Chris Young Finds Rangers Have no Easy Button to Return to Postseason

The Los Angeles Dodgers are trying to do something no team has done since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees — win three World Series in a row.

It’s a daunting task. Few teams win back-to-back World Series, much less three in a row. Bruce Bochy, who led the Texas Rangers to their 2023 World Series title, won three in San Francisco with the Giants. But none were back-to-back. The Giants won in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Getting back to the World Series after winning it — or losing it — is tough. The Toronto Blue Jays won the AL pennant last year only to miss the playoffs this year. The Texas Rangers know the feeling.

Since winning the World Series in 2023, Texas hasn’t been back to the postseason. For Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young — who was in his first year as a solo general manager in 2023 — he’s finding the road back to the postseason far more difficult than expected.

No Easy Roads Back to Playoffs

Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager reacts to striking out. — Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager. Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Rangers’ 2023 season is proving to be more magical by the year. It was the team’s only winning season in a decade. The Rangers made the playoffs the final weekend and won every road playoff game they played. Not having home field worked to their advantage.

Young admitted that, perhaps, he and his staff were a bit fooled by what it took to reach the postseason, having not been there before.

“You know, in one way, we had immediate success in winning a World Series,” Young said. “I think it created an expectation for all of us that this was going to be easy, and I think we're realizing that it's not easy.”

Young should have known better. He won a World Series as a player with the Kansas City Royals in 2015. He also served as Jon Daniels’ GM for three seasons before Daniels was fired late in the 2022 season. Young was part of the rebuild that led to that title.

He deserves credit for putting the final pieces together that season, the signings of players like Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, along with the trades that brought in pitching like Aroldis Chapman, Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery.

But he also deserves some of the blame for the Rangers not getting back the past three seasons. He gave up considerable prospect assets to make trades the past two seasons because the team was in a “win now” mode. He admitted the team didn’t have enough depth this year, in part because he didn’t bring in enough competition for the roster as much of the lineup was set.

If winning a World Series in 2023 lulled him into a false sense of what it takes, well, the past three years have shaken that out of him. But it comes at a price. He’s had to trim payroll last offseason and may have to do it again. He has more than $100 million wrapped up in five players, all over the age of 30. The farm system is far less fertile than it was three years ago.

Yet, he’s optimistic he and his staff can figure it out, even as a work stoppage looms.

“If you asked me what my expectation would have been four years ago, it would be that we make the playoffs four years in a row and compete for a World Series,” he said. “We've done that one of four years, so for me that’s not good enough.”

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