Locked on Rangers: Adolis Garcia predicting repeat, importance of Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith, Bruce Bochy not naming a closer yet.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 After one day of spring training with the whole squad there,
00:02 Adolfo Garcia is convinced that this Rangers team
00:05 is going back to back.
00:06 And on today's show, I'm talking about exactly why
00:08 he's completely right.
00:09 All that and more on this episode of Locked on Rangers.
00:11 Let's get into it.
00:12 You are Locked on Rangers.
00:16 Your daily Texas Rangers podcast.
00:19 Part of the Locked on Podcast Network.
00:23 Your team, every day.
00:25 ♪
00:36 You are Locked on to the World Series Champion
00:38 Texas Rangers.
00:39 I'm Bryce Patrick, a cripplingly addicted
00:40 Texas Rangers fan covering this team for ten seasons,
00:42 including all five as the founder and host
00:44 of this podcast.
00:46 Thank y'all so much for making Locked on Rangers
00:47 your first listen every single day.
00:49 If you're not already, you can follow me on Twitter
00:51 @BrycePatrick.
00:52 You can follow the show @LockedOnRangers.
00:53 Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform
00:55 and on YouTube, where the best way you can help
00:57 grow the show is to comment nearly any single thing below.
01:01 Now, before we get into today's episode,
01:03 this show is brought to you by FanDuel.
01:05 Make every moment more.
01:06 New customers join today, you can get 150 in bonus bets
01:09 if your first bet of $5 or more wins.
01:11 Just visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn to get started.
01:16 Now, here we are.
01:17 One day in the books.
01:19 Full squad workouts were on Monday.
01:21 The gang's all here, and the Rangers are finally back.
01:26 The reigning World Series champs are in camp,
01:29 seeing all the pictures of everybody working out,
01:31 seeing Wyatt Langford in actual Rangers gear,
01:34 not just Round Rock Express gear or Rough Riders gear
01:38 or Hickory Crawdads gear or whatever they wear
01:41 in the Arizona Complex League.
01:43 Seeing him in actual Rangers spring training gear,
01:45 taking BP with the big boys.
01:48 Oh, it's just a beautiful sight.
01:50 Everybody in camp feeling good about being
01:54 on the reigning world champs, especially Adolus Garcia,
01:57 coming off signing that two-year extension
02:00 with all of those fun modifiers that could take it up
02:02 to $20.25 million, depending on where he finishes in MVP
02:08 voting.
02:09 He's feeling good about himself.
02:10 The Rangers are feeling good about themselves.
02:12 And the wonderful, joyous, 18 million megawatt smile
02:17 of Adolus Garcia completely lit up
02:19 the Rangers complex yesterday at spring training,
02:22 where he's not just thinking going back to back
02:25 is a possibility.
02:27 He's not saying, it's possible.
02:30 We're going to try and hedge our bets
02:31 and do our best just to see where we do the best we can
02:35 in the regular season and try and get into the playoffs.
02:37 And then once we get the playoffs,
02:38 we'll see where we're going there.
02:40 Adolus Garcia was hedging nothing.
02:42 He said, when asked about if the Rangers could repeat as World
02:46 Series winners, quote, "We are going to do it again,"
02:51 end quote.
02:53 No hedging bets, no ho-humming, no nothing about it.
02:58 This is going to happen.
03:00 He knows this team is good enough to do it.
03:03 And they have all the confidence in the world in themselves
03:08 because they literally just did it.
03:12 Granted, there are some subtractions from this team,
03:15 mainly Jordan Montgomery.
03:17 He hasn't officially left, but every single day
03:21 that he does not sign with the Rangers
03:23 feels like another day he gets further and further away
03:28 from coming back to the place where
03:30 he helped bring a title to Arlington
03:32 for the first time ever.
03:35 But hey, this team is still plenty good.
03:37 This lineup is still incredibly good.
03:39 And Adolus Garcia is still the heartbeat of this team.
03:43 He is the emotions.
03:45 He is the emotional leader of this squad,
03:50 a team that is filled with a lot of pretty quiet, pretty
03:53 reserved guys, not very animated.
