Chris Young's Short, But Vital Rangers To-Do List

The Rangers' new baseball head has to accomplish these things in the coming months to prepare Texas for 2023.

A road trip can be good for clearing one’s head. If Texas Rangers general manager Chris Young is on the team’s current road trip, as owner Ray Davis said Young would be, then this is the perfect time for Young to produce an old-fashioned to-do list.

The list isn’t long, but it’s vital to the organization’s future.

Young is no longer in a partnership, thanks to the dismissal of Jon Daniels. He’s in the driver’s seat, and every decision the Rangers make moving forward will have his full fingerprints. So where does he start?

When the team you run has six straight losing seasons, it’s best to look internally. Yes, the managerial search is important. But it’s unlikely Young is going to make that hire before season’s end — unless, of course, the hire is interim manager Tony Beasley.

Young’s first step should be evaluating his scouting and player development department. And it is HIS now. But it doesn’t take a lot of research to figure out that most of those departments were stocked by Daniels. Heck some even pre-date Daniels. Texas senior director of scouting, Kip Fagg, started as an area scout with the Rangers in 1992 under then-general manager Tom Grieve. He’s the scout that originally signed Colby Lewis.

Look Internally

Young’s first order of business is to make sure that his scouting department and player development staff aligns with his philosophy as a general manager. What is Young’s philosophy? Well, that’s not clear yet. How much did it align to Daniels’ vision? How much of it his own? How many times in the past two seasons did Young go, “I would have done it differently if it was me?”

Well, now he can, if that’s his wish.

Every staff is pruned every offseason, and I suspect Young’s decisions will lead to a pruning and not a wholesale turnover. The Rangers scouting department has done a good job of restocking the system that was well understocked just a few years ago. The baseball staff has done that through the draft, player development and a key trade last season in dealing Joey Gallo for four prospects.

By the time next spring rolls around, Young is likely to have a staff that matches his vision. There will probably be a few new hires. I suspect he’ll keep Fagg and make him his No. 2 — unless another franchise swoops in and grabs him.

Find a Manager

Young can accomplish the first task while preparing for a manager search that stands to be highly competitive, now that the Rangers let Chris Woodward go. There are already four openings on the market — Philadelphia, Toronto and the Los Angeles Angels. More are likely coming, but they won’t be clear until mid-October. Beasley should be given every chance to convince Young and the baseball operations group that he’s the right guy for the job.

There are a wealth of big-time names on the market, including Joe Maddon and Bruce Bochy. The Rangers haven’t hired a manager with big league experience since Buck Showalter in 2002. Does Young go with a first-time manager or a veteran with championship experience?

Prep for a Busy Offseason

One of the reasons Davis made the move to fire Daniels was to give Young time to prepare for the offseason. The Rangers believe they’ll be a player in the offseason free-agent and trade markets, though the financial outlay is not likely to match the half-billion committed to sign Corey Seager and Marcus Semien.

Pitching will be the priority, especially in the starting rotation. That starts with making a decision on keeping left-hander Martín Pérez, who is a free agent at the end of this season. Both the Rangers and Pérez have expressed interest in a long-term deal.

But the presence of Seager and Semien also creates an interesting dynamic in the minor league system. The pair essentially cut off the Major League track for middle-infield prospects like Justin Foscue, the Rangers No. 1 pick in 2020. He and other prospects could be package in trades for either young, controllable pitching or veterans that can offer help now. And, of course, there’s Highland Park’s Clayton Kershaw, who will hit free agency again this offseason and may, finally, be ready to return home to wrap up his career.

To be fair, the Rangers have probably been planning ahead for the offseason. But now Young has to set a new direction for the franchise, hire a manager and prepare to do what is necessary in the offseason in just a few months. That’s all.

No wonder the Rangers made the moves they made now as opposed to October.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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