Texas Rangers: Grading the Team at the Halfway Point

The Texas Rangers have officially hit the halfway point of the 2019 season and we can evaluate the team’s and individual players’ grades through 81 games.

We’re now 81 games through the 2019 season marking the halfway point of the year for the Texas Rangers. This means we can officially hand out our Nolan Writin’ team and player grades up to this point. Grades will be on a letter scale based on expectations and comparisons to the rest of the league. For individual players, the mark to qualify for a grade is set at 10 games played for fielders and 5 games played for pitchers. Additionally, the player must still be with the organization, i.e. no Drew Smyly.

Grading the Team as a Whole

Entering the season, the Texas Rangers were predicted by most to be fighting for the 4th place spot in the AL West and trying to stay above 70 wins as they embark on a crucial year in their rebuild. However, Texas has blown away the expectations for them and currently sit at 45-36 on the year. They’re a half game up in the AL Wild Card race and 4.5 games back of the Astros in the AL West. They’re on pace for a 90-win season and at the time of writing this, hold the 6th best record in all of baseball. They’ve emerged as a real competitor, and while they may not be a marked World Series contender, they’ve opened a lot of eyes across the league as a legit team.

Team Grade: A-

The reason Texas gets an A- despite completely blowing away expectations is that it still feels like some win were left out on the table. A slow trigger finger on parting ways with Drew Smyly, as well as continually inserting Rougned Odor into the lineup at the loss of Danny Santana means that the Rangers likely could have two or three more wins with some different decisions being made. Sitting atop the AL West would mark an A+ performance but an A- grade is a fair representation of where this club is at.