1 praise, 1 scold, and 1 reason Rangers architect Chris Young deserves no credit for Texas's 2026 performance

While it's easy to look at how the Texas Rangers finished the 2026 season and say the team wasn't good enough, there's a bit more nuance to the discussion. You'd be correct in saying that, in the grand scheme of things, the talent on the roster wasn't up to par with the teams that made the playoffs, especially the ones who played deep into October.

But circumstances matter. At the end of the day, the money available to spend doesn't belong to Young, so when Ray Davis mandated that he cut payroll, there wasn't anything he could do about the situation. The big-money contracts to guys like Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom, and Nathan Eovaldi didn't help bring flexibility, but while it's easy to complain that one or all of those deals should never have been given out, they were signed at a time when the payroll environment was very different.

“My main thought is that we're going to have a payroll that's high enough for us to win,” Young said during last year's general manager meetings. “We've got a great core group in place. We are in a great position. We don't have to make any moves to accommodate payroll or to buy payroll flexibility, so to speak. But we're expecting to win with whatever number we have. I’m very confident we'll be able to put together a very good team, whatever the payroll number is.”

While the winning part of that statement didn't come to fruition, Young wasn't wrong when he said that Texas's payroll would be high enough to win with. Per Spotrac, the Rangers came in with a labor payroll that was a hair over $192 million this season, ranking 13th in baseball and far exceeding that of the Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Guardians, and Chicago White Sox.

In fact, one of Young's biggest cost-cutting maneuvers, trading Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo, provedto be one of his most impactful offseason moves. Nimmo came in and produced a 106 wRC+, despite being the recipient of some real bad luck, while Semien played like a below-replacement-level player.

When we look at the work that Young did in the offseason to build this team, plus the methods he put into practice to maintain and improve the roster as the season wore on, we find that there are things that stand out as major positives and negatives, as well as one key development that shows how lucky he got.

Chris Young deserves praise for how he scoured the waiver wire to improve the Rangers' roster

It's easy to look at a front office executive's job and distill it to what he did in the offseason and what he adds at the trade deadline and consider nothing more. However, GMs and POBOs aren't guys who work hard all winter and then are put on ice until the end of July. They're constantly searching for ways to add depth and improve their teams throughout the regular season. It's just that, aside from the deadline, there isn't a lot of movement of players who can materially alter a franchise's course.

However, Young worked tirelessly to turn over the bottom of his roster and make improvements. The one-game reign of Chris Paddack was a hilarious but poignant example of this. The veteran right-hander was clearly far removed from his days as a quality big league hurler, but for one day he gave Texas what it needed.

The two best examples of this principle at work, though, were the duo of Elias Diaz and Nicky Lopez. Both players were picked up off the scrap heap and, for large swaths of the season, gave the Rangers starter-caliber production at times, while playing the role of valuable depth pieces at other times.

Both players hit a wall at points, but they both also had resurgent moments down the stretch. They also did the little things and kept the team afloat during times of injury. Both were great bang-for-your-buck pickups.

Chris Young should be scolded for the way he constructed the Rangers bullpen

In a league where it seems every team has middle relievers coming out and firing 100 miles per hour fastballs, Young took a different approach, adding soft-tossers and low-ceiling relievers to the roster. The result was a bullpen that posted a 23rd-ranked 4.47 ERA in 2026, ranked 26th with 7.85 K/9, and 23rd with an average fastball velocity of 93.9 miles per hour.

Chris Martin was a disaster. Jakob Junis was overall pretty good, but also spent time on the IL and ran out of gas in September, posting a 9.00 ERA in the season's final month. At a point in July, there were five rookies in Texas's bullpen, yet Young decided that Chase Silseth and Adam Macko were the only additions that he needed to make. That's the most damning part. It's one thing to try and take a cost-effective track, especially given the volatility of relievers, but when it's clear that it's not working, not adjusting and adding quality reinforcements was unexcusable.

Chris Young deserves no credit for Rangers breakout stars Jacob Latz and Ezequiel Duran

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, which is the case for Young when it comes to the Rangers' two biggest surprises of 2026, Jacob Latz and Ezequiel Duran.

The way things were drawn up, Latz was a long shot for the fifth starter role and didn't emerge as a high-leverage reliever until a few weeks into the season. Duran looked to be on his way out the door until Josh Smith's injuries and subsequent bout with meningitis cleared the path for him to get regular playing time.

These two players were the two most pleasant stories of 2026 for Texas, but Young can't get the credit because his design for the Rangers' roster had both playing minuscule roles. The credit here goes to Skip Schumaker, who recognized what he had and rode the hot hands and the wheels never fell off.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow