Texas Rangers Offensive Improvements Tied to Mastering AL West Pitching
Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young knows one thing about the AL West — to have success in this division a team must be able to hit a particular kind of pitching.
The Rangers struggled with offense overall last season and Young doesn’t want a repeat.
“With the pitching in Houston, Seattle, you know, even Oakland, with their improvements, and certainly Anaheim, we're going to have to be able to hit right-handed pitching,” Young said.
That was part of the reason the Rangers signed Joc Pederson last month, he told Foul Territory recently. Bringing in the 32-year-old left-handed hitting outfielder and designated hitter makes plenty of sense for a team looking for more slug against right-handers.
Texas had practically the same slash line against right-handers as it did against left-handers. Against right-handers the Rangers were .238/.304/.379/.683 and against left-handers the Rangers were .238/.309/.383/.683.
The power numbers were much different. Texas hit 130 home runs off right-handers and just 46 off left-handers. But the Rangers took 4,121 at-bats against right-handers and 1,351 at-bats against left-handers.
Texas was a better hitting team during its World Series season in 2023 — .261/.334/.456/.790 with 183 home runs in 4,163 at-bats against right-handers and .267/.346/.443/.788 with 50 home runs against left-handers in 1,432 at-bats.
Pederson can help. He’s a .246 career hitter against right-handers, and his average falls to .210 against left-handers. He’s hit 194 of his 209 career home runs against right-handers. So, he may be more of a platoon player at this stage of his career. But the Rangers know how to deploy him.
It’s not just Pederson. The Rangers traded for Jake Burger to take over at first base for Nathaniel Lowe, who was traded later to Washington.
Burger is a right-handed hitter, but his splits against right-handers and left-handers are fairly even — a .253/.308/.478/.787 slash against right-handers and a .244/.298/.496/.794 slash against left-handers. Plus, 43 of his 63 career home runs are off right-handers.
The addition of Kyle Higashioka signals a platoon with him and Jonah Heim behind the plate, with Heim being a switch-hitter. Higashioka, also a right-handed hitter, doesn’t have a particularly good career batting average and he’s a bit better, power-wise, against left-handers, but 34 of his 57 home runs have come from the right side.
It isn’t just about the free agents. The offense overall took a step back. Young targeted players that could help them against right-handed pitching in the division and support what he envisions as a bounce-back year for his holdovers.
“Getting back to being an elite offense has been one of our primary goals,” he said.