Rebuilding the Texas Rangers - OOTP22

[WarningTrakPower]

After missing all of 2021, José Leclerc is finally back healthy and pitched 9 innings for us. But we have decided to trade him to Kansas City!

He is making $4.75m this year and signed for $6m for next year (team option for 2024 at $6.25m).

Here is the trade we are making.



We tried to pry one of the decent young pitchers from KC, but Daniel Tillo is the best we could get (without paying too much more than Leclerc).

Here is Tillo's profile page. For now, we will keep him in the bullpen, but if we lose a starter to injury he might get a look in the rotation.



Ironically, Tillo also missed all of the 2021 season (tommy john). He missed 3 months this season with "rotator cuff inflammation".

[WarningTrakPower]

Kumar Rocker has been hurt and will miss the next 5 weeks (at minimum).
Hopefully he can join us in September!



Edit - Masyn Winn sprained his ankle and will miss the next 5 weeks (effectively ending his MiLB season).
He should be in AA to start next year.



August 25th, 2022 Update - Kumar Rocker out one more week than initially expected!

[WarningTrakPower]

The injury bug is catching up to us! We lose Miguel Rojas for the next 5 weeks.



Andy Ibanez has been recalled from AAA and Jacob Amaya is now the starting SS.

[WarningTrakPower]

Well... that did not going exactly how we thought it would, but 2022 is now behind us!

We finished 64-98 on the season (tied with Oakland for 3rd last in MLB).
We won almost 44% of our games (almost at a 71 win pace) when you remove May and September.



Let's take a look at our pitchers stats!



Michael King led the way for us in the rotation with 2.6 WAR and he led the AL with a .259 BABIP against.

Jonathan Loaisiga had a very up and down year for us, but finished with 2.5 WAR. His stamina has also dropped from 45 to 40 and has trouble going deep in to ball games.
Take a look his month by month splits below.



Randy Dobnak was good as a back of the rotation arm (ERA was 5.56 but FIP was 4.28).
He was hit hard, but hopefully a BABIP against of .340 will drop down next season.

Josh Fleming was doing fine in the first half (ERA at 4.00 on June 30), but really struggled in the second half.

We are really happy with the current collection of arms coming in as relief pitchers.
Brett DeGeus was probably the "worst" of our relievers and he had a BABIP against of .358 (2.8 BB/9 which is solid).

Now let's take a look at how our hitters were statistically!



Terrin Vavra was easily our MVP by putting up 4.5 WAR. We might have to reduce high stolen base aggressiveness as he had 17 SB with 14 CS.

Miguel Rojas was an excellent addition at SS for us. He is a pending free agent and soon to be 34 years old.
Also, Isiah Kiner-Falefa had a very good year in Miami with a .751 OPS (3.9 WAR).

Whit Merrifield had a good season, but was just fine after coming over in a trade. He had an OPS of .732 in just under 300 PAs with Texas.
He does have a team option for next year at $6.5m, but he will also be 34 years old.
Also, Max Kepler went on to hit for an OPS of .744 (1.4 WAR) with KC.

Josh Jung had a decent rookie season splitting time between 1B (62 starts) & 3B (87 starts).
Hopefully he can be a stabilizing bat in our lineup for years to come.

Blake Rutherford came over in a trade and was very good.
He hit for an OPS of .788 and was worth 1.5 WAR in just less than 300 PAs.

Jacob Amaya came over in that same trade and was even better (albeit in lesser at bats).
He hit for an OPS of .851 and was worth 1.3 WAR in about 180 PAs.

Steele Walker (what an amazing name by the way) had a perplexing season to say the least. How he finished with an OPS of .719 (and hit for a BA of .277) is beyond me.
It seemed like he was in a cold streak all season, but he had a good July (OPS of .780) and had 8 multi-hit games in his final 9 starts.

Let's take a second to review the (lack of) production we received from our 1B position in 2022.