03:55 Corey Seager, Marcus Simi, not the loudest, most vocal
03:58 leaders, not the most emotional and fiery guys.
04:02 But Adolus Garcia is the emotion of this team.
04:06 He is their heartbeat.
04:09 He is the heart and soul and lifeblood of this team.
04:11 And when he gave that speech before game three,
04:14 after he went down with an injury in the World Series,
04:17 he lit a fire under everybody.
04:19 I mean, watching what he did in the ALCS
04:22 throughout the postseason, in that World Series game one,
04:25 where he won it for all of us with that walk-off home run
04:29 that no one will ever forget.
04:31 We watch at least every single day, at least once a day,
04:34 or at least maybe that's just me that watches that home run
04:37 almost every single day.
04:40 But it kind of sparks a fire under you
04:43 that these guys aren't satisfied with just one.
04:46 I mean, me personally, I'm mostly satisfied with one,
04:49 but I would like another.
04:51 This team does not have the same mentality as those of us
04:55 lifelong diehard fans who were heartbroken, jaded,
05:01 so angry and bitter about baseball for so many years
05:05 because of all the heartbreaks that we had suffered that
05:07 were cured immediately on November 1st at 10 p.m.
05:11 Central Time in 2023.
05:14 All that was cured.
05:16 But this team, it wasn't just that it meant the entire world
05:19 to the fan base, this championship run
05:22 and this championship and being reigning world champs.
05:26 It wasn't just for us.
05:27 It meant everything to this team as well.
05:30 One of the things that Adolphe Garcia talked about when he
05:32 spoke with the media on Monday is that this team is more
05:37 like a group of friends than it is a team of coworkers,
05:43 which for most of last year and most of this quick turnaround
05:48 rebuild, it kind of felt a little bit
05:50 like a band of mercenaries.
05:52 It wasn't a bunch of homegrown players
05:54 who had been here for 5, 10 years
05:57 and gutted it out through the rebuild.
06:00 It was kind of a lot of mixed match pieces, parts, guys who--
06:04 the long-suffering ones were pretty much Adolphe Garcia,
06:08 Jonah Hyman, Nathaniel Lowe.
06:10 I mean, Jose Leclerc had been here for a long, long time,
06:13 but he had gone through a bunch of different eras.
06:14 He was one of the few players who
06:16 had been here for actually an incredibly long time.
06:20 And then MartÃn Pérez had been back for a couple of years,
06:23 suffered through some early losses,
06:25 and even got to see the glory of the 2015 and '16 Rangers that
06:30 was an incredibly good team.
06:34 But other than that, it didn't feel like there
06:36 was a whole lot of camaraderie.
06:37 It didn't feel like this was a group that
06:39 was incredibly tight-knit, that was best buds hanging out
06:42 off the field.
06:43 And it was fine.
06:45 They were a good baseball team, and they
06:46 didn't need to be more than that.
06:48 And they still don't really need to be more than that.
06:51 But hearing from Adolphe Garcia and hearing
06:54 the vibes around this team when they talked to me,
06:57 when they are showing up in spring training,
06:59 and how they vibe off of each other,
07:03 it has kind of a different feel than we thought.
07:07 This isn't a panda of mercenaries anymore.
07:09 This is a tight-knit group of going
07:12 through the hardships of last year,
07:15 going through the insane ups and downs of the regular season.
07:20 And, well, not so much downs in the postseason,
07:23 just the ALCS was the only downer moments in game two
07:28 of the World Series.
07:29 But other than that, this team just
07:33 rode like a firecracker through the playoffs
07:36 and didn't face all that much adversity
07:38 outside of that one series in Houston,
07:40 where they won every single game in Houston
07:43 and beat their division rivals to go to the World Series
07:45 and win their first ever World Series.
07:48 But there were so many highs and lows
07:51 throughout the regular season.
07:52 The Jacob deGrom injury, the Corey Seager injury,
07:56 the second Corey Seager injury, the Jonah Heim injury,
07:59 the Josh Young injury, the Adonis Garcia injury,
08:03 the Max Scherzer injury.
08:04 I mean, it was insane the amount of injuries
08:08 that this team suffered.
