The state of the American League is such that the Rangers’ 55-57 record has them just 2.5 games back of the AL West-leading Houston Astros (58-55) and 1.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot (Guardians are #3 at 57-56), but given the state of their roster, it’s a bit unclear if they’ll be buyers or sellers at this afternoon’s trade deadline. What is clear is that they’ll be facing a San Francisco Giants roster that has been taken apart to a degree.
But back to the Rangers. Corey Seager has been
limited to just 54 games, Wyatt Langford just 60, Josh Smith just 45 and now Josh Jung, their second-best hitter this season (128 wRC+), is on the IL. Joc Pederson has been their best hitter overall (137 wRC+), which is probably not the situation they wanted to find themselves in at the deadline. At the same time, the Giants are the first team they’ll face in a 13-game stretch against a patch of losers (the Orioles, then Angels, then Athletics the next teams), so the chance to really make a run is right in front of them.
Will the Giants be able to play spoiler? Nah. They had a shot this past weekend in San Diego and got whooped pretty good; and, it’s hard to see a team that has subtracted Luis Arraez from its lineup will be able to hit at the same level it’s been at for the past few months (107 wRC+ — #5 in MLB)
But the pitching slate reflects where both teams are at: a lot of uncertainty here at this scheduled turning point. You are probably not paying attention to this series preview.
Series Overview
Who: San Francisco Giants (47-65) at Texas Rangers (55-57)
Where: Globe Life Field | Arlington, Texas
When: Monday & Tuesday at 5:05pm PT, Wednesday at 11:35am PT
National broadcasts: ESPN (Monday)
Projected starters
Monday: Logan Webb (RHP 6-7, 3.93 ERA) vs. TBD
Tuesday: TBD vs. TBD
Wednesday: TBD vs. TBD
Players to watch
Rangers
Brandon Nimmo: Since July 1st, he’s hitting .299/.358/.494 (140 wRC+) with 3 homers and 3 stolen bases. He has a .383 BAbip, though.
Ezequiel Duran: He’s hit 6 homers and driven in 17 runs since July 1st (126 wRC+) on a .279 BAbip. He is a superutility guy who’d been covering shortstop in Corey Seager’s absence. With Seager’s return, he’s slid over to third base to now cover for the injured Josh Jung.
Joc Pederson: He has also hit 6 homers since July 1st on a line of .292/.352/.631 in 71 plate appearances. Yes, he’s still mostly used as a platoon bat.
Giants
Logan Webb: The Giants have made it clear they’re not trading him and he is the only scheduled starter of this entire series between the two teams. He followed up his Pitcher of the Month June with a #5 starter performance in August: 6.59 ERA (4.77 FIP) in 28.2 IP. Just 17 strikeouts and 8 walks. The Giants were 2-3 in his starts. Maybe the WBC has thrown him out of whack. Maybe he’s past his prime. In any case, this is going to go down as one of the worst seasons of his career, and it’ll still wind up being pretty good (around 3.5 fWAR).
Heliot Ramos: Will he be traded? Since coming off the IL on June 28th, he’s hit .260/.300/.423 (100 wRC+). Now, here’s where the breakdown gets weird. He’s also hit 5 home runs since his return (130 PA), but 4 of those occurred within his first 8 games back, and that’s why his line looks league average. But since July 7th, he’s hit just 1 home run in 96 PA and has just a 4.2% walk rate against a 30.2% strikeout rate to go with a line of .242/.281/.275 (58 wRC+). No wonder his name has come up in trade rumors. He is probably on the Patrick Bailey train with the organization.
Jung Hoo Lee: He had a bad July (83 wRC+) but he’s 3-for-9 to start August. He’s not going anywhere, I suppose, but what kind of player will he be? This season looks like it will cement his label, and it’s trending towards being one that would be positive, but hardly worth the big contract he got.
Prediction time
A too-loud contingent of fans will complain about the team’s returns — not on this site, of course; you all are wonderful ball knowers — but maybe this will be the year when the majority of fans come to realize that trade deadline deals are never as sexy as we imagine they will be.
