What This Trade Deadline Means for the Texas Rangers’ Playoff Chances

The Texas Rangers were not as active as many expected them to be. What do their trades mean for their playoff chances?

Texas Rangers General Manager Chris Young. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

For all the hope around the trade deadline for the Texas Rangers, they ended up making just two trades.

Texas acquired reliever Chase Silseth and catcher Logan O’Hoppe for infield prospect Angel Arredondo. Then, on deadline day, the Rangers shipped infielder Josh Smith and pitching prospect Josh Stephan to the Toronto Blue Jays for rookie reliever Adam Macko.

That’s it. That’s all they did. How did president of baseball operations Chris Young explain it?

“We feel like the moves we made in landing two relievers and a catcher fit our timeline beyond this year while preserving depth in our system is great and healthy for our organization and we're happy about that and excited to see where it leads,” he said to reporters, including DLLS Sports’ Abby Jones, on Monday.

But where will it lead this season?

Rangers Playoff Hopes After Deadline

Texas Rangers right fielder Brandon Nimmo and manager Skip Schumaker. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Rangers (55-57) entered Monday’s action against the San Francisco Giants 2.5 games behind the Houston Astros in the division and 1.5 games out of the final wild card spot. After Monday’s game, the Rangers remained there, but dropped two games behind in the AL wild card race after their loss to San Francisco.

The additions of Silseth and Macko give the Rangers a pair of new arms for a bullpen that has been suffering from a bit of exhaustion of late. Silseth is a right-hander with quality chase and whiff rates, along with a high ground ball rate. Macko, a left-hander, also has solid whiff rates and exit velocity rates.

Both fill the strike zone and should be used in seventh- and eighth-inning situations when the Rangers have a lead or are tied. That’s been a problem of late.

The Rangers entered their homestand with the San Francisco Giants and the Baltimore Orioles having lost five of their last six games. The Giants were sellers at the trade deadline as they dealt key players like second baseman Luis Arraez, left-handed pitcher Robbie Ray and outfielder Heliot Ramos. There’s an opportunity for Texas to win the series and start chipping away at the AL West-leading Houston Astros.

Young opted to stand pat, adding some help for a bullpen that needed it but not touching the lineup a bit. Smith wasn’t going to be recalled unless there was an injury. He’s banking that the order — which has been inconsistent this season — can find a groove in the final two months. Young said that’s what this team was assembled to do.

“The reality is we expected to have those guys when we signed those contracts, and that's what we've planned on. The best thing we can do right now is to go win,” he said.

The Rangers did attempt to get Jacob deGrom to waive his no-trade clause, but he declined. It’s possible the trade deadline could have gone another way. deGrom told reporters before the game that he wanted to be there and he wanted to win.

The real question is whether this team, as assembled, can? It’s been relentlessly average all season. Corey Seager has missed two months on the injured list. Josh Jung, the team’s best hitter this season, is there now and it’s not clear when he’ll return. Even after keeping the rotation intact, their performance early in games is concerning. The returns of Jordan Montgomery and Cody Bradford may only help so much.

Young did the math. He would have had to expend so much capital to put this team in a position to challenge for an American League pennant that it probably would have crippled the Rangers’ minor league system for years. For a team that hasn’t broken the chains of mediocrity this season — and frankly the past three seasons — that wasn’t worth it.

What did the trade deadline mean for the Rangers’ playoff changes? Little. If Texas gets there, it will be because their lineup finally gets on track and the rotation begins pitching to its full potential. It was all there before the deadline and it’s all there after the deadline. Now, they just need to get it done.

Easier said than done.