08:10 Not to mention the horrific losing streak
08:13 at the end of August.
08:15 Not to mention the absolute catastrophe of a home series
08:20 in September against the Astros when they're
08:22 trying to hold them off and hold on to that division
08:24 crown for dear life.
08:26 Not to mention the last week of the regular season,
08:29 where there's still some thought that this team might end up
08:31 missing the playoffs, despite having an incredible season
08:36 and having a chokehold on the AL West crown
08:39 for the vast majority of this season,
08:42 basically till the halfway point of August.
08:48 But this team rallied through it.
08:50 This team banded together.
08:52 And even though there are a few guys who are not
08:54 on this team that were members of the 2023 squad,
08:59 the squad that's here is pretty much that same team that
09:02 went through all of those hardships,
09:05 all of those battles, all of those struggles,
09:06 all of those "we're so back, it's so over" moments.
09:11 This is that same squad.
09:14 And while maybe this 2024 squad, hopefully,
09:19 crossing my fingers that it won't be as up and down
09:23 of a regular season as it was last year,
09:25 because I don't know about y'all,
09:27 but that did a number on my heart.
09:30 It might have taken a few years off my life
09:33 with how incredibly stressful the entire back half
09:36 of that regular season was and the postseason as well.
09:40 But those bonds, those experiences,
09:44 that gets to carry over.
09:46 This is still that team.
09:49 Granted, it's not exactly the same team
09:51 that won the World Series.
09:52 But the lineup is almost incredibly the same.
09:56 It's basically just a DH that's being replaced in Mitch Garver.
10:00 So long, farewell, happy trails to him.
10:03 But then you add in this young prospect in Wyatt Langford,
10:06 who might end up winning the job out of camp to be the DH.
10:11 You add that kid who's hungry for a championship, who
10:14 didn't get to be here, didn't get to win that World Series,
10:17 and is generally regarded as one of, if not the best hitting
10:21 prospect in the entire minor leagues.
10:25 You add that to this lineup that's already hungry and ready
10:28 to go back to back and is already
10:30 being overlooked and doubted, people
10:32 forgetting about that championship that
10:34 happened three months ago.
10:36 Man, that is an incredible combination.
10:38 And it's why I think Adonis Garcia is absolutely
10:41 on the money that this Rangers team is going to go back
10:43 to back as champions.
10:44 Coming up, we're going to talk a little bit
10:45 about the strength of the depth of this team,
10:47 a little bit about Corey Seager and his spicy comments
10:50 when he's going to come back, and a little bit
10:52 about some rules in the bullpen right
10:54 after this word from our sponsors.
10:55 This episode is brought to you by eBay Motors.
11:01 Passion, drive, and patience.
11:03 What brings home the winning trophy
11:04 is also what keeps your ride or die alive.
11:07 eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle
11:09 and level it up to peak performance,
11:11 from superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights,
11:15 and more.
11:16 Whether into speed, power, or style,
11:18 eBay Motors has got you covered.
11:20 With over 122 million parts for your ride or die,
11:23 you'll always find exactly what you're looking for.
11:25 And with eBay Guaranteed Fit, your part
11:27 is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back.
11:31 Because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber, not cash.
11:34 With all the parts you need at the prices you want,
11:36 it's easy to turn your car into the MVP
11:38 and bring home that win.
11:39 Keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com.
11:42 Eligible items only, exclusions apply.
11:44 eBay Guaranteed Fit, only available to US customers.
11:46 Shout out to the everydayers for making Lockdown Rangers
11:52 a first list every single day.
11:53 On tomorrow's show, I'll be talking about Jonah Heim,
11:56 his importance to this lineup and this team,
11:58 and why he is so unbelievably, incredibly valuable.
12:02 Now, let's look at the depth of this lineup.
12:04 This is-- the depth of this team, in general,
12:07 is such an incredible strength for this Ranger squad.
12:11 Specifically, the bench depth of this team
12:14 is really darn good.
12:15 And the main reason for that, not just Travis Jankowski,
12:19 not just Wyatt Langford being the probable fourth outfielder,
12:24 but a lot of it comes down to Ezekiel Duran and Josh Smith.