Nate Lowe - Althought mostly DH for us, was worth -0.5 WAR.
Josh Jung - No way to determine his WAR at 1B (that I can find), but roughly 40% of the time at 1B equals roughly +0.8 WAR (give or take).
Sherten Apostel - 71 starts at 1B (75 defense rating at 1B) and was worth -1.2 WAR (used his final option year to try and get him going in AAA).
Chris Terry - Roughly 100 MLB PAs and was worth 0 WAR (he does have a .913 OPS in 140+ AAA games).

Sum of total value from 1B for 2022 = -0.9 WAR

We will now sim up to free agent filing day (make a few non-tenders I am sure) and come back to assess where we stand and outline an offseason gameplan!

[redranger]

I’m also on a Rangers rebuild. However I started a rebuild in Ootp21 that I gave dusted off and imported into OOTP22

Just finished my first season(2019) got through the off season and spring training. With opening day 2020 in front of me

I found in my first season extreme pitching struggles but feel like I made some pretty decent trades to head in the right direction. My road record was an abomination too

For my opening day roster I have 18 of my 26 that was not on opening day roster last year (attained either from trades or up from Minors)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[WarningTrakPower]

After much deliberation, I have decided to turn off coaches and no longer use the morale system.





For now, we have left player personalities on.

I would have preferred to keep this sim as "default" as possible, but I have grown tired of some of our prospects underperforming due to poor morale.

For those maybe unfamiliar with which aspects of morale can affect a player performance, here are the five pieces that show up in the player editor.



If I could keep morale for 40 man players only, I would leave it on. The top draft picks becoming angry because they get rocked in the GCL is one thing I can no longer deal with (unfortunately).

I wanted to be fully transparent about this simulation as we move towards year #3 and I expect better results to come.

[WarningTrakPower]

After failing to re-sign Miguel Rojas, we have made a trade with Arizona for Nick Ahmed!



Here is Nick's profile page!



Ian Oxnevad was a SP prospect we got in the Joey Gallo trade that didn't really pan out with us.
Kyle Nelson was an interesting RP we claimed off waivers in September. He is only 26, had one option year remaining and had really good career MiLB stats.

Also, Miguel Rojas signed a nice contract with the Phillies!



Edit - Whit Merrifield has signed with the Houston Astros!

[WarningTrakPower]

After a very long absence, we are ready to start 2023 with the Texas Rangers!!!

First, let's take a look at the American League Preseason Predictions!



The game believes we have a strong chance at an AL West title this year!

Here is our 6 man rotation (to start the season)!



I cannot justify starting Kumar Rocker in AAA (even though he was not on 40 man in ST), so that is why we are going to try a 6 man rotation.

I am slightly worried about the drop in stamina for Jonathan Loaisiga, so he may eventually become a stopper in our bullpen.

Here are our relievers to start the year!



Here are our batters!!



We are going to platoon Steele Walker and Davis Wendzel in LF to start the year. If we can add a left handed power bat, we might do the same at DH (depending on how John Nogowski does for us)

Unfortunately, we lost Nick Ahmed to injury in Spring Training!
Hopefully he is back late April!



Former Rangers 1st rounder Chris Seise has been promoted to give us a strong defensive infielder for late game substitutions.

[WarningTrakPower]

Blake Rutherford has injured his hamstring and will miss at least 3 weeks (plus a rehab assignment).



Our only internal option for RF would be to callup Julio Pablo Martinez (OPS+ of 98 in his AAA career).

So we have decided to make this trade for Shogo Akiyama!



They will be retaining 80% so he will only cost us $1.6m for 2023.
We only had to give up Dane Dunning (which also creates a spot in the rotation in AAA).

Here is Shogo's player profile! I don't prefer to have Outspoken players on my team, but he was best available on the trade block.



We are going to try to train him up to play RF for the time being.

[WarningTrakPower]

We have decided to trade Randy Dobnak to the Nationals for John Gant.



After a very good spring training, Randy Dobnak had five poor starts with only one quality start this season.
Since he is signed for two more seasons after this one, it felt like a good time to trade him away.

