Texas Rangers 2024-2025 Offseason Thread

[DT LUNA]

Father Time exacerbates injuries and prolongs them. He also slows bat speeds.

Prince Fiellder had a secret injury as well. Those kind tens to be the career threatening kind, or at least the kind that begins a career decline.

It appears obvious in Garcia.

 

[saddles]

Our difference re Cole R fix. I agree with velo increase but the slider I give credit to KC

Yeah, even though Cole talks about Zombro and Tread working with him on his slider in the article in The Athletic, and about them givng him feedback during the season. He definitely improved as he went along in 2023, but being in a rotation greatly facilitated that. That part KC definitely helped, but then again, that is where I always claimed the Rangers failed.

 

[Kelleyman]

Father Time exacerbates injuries and prolongs them. He also slows bat speeds.

Prince Fiellder had a secret injury as well. Those kind tens to be the career threatening kind, or at least the kind that begins a career decline.

I am not sure if it was injury that slowed his bat. Maybe neck but age surely was a factor

 

[saddles]

It appears obvious in Garcia.

Yeah, whether it is age, injuries, or a combination of both, it does not bode well for his future performance as a player.

 

[Duane1952]

Yeah, whether it is age, injuries, or a combination of both, it does not bode well for his future performance as a player.

I would be ok with an outfield of Carter, Langford and Duran or Harris.

 

[saddles]

I wonder if Walcott is our 2026 CF.

 

[Duane1952]

I wonder if Walcott is our 2026 CF.

Has he played any outfield in the minors

 

[saddles]

Has he played any outfield in the minors

No, but it seems more and mote middle infielders are converting to the OF when blocked.

Jackson Merrill just played 155 games in CF this year for the Padres. Prior to this year he had only played 5 games as an OF, as a professional, and all 5 were in LF.

 

[scotsman#1948]

I would be ok with an outfield of Carter, Langford and Duran or Harris.

defensively maybe, offensively other than Langford pretty weak when the outfield is normally the strongest offensive producers. with Heim, Lowe and possibly Jung (unless he improves 200 or 300 percent) this team will not be any better in 2025 than 2024 probably worse

 

[saddles]

Alejandro Osuna and Cody Freeman are off to great starts in the AFL. Osuna has an OPS of .978 and Freeman's is .984.

 

[saddles]

There is a really good chance Osuna could be ready for a promotion to the big leagues in the middle of next year. Walsott could be ready by late next year or to begin 2026.

Osuna is definitely an OF and Walcott will probably be moved there as well unless the Rangers do something bold and move either Seager or Semien to another position.

That might mean the Rangers will not look to sign anyone long term to play the OF, this offseason. That gives us a year to see what we have in Dustin Harris.

 

[Kelleyman]

I wonder if Walcott is our 2026 CF.

Well maybe they should start playing him there ok

Alejandro Osuna and Cody Freeman are off to great starts in the AFL. Osuna has an OPS of .978 and Freeman's is .984.

Osuna is intriguing me. Plays CF and looks to have good defense
Wonder what sort of exit velo he has.

He can hit the HR

 

[saddles]

Well maybe they should start playing him there ok

Osuna is intriguing me. Plays CF and looks to have good defense
Wonder what sort of exit velo he has.

He can hit the HR

This is from the Baseball America article that I quoted a few days ago.

"The Mexican-born Osuna had a 75% contact rate and 104.1 mph 90th percentile exit velocity, both above-average marks for the level,"

 

[saddles]

This is from the Baseball America article that I quoted a few days ago.

"The Mexican-born Osuna had a 75% contact rate and 104.1 mph 90th percentile exit velocity, both above-average marks for the level,"

And this is some information that I found that further explains that stat.

A 90th percentile exit velocity (EV90th) is a metric that ranks a hitter's batted balls by exit velocity, selecting the one that's better than roughly 90% of their other batted balls

• What it measures
  The EV90th measures the exit velocity of the batted balls that are in the top 90% of a hitter's batted-ball events.
  
  
• Why it's important
  The EV90th is a better way to measure a player's raw power than average exit velocity or hard hit rate because it correlates more closely with power production from season to season.
  
  
• What it predicts
  Players who make big jumps in their EV90th tend to also make jumps in production in the future.
  
  
• How it's calculated
  For example, if a hitter has 100 events, the EV90th will count either the 10th or 11th hardest hit event.
  
  
• What it means
  Each MPH of EV90th translates to roughly a half grade on the 20-80 scouting scale.
  
  

 

[saddles]

This is from the Baseball America article that I quoted a few days ago.

"The Mexican-born Osuna had a 75% contact rate and 104.1 mph 90th percentile exit velocity, both above-average marks for the level,"

This is a very informative article about the EV90 stat.

What's A Good Exit Velocity?

Ever wondered what 107 mph 90th percentile exit velocity really means? We translated various EV metrics into 20-80 tool grades.

www.baseballamerica.com

 

[Kelleyman]

This is from the Baseball America article that I quoted a few days ago.

"The Mexican-born Osuna had a 75% contact rate and 104.1 mph 90th percentile exit velocity, both above-average marks for the level,"

Viva Osuna

 

[saddles]

Some Texas Rangers Prospects Who Impressed In 2024

Discover some of the Texas Rangers prospects who impressed in 2024, including Cody Freeman, Kohl Drake, and others.

theprospecttimes.com

 

[saddles]

Viva Osuna

We could lead the league in Alejandros in a couple of years.

 

[saddles]

From. Jeff Wilson:

he would have 45 days to agree to a bonus from a team’s international pool, and he would then make the major-league minimum for up to three seasons before entering his arbitration years. The assumption, however, is a lucrative long-term extension would be worked out within a year or two of landing him.

It’s a no-brainer to try for Sasaki’s services, who one scout went so far as to say that Sasaki is as good as a healthy Jacob deGrom, a two-time Cy Young winner.


The Rangers will have an international pool of $6,261,600 and could use it all on Sasaki. They would likely be prepared to trade for additional international money, up to 75 percent of their pool, in order to strengthen their bid.

They could also attempt to convince Sasaki to take a shade less than the full international budget so that they could also sign some key 16-year-old prospects from Latin America.

The Rangers would still have money to sign Eovaldi and go into 2025 with a five-man rotation of deGrom, Eovaldi, Sasaki, Kumar Rocker and Tyler Mahle, Jon Gray, Cody Bradford or Jack Leiter.

All of that Sasaki wooing would left to president of baseball operations Chris Young and his team to make a convincing presentation to Sasaki, who could negotiate with multiple teams.

 

[saddles]

From Texas Rangers PR:

Rangers 1B Nathaniel Lowe has been named a finalist for the 2024 Rawlings Gold Glove Award at first base in the American League.