12:30 Now, the left side of this Rangers infield
12:32 is going to be on the shelf for a little bit.
12:35 Josh Young is missing time with that calf injury,
12:39 and Corey Seager is still recovering
12:41 from that sports hernia.
12:42 It has been three weeks since he had surgery
12:46 on that sports hernia.
12:47 It did not heal up like he was anticipating,
12:49 so surgery was the last option.
12:52 And that is the option that the Rangers and Corey Seager
12:55 decided to go with.
12:56 He is still almost certainly, pretty probably
12:59 going to be ready for opening day right now,
13:01 since it has been three weeks.
13:03 Usually, the recovery time is about six to eight weeks
13:06 before guys start participating in games.
13:09 So if it is the eight-week mark post-surgery,
13:13 that is when he starts participating in games again,
13:16 that will be about 10 days before opening day.
13:20 So even giving a little bit of buffer time for him
13:23 to be fully ready, it should be the Rangers' initial level
13:28 of concern being very minimal.
13:30 Whenever he did have that surgery,
13:32 it seems like it's still pretty minimal.
13:34 He's still hanging around, doing some light activities.
13:39 Still not quite sure on the timeline
13:41 of when he's going to be ready to come back,
13:43 but he is doing everything he can
13:45 to be ready for, at the very least, opening day.
13:48 Probably play in some spring training games
13:50 at the very, very end of spring training.
13:53 I'm thinking that is the goal, just
13:55 playing a couple of spring training games
13:57 and then be ready to go.
13:59 As for Josh Young, it is still going
14:01 to be a little bit of time before he is ready.
14:04 Hopefully, he will have significantly more spring
14:07 training games than Corey Seager.
14:10 Hopefully, this spring training injury
14:12 doesn't end up going into the regular season.
14:16 Hopefully, he is still able to participate,
14:18 come back in the two- to three-week timeline that
14:21 was initially anticipated after suffering that calf injury
14:24 on what I believe was his first day at spring training,
14:29 taking grounders, which is just an absolute bummer.
14:32 Talked about that on yesterday's show and Josh Young's bad luck.
14:35 But the Rangers don't really need
14:38 to do much in terms of panicking and looking for somebody else
14:43 to come in and step up in case those injuries end up
14:48 taking a little bit more time than they initially
14:50 anticipated.
14:52 Even if both those guys miss, say, a week or five days
14:57 or three days of the regular season,
14:59 the Rangers are in an OK spot to where
15:03 they don't need to go out and sign anybody, really.
15:08 I mean, their roster is so good.
15:10 And having Josh Young and Ezekiel Dorian
15:12 as your backup infielders, having both those guys,
15:16 you're in a really solid spot.
15:18 Then the depth behind them, if they need somebody else,
15:22 is-- well, it's probably not going
15:23 to be a lot of Justin Foskute playing
15:25 on the left side of the infield, even though he
15:27 has taken some grounders there.
15:29 But you have Jonathan Ornelas, who
15:32 is a World Series champion with his, what,
15:35 seven career plate appearances in the big leagues?
15:37 Still gets a ring.
15:38 Still counts.
15:39 And still a solid-- yeah, seven at bats in his major league
15:44 career.
15:45 Does have a hit, a couple runs scored.
15:47 But is-- if that's your third bench
15:52 shortstop/infielder, that's your third option there,
15:56 who is going to be on the 40 man, who is probably not
15:59 going to make the opening day roster.
16:00 But if that's your third option, that's
16:02 a really darn good option to have.
16:05 And even behind him, I've talked about it a lot
16:08 with Davis Wenzel.
16:09 And his glove being completely solid at shortstop
16:13 obviously has a lot of pop, and it works a lot of walks.
16:16 The batting average isn't great.
16:18 But he's got power.
16:19 He can play shortstop.
16:20 He can work a good at bat.
16:24 That's your fourth backup infielder?
16:27 The depth of this team is in a really, really good place.
16:32 Now, the hope is that Ezekiel Duran and Josh Smith
16:36 are not your starting shortstop and third baseman
16:40 on opening day.
16:41 That's the hope.