John Gant will join our bullpen, but may not be around for long if we decide to callup someone from AAA.

[WarningTrakPower]

The Texas Rangers have struggled mightily in the first two months of 2023! We are currently 22-32 (.407 win %) on June 4th!



Our batters have not been good enough and we will be looking to make some trades in the next two months or so!



Josh Jung has torn the cover off the ball and sits second in AL in batting average!
Davis Wendzel has been very good also, albeit in a platoon role. He might start getting some at bats vs RH pitching in the next two months.
Jacob Amaya may be the biggest disappointment offensively to start the year. He hit for an .851 OPS last year after we acquired him in a trade with LAD.

Here is a look at how our pitchers have done so far!



Michael King was "jumped" and is currently on the IL. When he is ready to return we will be moving Josh Fleming to bullpen (or possibly a trade.)



Our rotation "looks" to be in decent shape and we have Daniel Tillo in AAA as our likely next SP option, when need be.

For some reason (poor performance maybe) the AI has only used Jonathan Hernandez in 15 games (for 13 innings) after 54 games. The numbers look quite crooked for him, but we believe it is small sample related.

[WarningTrakPower]

With the 4th overall pick, the Texas Rangers have selected ... Hunter Barco out of the University of Florida!



Another pitching prospect who could be in the majors as early as next season! I'd be lying if I told you the control didn't worry me a little bit, but hopefully he can be in our rotation for many years to come!

In the 2nd round we selected Nolan Stevens, a 6'4" LH hitting 1B/LF out of HS. Most likely he will be a future trade chip, unless his bat really develops.

In the 3rd round we had two picks (one compensation from last year) and we selected Patrick Holloman, a LH college pitcher.
He is basically fully developed, so he might be in the upper minors by seasons end.
We also selected Dominic Johnson, a RH hitting OF. He is already 22, doesn't look like he will hit much, but he has 70 OF range.

In the 4th round we selected Nate Wohlgemuth, a 22yr old RH pitcher. Although he "appears" to be a 2way option, the bat is a little light for his age.
So we will let him focus on pitching only and he might be a bullpen/back end rotation option at some point.

We decided to "punt" the 5th round selection (to keep him away from our competition) on a HS OF named Caleb Hampton. He will head off to USC and be draft eligible again in a few seasons.
He wanted $3.8m and that is a bit much for a guy with his corner OF skillset.

We were able to find a couple long shot HS pitcher in the 7th and 9th rounds. They both have a bonus demand of $500k.
In the 7th round we picked Ethan McElvain, a LH pitcher from Tennessee.
He was committed to Vanderbilt, so that would likely be a tough decision to make.
The the 9th round we picked Freddy Beruvides Jr., another LH pitcher.
Both of these two HS pitchers are long shots, but for $1m combined I think it is worth the gamble.

We will be back around July 2nd (international amateur signing period opening) to provide another team update (unless we make a trade before then)!

[WarningTrakPower]

After a very strong June (17-10), the Texas Rangers have improved to a record of 37-41 (.474 win%) and are now only five games back of the second wildcard spot!

Some roster updates before we going through the pitchers & batters.

Zac Lowther - Optioned to AAA on June 8, tore his flexor tendon on June 15 and is out for another 12-13 months.
Ky Bush - Optioned to AAA on June 29 after six mediocre starts
Jonathan Hernandez - Traded to the Reds for two prospects. Soon to be 25 yr old LF Evan Russell was the 8th overall pick in 2022.
Also, we pick up 25 yr old RP Kasey Kalich. They will both be heading to AA Frisco.
Hunter Barco - Promoted from AA to AAA after only 4 starts.

Now let us take a look at how our pitchers are doing!



Our rotation has certainly done the job so far. Daniel Tillo is going to get another look in the rotation with Ky Bush back in AAA. Josh Fleming will move to our long reliever for the time being.

Brett DeGeus has been hit hard (.350 BABIP), but his rate stats are very good and currently his FIP is 2.58.

