back on an overpriced contract if Cal
wanted to come back on something reasonable, team
-friendly, absolutely, but no, I don't think you're
giving Cal Quantrill top dollar this year.
That would probably not be on my list.
I would not want to overpay for Cal.
JK, I'm with you.
I don't know if that's how you feel
as well, but I am not down for
a Cal Quantrill overpay as much as I
love him, as much as I love him.
Antonio says, sources that Diaz likes Arlington and
wants to stay.
Found the Venezuelan community here, and he loves
it.
Speaking about Diaz, yeah, hopefully that's true.
I would love Elias Diaz, one of my
final posts of 2026 before the Rangers ended
their season.
I said, I pray that this is not
the last time we've seen Elias Diaz in
a Rangers uniform.
That probably means it might not mean you
have to trade O'Hoppe or Jansen.
I'd personally like to see the club roll
with O'Hoppe and Diaz next year.
Get a little younger with O'Hoppe and, you
know, Danny Jansen.
I know he was September player of the
month, but I'm not really feeling the Danny
Jansen running it back.
I know he's got a contract with Texas
and I'm not sure what the trade value
would be, but I wouldn't mind running it
back with Diaz and O'Hoppe.
EJ to me is too streaky, not good
enough defensively.
I know O'Hoppe is not great defensively either,
but that's kind of what you have Diaz
for.
And, you know, that's not to say you
couldn't go out and maybe try and get
another catcher.
I think that there are some other guys
that are going to come available that might
be interesting.
We keep rolling.
We're going to go ahead and we're going
to try and wrap up the show as
best we can.
Look, going around with kind of the Rangers
team pulse here, the 40 man update, if
you will, 40 man news, Corey Seager, bone
spur in his elbow, minor offseason surgeries possible.
My, you know, totally ignorant, I'll say just
full disclosure, medical opinion here.
I think that they just cannot have what
happened a couple of seasons ago happened again
with Corey Seager, which is you delay the
surgery.
You try and rest it, see if it
works.
And then you got to miss most of
spring training because it didn't get better.
That can't happen again with Corey.
So if you're not going to do surgery
on Corey, it better not come back that
in March, because it's not getting better.
Same thing with Josh Jung.
I don't think that you can sit around
and Hey, let's see if rest gets it
better.
And then Josh has to miss time in
spring training or has to miss the first
week or two of the season.
That would not be great.
You need to figure out a way to
definitively as best as you possibly can get
those guys to 100%.
You cannot risk miss time in 2027.
Can't do it.
The postseason postseason baseball upon us, Philly stayed
alive with an epic win, man.
What a win for the Phillies.
You had Bryce Harper making a boneheaded, I
don't want to say boneheaded, but it wasn't
a great play.
It was kind of the Phillies version.
I felt like of the Nelson Cruz, 2011
game six world series, except lower stakes, like
harp kind of drifted back on a ball,
brave scored off of it.
And it looked like Phillies were dead in
the water, Schwarber and Harper hit bombs to
tie it at three Alec bone.
It's a bomb in the 10th inning to
win it.
Not a walk off.
Obviously they were playing in Atlanta, but impressive
from Philly to come back and win that
ball game.
No doubt.
Chicago, we know beat Houston eliminated them.
I think a lot of Rangers fans can
you rejoice and unite in that.
And look from a Rangers perspective, a little
bit of irony here, at least some irony
here, Houston won the division at 81 and
81 one game ahead of Texas.
And now is almost out immediately things you
love to see.
Look at this point, we won't go through
all the rest of the scores.
We know Padres are up a game.
Obviously you've got the Yankees up a game.
We'll see how those shake out, but we'll
continue to cover playoff baseball a little off
and on.
We don't have as strong of a rooting
interest anymore now that the Astros are out,
but we still enjoy playoff baseball.
Every chance we get Armando, I'm with you.
I think we would have at least taken
one game.
I think the Rangers could have figured it
out for one game.
Maybe we're delusional, but I feel the same
way.
A JK says blows my mind.
How the Phillies always have money for free
agents.
And Dombrowski has guts to make the big
trades.
Yup.
We talked about that at the beginning, like
when the Phillies fired their manager, uh, at
the beginning of the season, when they were
losing that took guts and it's guts that
we've kind of said in so many words,
the Rangers haven't had, they, they aren't necessarily
always willing to make the big moves.
Philadelphia, Boston, think about this, right?
Isn't this crazy?
Philadelphia and Boston both fired their managers at
the beginning of the season.
And remember the reaction, how could you fire
Alex Cora?
You know, how, how could you fire Phillies
manager after all the post-season success?
How could you do it?
Both those teams are in October now, both
those teams do pay well, but both those
teams are in October after making aggressive moves,
not necessarily with players, but with the free
agents, excuse me, but with the coaching, I
think they could take a page out of
the book.
That's for sure.
All right, y'all, we are going to
sign off for the day.
Next time I'll be back is Saturday on
the live shows.
A lot of content will be coming your
way.
You guys know, we chop up a lot
of the live and we make it into
our short videos.
So look, if you miss something, hopefully you'll
catch some of the highlights that way.
I will post every live show as a
podcast.
So, uh, every major podcast we got Spotify,
uh, we're, we're on Apple podcasts.
We're on I heart radio, every major podcasting
app or website we're on.
And so this show will be uploaded.
I have chapters.
So, you know, if you caught the last
part of the show, but you didn't catch
the first part, you can click around to
the different sections of the show that you
want to listen to.
And, uh, then of course, uh, everybody knows,
uh, YouTube, Facebook, the place where all of
our live shows are posted.
And so look, check it out there.
If you want to That would be great.
I don't think we brought in Facebook today.
I don't know why my restreaming wasn't necessarily
working the best today, but it is what
it is.
No, no issues there.
So we'll try and get, uh, the Facebook
crew, the Facebook crowd back in.
Uh, but I'll probably post my live show
to Facebook.
Eventually, uh, Facebook and YouTube, always the places
where we go.
And then I think it's available on X
for a while, but eventually it like falls
off.
It's the same thing with Facebook, YouTube though,
permanent place for the show.
Always a nano.
Thank you for the gifts.
Appreciate all you guys.
Thanks for just hanging out.
We don't take any support of the show
for granted.
We'll be back next Wednesday.
And just so you know, if there's any
kind of major happening with the Rangers, big
trade, big signing, somebody gets fired, somebody gets
hired.
We will probably go live.
Uh, if it's something really small and minuscule,
okay.
Maybe not, you know, if the Rangers add,
you know, like a, a fourth fielding coordinator.
Okay.
I don't know if I'm going to go
live for that.
Just being honest with you, but major signing,
major trade, major firing, major hiring.
Those are the things that we will do
an emergency pod for.
So just have that in your mind.
And I'll try and update you guys like,
Hey, couple hours, emergency pod needed.
We'll definitely do that kind of stuff.
Um, we'll keep on rolling here.
Appreciate y'all.
You guys, uh, Bryce, I'm with you.
Sad that the Rangers didn't make it to
October feel like, uh, they could have gotten
hot and done something special, but look, it
wasn't meant to be.
Astros are out though.
All is right with the world once again.
All right.
On that note, let's end our show.
Appreciate all you guys.
And as I always say to end every
live, God bless and go Rangers.