16:43 But if the worst case scenario happens,
16:45 and that is where you are as a team,
16:48 you're not completely under fire.
16:50 You're not completely underwater.
16:52 You're not panicking and saying, oh, no, this team is done.
16:56 This lineup needs Corey Seager in there.
16:58 There is nobody else that can hit except for Corey Seager.
17:02 This isn't the Angels.
17:04 This isn't a one-star team.
17:07 This is an incredibly deep lineup that had five all-star
17:11 hitters last year, five of them.
17:15 So one of your all-stars goes down.
17:17 Two of your all-stars go down.
17:18 Well, I guess they still have three all-stars
17:21 in the freaking lineup.
17:22 They still have Adoles Garcia.
17:24 They still have Marcus Simeon, a 7 and 1/2 war player,
17:28 who finished third in MVP voting.
17:30 Yeah, it's not ideal to be without Corey Seager
17:32 for any stretch of time.
17:35 But even when the Rangers were without Corey Seager last year,
17:38 they were still an incredibly dangerous team.
17:41 I mean, it was, what, two weeks into the season
17:43 when Seager went down?
17:44 It was very early on against the Royals.
17:47 And this Rangers team just went on an absolute tear.
17:50 And a large part of that was due to Ezekiel Duran
17:53 being absolutely sensational in the first half of last season.
17:58 Josh Smith, his overall numbers weren't that impressive.
18:00 But I think the at-bats are still very quality.
18:04 The power is showing a little bit more than I anticipated
18:07 in games.
18:08 It's still not going to be, you know, quite--
18:11 it's not going to be Corey Seager.
18:12 Neither of these guys are Corey Seager.
18:13 And that's fine.
18:14 And they don't have to be.
18:15 But Ezekiel Duran, in the first half last year,
18:18 had an 870 OPS in 260 play appearances and 12 home runs.
18:23 The guy was hitting over 300, but on base in the 340s.
18:27 And, you know, he was a borderline all-star candidate
18:30 last year.
18:32 I think that really got overlooked
18:33 of how incredibly good he was.
18:35 Granted, in the first half, Lillie Tavares was also
18:38 a borderline all-star candidate.
18:39 I mean, the Rangers, if not for everybody else on their team
18:42 being so incredibly good, I think both these guys had--
18:47 both Zeke Duran and Lillie Tavares
18:49 had a reasonable expectation that they could get some all-star
18:54 votes and could be deserving of one of those final roster
18:57 spots on the all-star team.
18:59 Now, that didn't happen.
19:00 And that would've been incredibly funny if the Rangers
19:02 had not just six all-stars, but eight all-stars on their team.
19:08 And none of them were Jacob deGrom.
19:11 That would've been a hilarious place to be in.
19:12 But that didn't happen.
19:14 But this production was still there.
19:16 Whether they got all-star votes or not,
19:18 the number nine hitter in your lineup
19:19 was Lillie Tavares, who had around 800 OPS
19:23 in the first half and is your number nine hitter.
19:27 And then the guy you plug in off the bench,
19:29 coming in with an 870 OPS and playing a really darn good
19:32 shortstop defense.
19:34 And then the guy behind him, Josh Smith,
19:36 has a really good glove at shortstop,
19:38 works fantastic at bats, and can get a little bit of pop
19:42 in there every once in a while as well
19:44 and play a million different positions.
19:46 That is a lot of depth.
19:48 That is one of the reasons why this team was able to sustain
19:52 the injuries to Josh Young and to Jonah Heim
19:56 and to Corey Seager and to Atolas Garcia last year.
20:01 Because there's a lot of guys that
20:03 are good enough to start every day on a half-decent team.
20:08 Zeke Turan and Josh Smith, those are both starting caliber
20:11 players for a middle-of-the-road team, I think,
20:14 and maybe could be better than that.
20:16 But we're not really going to see all that much of it
20:18 because right now they're utility players.
20:21 And that is incredibly good value
20:24 to get from your utility players of them being that good
20:27 that you kind of want to start getting them some at-bats
20:29 to be able to get some guys off their feet,
20:31 to be able to get them some reps,
20:33 because they are still developing.