Ronny Henriquez is likely the next man up from AAA for our bullpen, should the need arise. He just turned 23 and is not currently on the 40 man roster.

Here is how our batters are doing!



Josh Jung really cooled off in June, hitting for an OPS of .605 to drop his season OPS down to .827.

Terrin Vavra continued his hot hitting, raising his OPS up to .812 for the season.

John Nogowski was our best hitter in June. He has an OPS of .905 to raise his season number up to .741.

Shogo Akiyama has been a great addition to our lineup. He has had a .823 OPS since coming over in a trade in the middle of May.

Edit - Davis Wendzel had a very poor June (.596 OPS) and is moving back in to a platoon with Steele Walker.

We will likely be quite active before August 1st, so expect a few updates in the coming days!

[WarningTrakPower]

The Texas Rangers have acquired Brian Anderson from the Miami Marlins!



Anderson Tejeda is the main piece heading to Miami. He just turned 25 on May 1st and has one option year remaining.
Cooper Davis was a MiLB free agent we signed as an org filler guy.
Sergio Pacheco is turning 24 soon and will be a MiLB free agent after this season (was in AA with us).

Brian Anderson will be our everyday 3B and Josh Jung will slide over to 1B. John Nogowski will move to a bench role / platoon DH vs LHP.

Also, we have acquired Corey Knebel from the Cubs!



We are essentially flipping Brett Martin for Corey Knebel (who is on an expiring contract).
David Garcia is a switch hitting catcher prospect who was targeted by a number of teams in trade talks.
His catcher ability is 60 and he does have a decent bat (.713 career MiLB OPS).

A.J. Alexy has been optioned to AAA to make room on the active roster.

[WarningTrakPower]

We have decided to trade away our backup catcher!



Jose Trevino had been pretty decent with us while splitting the catching duties with Ali Sanchez.
After a very decent 2021 (.741 OPS), hit bat slowed mightily in 2022 (.643 OPS) and in 2023 (.630 OPS).

Roberto Perez is now our backup catcher! We signed him as a MiLB free agent in January.
He is an elite defensive catcher and he will be coming in for late game substitutions the next two months (plus starting every 4th or 5th day).

David Fry will serve as AAA depth and Tim Lopes has been DFA'd.

[WarningTrakPower]

It ended up taking us 163 games, but the Texas Rangers are heading to the AL Wildcard game vs the Angels!

What an amazing game 163 it was! Blake Rutherford with the walk-off 2-run homer!!!



Here is look at our month to month records. A strong August brought us within striking distance to the second wildcard.
We didn't have a great September, but going 7-1 in October was very clutch!



Heading to the one game showdown, we are missing a couple key pieces due to injury.

Kumar Rocker is out for another 8 weeks with "shoulder inflammation".
In 21 starts, he was worth 2.4 WAR with an ERA of 4.16 (FIP of 3.77).

Corey Knebel was having a truly dominant season... until he ruptured his UCL at the end of August!
Since coming over via trade, he put up a 0.64 ERA (2.64 FIP) is 14 innings!

Adrian Morejon strained his forearm roughly a week ago, but thankfully is only day-to-day (for 1-2 more weeks).
Hard to believe he has not turned 25 yet with over 4 years MLB service time already under his belt.
He is a bit homer prone, 1.2 HR/9 this year (1.3 last year) and walks too many for my preference, 4.4 BB/9 this year (4.2 in each of two previous years).

Thankfully, we enter the playoffs with a healthy lineup! Let's take a look the end of season stats for our hitters!



Nick Ahmed had a monster September (.925 OPS in 90 PAs) and finished with 3.7 WAR in only 111 games.

Brian Anderson got off to a very slow start after coming over via trade, but he also has an excellent September (.883 OPS in 97 PAs).

*Not shown is LF/RF Davis Wendzel who had an up and down year, finishing with an OPS of .758 in 276 PAs.
He will not be active for the playoff roster to start.

Now let's take a look at the end of season stats for our pitchers!

Starting Pitchers


*Not shown is our #5 SP Daniel Tillo who is not going to be active on the playoff roster.

Michael King will be getting the start in the AL Wildcard game!

After a poor start to his year, he was really strong after June!



Relief Pitchers


Brett De Geus had a very underrated season out of the bullpen.

Kevin Ginkel also has a tremendous season, finishing with an ERA of 2.09 (FIP of 3.33).

Also, Josh Fleming (somehow) thrived after moving from the rotation to the bullpen.
After 18 poor starts, ERA of 5.06 (4.59 FIP), he was moved to the bullpen and he posted a 1.34 ERA (2.63 FIP) in 40.1 innings!

Unfortunately, this is going to be the last update for a few weeks!
I look forward to continuing this dynasty report as we see how we make out in the playoffs!!!

[WarningTrakPower]

The Texas Rangers have won the AL wildcard game are heading to the ALDS against the Houston Astros!

[WarningTrakPower]

2023 ALDS Series Recap!

Game 1 - 5-0 Loss
We couldn't solve Lance McCullers and Whit Merrifield had 3 RBI (and played CF even though he only had 10 starts in CF this year).

Game 2 - 1-0 Win
Kohei Arihara twirled a complete game shutout and only gave up 3 hits (to go with 5 walks). Shogo Akiyama drove in our only run in the top of the 9th.

Game 3 - 6-3 Win
We were down 3-2 going to bottom of the 8th and scored 4 runs to put us ahead. DeMarcus Evans shut the door for the save.

Game 4 - 7-2 Loss
Rough start for Michael King, giving up 10 hits and 6 earned in 5+ innings. Solid start from Jose Urquidy to force a do or die game 5.
Whit Merrifield had another monster day at the plate going 3-4 with 3 RBI.

Game 5



A walk-off win off the bat of former Ranger Whit Merrifield ends our season.

Time to focus on the next offseason towards building a dynasty!

[WarningTrakPower]

After being unable to resign Brian Anderson, we have decided to make a trade for a new 3B!

We have acquired Gio Urshela from the Yankees!



The Yankees are retaining 50% of the remaining two years of his contract.



If we can somehow get an OPS around .750 with above average defense at the hot corner, we will be happy with this trade (plus he is a "captain").

As far as what we gave up to get him, we don't see any of these three guys as future MLB contributors.

Freddy Beruvides Jr - He *may* end up being a future MLB pitcher, but looks like a backend rotation arm at best (and he just turned 19).

Jonathan Ornelas - Had a strong 2021 in A+ to earn a look at AA, was fine in AA and eventually moved up to AAA where he has not hit at all (.618 OPS in almost 600 PAs) and was looking to start 2024 in AA again.

Jose Rodriguez - A "bat first" catcher with a less than ideal personality. Was looking to repeat A+ for us anyways, even though his bat looks fully developed (at 22 years old).

Organizational Note
We have two infield prospect options who will be starting the season in AAA. This allows us to get a strong look at these two before bringing up to MLB too quickly.

Masyn Winn - We are going to train him at SS to begin the year (only 60 range though). Struggled in A+ after the trade, but had a nice year in AA last year (.744 OPS at 21 years old).

Maximo Acosta - Looking more like a 2B, but will start at 3B for some cross training. Has not stopped hitting (.865 OPS across all levels).
Check out the MiLB batting stats from this guy (just turned 21).

[WarningTrakPower]

One position where an upgrade was possible was LF... so we have decided to trade for Tommy Pham!



Oakland is retaining 75%, which means we are paying him $1.2m.
We essentially flipped Davis Wendzel for him as the pitcher we threw in (to get more salary retention) is a non-factor.

Also, while looking at players on trading block we noticed Boston was looking to move Austin Hedges!



We only added Reese McGuire to 40man after spring training since we had no backup catcher. Also, we have signed Roberto Perez to MiLB deal for AAA depth.

Angel Rodon was a pitcher we acquired in the Joey Gallo trade, but he would be a weak #5 starter at best.

Now time to sim ahead to the draft and see if we can make any roster adjustments along the way!