Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young has a self-imposed mandate this offseason. He wants to build a team that is younger, more athletic and more versatile both at the plate and on the field.
Fortunately, he has two good examples to crib from in this year's World Series. The National League champion Milwaukee Brewers and the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays fit the mold that Young is trying to create in Texas.
Granted, both teams are doing it on a much lower budget than the Rangers. But as Young attempts to evolve his roster from a team reliant on big money veteran contracts to one that is cheaper and more flexible, he would could do a lot worse than to learn from the Brewers and the Rays.
What’s the overwhelming takeaway/ Versatility matters.
What Brewers, Rays Do that is Worth Rangers Emulating
The Brewers and the Rays didn’t get to this point by accident. The lineups had the two best slash lines in the regular season:
Brewers: .258/.341/.403
Rays: .258/.326/.402
Young is trying to build a roster built around getting more runners on base, so the on base percentage for both these teams is key. The Brewers had the best on-base percentage in the regular season. The Rays had the fifth best. You don't get that kind of on-base percentage by relying on the three-run home run. You do it with versatile lineups that can do multiple things.
Manager Skip Schumacher tried some version of that with the personnel he had in Texas, but it didn't work nearly as well as it has for the Brewers or the Rays. Why? The Rangers don’t have the skilled players needed to do it.
Both teams are willing to do different things offensively. They’re willing to hit-and-run. They’re willing to sacrifice. Most notably, they’re willing to bunt, a lost art in modern baseball.
Both teams were among the best in baseball at sacrifice hits and bunts. Tampa Bay was first with 45. Milwaukee was fifth with 37. Sandwiched between them in fourth place was Texas with 38. By season’s end they were starting to catch on.
One area where there is a gap between the Brewers and the Rays is walks drawn. The Brewers were second in baseball as they took 668 walks. The Rays were 22nd with 514. That considerable gap could come up huge in the World Series for Milwaukee. The Rangers were 19th with 525 walks.
This is the kind of lineup that Young is trying to build in Texas. But the Brewers and Rays both did it over time — with player development, trades and free-agent moves that fit into what they do on the field and with their budget.
The Rangers will need time to accomplish that. The good news is that the Brewers and the Rays have given them a template to go by. Plus, both teams have proven that it works.
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