20:35 Zeke Turan's going to be 25 this year.
20:37 Josh Smith is going to be 26 this year.
20:40 They are young.
20:41 They are good.
20:43 And having them as peace of mind insurance,
20:46 All-Star insurance, you know, if your All-Star goes down,
20:49 that they're your insurance policy,
20:51 that's a pretty darn good policy to have.
20:53 It's why this team was so good last year.
20:55 It's why this team will be so good this year.
20:57 No matter what's happening with the starting rotation,
21:00 yes, there's not nearly as much depth there
21:02 or depth in the bullpen.
21:03 But this starting lineup was one of the best in baseball
21:06 last year.
21:08 And even when the top guys are out,
21:10 they have plenty of firepower coming off the bench
21:12 to where you don't have to worry about
21:14 any kind of injury insurance
21:16 outside of some kind of catastrophe happening,
21:19 which I'm not anticipating happening this year.
21:22 Coming up, we're going to talk about the bullpen rolls,
21:24 what Bruce Bochy is saying,
21:25 about who is going to be the closer,
21:27 and a little bit of talk about Anthony Rendon
21:30 and his utter disdain for baseball,
21:33 right after this break from our sponsors.
21:35 (silence)
21:37 This episode is brought to you by FanDuel.
21:40 Get buckets with your first bet on FanDuel,
21:42 America's number one sports book.
21:44 Because right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets
21:47 with any winning $5 bet.
21:49 That's $150 if your bet wins.
21:52 You can bet on all your NBA favorites,
21:53 including Quick Bets, live same game parlays,
21:56 exclusive props, and more.
21:58 Or, if you're thinking that Adonis Garcia
22:01 is absolutely right, this team is absolutely going to win
22:04 their second straight World Series title.
22:06 You can bet on that at FanDuel.
22:08 The World Series odds for the 2024 champion Rangers
22:12 are at plus 1,400, behind the Dodgers at plus 320,
22:16 Braves plus 450, Astros at plus 700,
22:19 and the Yankees at plus 800.
22:21 Those are some pretty solid odds for the Rangers
22:23 going back to back as World Series champs,
22:26 just like Adonis Garcia knows is going to happen.
22:28 So go check it out.
22:29 Visit fanduel.com/lockedon and shoot your shot.
22:32 FanDuel, official sportswear partner of the NBA.
22:35 Shout out to the everydayers for making Locked On Rangers
22:41 your first listen every single day.
22:42 On Thursday, I shall be back and talking about
22:44 how Nathaniel Lowe is absolutely primed
22:46 for a breakout season this year,
22:48 and why that's going to take this Rangers offense
22:50 that is already incredible to the next level.
22:53 Now, recently, Bruce Boettcher was talking about
22:56 some roles in the bullpen.
22:58 The Rangers acquired a couple of new guys
23:01 to their bullpen, David Robertson, and also Kirby Yates.
23:04 Both those guys have extensive experience as the closer,
23:08 but they also have Jose LeClerc,
23:11 the guy who closed out pretty much every game
23:14 of these playoffs outside of the final game of the season,
23:17 where Josh Spors threw that beautiful curve ball
23:20 for called strike three to win the Rangers
23:22 their first championship.
23:24 But as of right now,
23:26 even though the Rangers bullpen rules
23:27 were very, very, very, very well-defined
23:31 during that playoff run,
23:33 it seems like they're not quite as well-defined
23:35 at this point in the season,
23:38 which was surprising to me.
23:40 Bruce Boettcher said there are no defined rules
23:42 at this point.
23:43 They are still trying to figure out
23:44 who is going to pitch when and where,
23:47 and in what inning and in what capacity.
23:49 There's gonna be a lot of mix matching of this bullpen,
23:52 which is Bruce Boettcher's strength.
23:54 We saw him take a little bit of time
23:57 to figure things out during the regular season
23:59 of who can be trusted in what spots
24:02 is an entirely new team.
24:03 It had been a hot minute
24:05 since he had been a major league manager since 2019,
24:09 so four years off.
24:10 And there was a new rule implemented
24:12 about forcing pitchers to face
24:15 at least a minimum of three batters
24:18 if they are not getting out of the inning,
24:20 which threw a little bit of a monkey wrench
24:23 into Bruce Boettcher's plans,
24:24 because he was a mix and matcher.
24:28 He was a--
24:29 There are no loogies anymore in the bullpen.
24:34 Lefty on lefty, one-out specialists.
24:37 That's not happening anymore
24:40 because you have to face three hitters.
24:42 And so that was a little bit of a wrinkle in the rules
24:44 that it took some time to finagle this bullpen.
24:47 And also the bullpen was just such a disaster fire last year.
24:51 It just took some time to say,
24:53 "All right, who is not gonna throw me under the bus?
24:55 Who can get me one inning?"
24:58 And every single time, it felt like a wild predicament
25:01 to ask a Rangers reliever to go one inning
25:04 and not allow it run.
25:06 It was just so messy last year.
25:08 And I'm hoping that this year will be significantly less messy
25:11 because it'd be hard to be even more messy than last year.
25:14 It would just be hard to repeat
25:16 how bad last year's bullpen was
25:19 with a staff of, you know, six, seven, eight major league arms.
25:23 Like, it's very difficult to be that bad and also win games.
25:27 This team was so weird last year
25:30 with having such a historically bad bullpen.
25:32 Maybe this team can be slightly less weird this year
25:35 in their bullpen usage,
25:37 but not going with Jose LeClerc as the closer day one of camp
25:41 saying, "Yeah, this guy who, you know,
25:43 carried us to the championship, you know, three months ago,
25:46 yeah, that guy's still gonna be the closer
25:47 until something else happens."
25:49 I thought that felt pretty obvious to say.
25:52 I thought it felt like not as much
25:54 like a vote of disconfidence in LeClerc
25:58 and not saying that he's the closer until proven otherwise.
26:03 And I felt like that just made all the sense in the world.
26:05 Just go with the guy who literally just carried you
26:08 for months.
26:09 Give him that confidence in himself.
26:12 Continue that confidence,
26:13 'cause obviously he's gotta be riding a confidence high
26:15 of, you know, being absolutely outstanding in the playoffs.
26:20 Same with Josh Bores.
26:21 Both of those guys have gotta be feeling just on cloud nine,
26:25 still a few months removed,
26:27 of them just going nuclear in the playoffs
26:30 and showing why, you know,
26:31 it's not just that they have great stuff
26:33 and can't quite get it done in the big moments.
26:37 They got it done in the biggest moments
26:40 over and over and over again.
26:43 And if not for that,
26:45 and them suddenly finding the best stretch of their career
26:48 at the time where the Rangers needed it the most,
26:51 then this team isn't the World Series champs.
26:55 It took a full bullpen revolution
26:59 and three guys that you could trust in the back end
27:04 for a month-long stretch,
27:07 and the Rangers did it.
27:08 And Josh Bores, Jose LeClerc, and Earlis Chapman did it.
27:11 And then they brought in some guys
27:12 who you're hoping that you can trust,
27:14 that have some veteran experience,
27:16 that are hopefully gonna be less of a tightrope act,
27:20 a tightwire act of, you know,
27:23 every pitch feels agonizing.
27:25 We never know if the strike zone is going to be hit
27:28 or how many guys are gonna be walked,
27:29 how many guys are gonna be on base
27:30 before the Rangers either blow a late lead
27:33 from the bullpen or narrowly escape.
27:37 But I thought that not naming Jose LeClerc
27:38 was just a confusing move,
27:40 and it seemed like an obvious move to do,
27:44 but it kind of makes you scratch your head.
27:45 And either the Rangers aren't so sure
27:49 that that World Series run is replicable
27:52 from LeClerc and from Spores,
27:54 or they just feel really darn good
27:56 about David Robertson and Kirby Yates.
27:59 I think I would feel much more comfortable
28:01 with the latter being true
28:03 than them just not quite trusting
28:05 that World Series run from LeClerc.
28:08 I'm more inclined to believe
28:09 that that was the real Jose LeClerc
28:11 and that was the real Josh Bores.
28:15 I'm more believing that Jose LeClerc
28:17 being amazing in 2024 is repeatable
28:20 than I am that Josh Bores is gonna be
28:22 very reliable and solid and not volatile
28:27 like he's been in his whole career.
28:29 But hey, the Rangers have some depth behind them,
28:32 some depth options behind those guys
28:33 if what they did that month of October
28:37 and one game in November isn't sustainable.
28:40 And I'm feeling much better about that.
28:42 There was some very important news
28:44 that I am bearing the lead
28:45 of maybe the most important news
28:46 that I found out today.
28:48 And it was from World Series champion Austin Hedges.
28:51 There was a lot of talk about Austin Hedges
28:53 getting some buttless chaps,
28:56 which all chaps are buttless.
28:58 That's just kind of how chaps work,
29:00 and wearing those chaps in the World Series parade,
29:02 which you may remember,
29:04 he was not wearing those chaps during the parade.
29:07 It was the source of much consternation,
29:09 much frustration.
29:10 It was the only, well, there were a couple of things
29:12 that didn't go perfectly about the parade,
29:14 but it doesn't really matter
29:15 if you're not wearing those chaps
29:17 during the championship parade.
29:18 And that was fun,
29:19 because winning championships is fun.
29:21 But we found out today,
29:22 thanks to intrepid reporting from Chris Rose
29:25 on his podcast, talking with Hedges about,
29:27 "Why were you not wearing those chaps?
29:29 "You made a promise to Rangers Nation.
29:31 "You said you were gonna wear the chaps.
29:32 "What was the deal?"
29:35 And he said, "Well, I bought the chaps.
29:37 "It happened.
29:37 "I even got them.
29:38 "I was ready to wear them.
29:40 "But my mom said no."
29:43 And that was the final card that said,
29:45 "Well, you know what?
29:46 "You're not wearing them."
29:47 'Cause apparently they weren't just buttless chaps.
29:49 They were also frontless chaps.
29:51 So that would have been a little traumatizing
29:54 for the kiddos there at the parade
29:56 who wasn't quite sure what to do with those chaps
29:59 that did not have a front.
30:01 Not exactly appropriate for everyone around there.
30:04 You wouldn't want to get arrested
30:06 for indecent exposure at a championship parade.
30:08 I mean, that would be kind of embarrassing.
30:11 It would be hilarious, but also embarrassing.
30:13 But that is some nice closure learning about that.
30:17 And just nice to hear some stories
30:21 about the World Series champion,
30:23 Texas Reindeers, off elsewhere telling tales.
30:26 Apparently, if he brings the Cleveland Guardians
30:29 their first baseball championship
30:31 since, I believe, the 1940s,
30:33 apparently he has promised to wear the chaps for them,
30:36 which feels a little rude, honestly.
30:40 I know it's a longer drought for Cleveland,
30:43 than the Rangers championship drought.
30:45 It was, what, 53 years in Texas
30:47 and 61 of the franchise?
30:50 I'm sorry, Eric and Adele,
30:51 for not remembering every single word
30:54 of the lead-up of that call
30:56 for the Rangers winning that championship.
30:58 But still, Cleveland had won a championship before,
31:00 and the Rangers as a franchise had not.
31:02 So that just feels a little rude, Austin Hedges.
31:05 But hey, I'm still rooting for Austin Hedges.
31:07 Maybe the Guardians-- I don't think this is gonna--
31:09 I think it's gonna be a moot point
31:10 because the Rangers are going back to back.
31:12 Maybe Austin Hedges can just show up at this parade
31:15 and make up for his previous mistake.
31:17 Maybe the Rangers will trade for him again at the deadline,
31:19 give up some cash considerations
31:21 or some international bonus pool money,
31:23 and maybe at the 2024 championship parade,
31:26 finally, we can get Austin Hedges
31:28 breaking out those chaps,
31:29 but maybe wear something in front
31:32 just so you don't get arrested at the championship parade.
31:34 But that's gonna do it for today's show.
31:35 Thank you all so much for listening and subscribing.
31:38 And until next time,
31:39 don't forget to enjoy World Series Champion,
31:42 Texas Rangers baseball.
31:43 (no audio)
31:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]