Texas Rangers: Revisiting 2019 New Year’s Resolutions One Year Later

As we get ready to enter a new year and a new decade, we take a look back at the New Year’s resolutions we set for the Texas Rangers one year ago today.

Last New Year’s Eve, I put out a post setting out five resolutions for the Texas Rangers in 2019. Now, as we hit the final day of 2019, why don’t we take a look back on those resolutions and see which ones the club kept, and which ones were broken.

Resolution #1: Retire Adrian Beltre’s and Michael Young’s Jerseys

The Texas Rangers had the opportunity to honor a pair of franchise legends this past season and they did just that. I’m sure Jon Daniels saw my post last year. The Rangers retired both Adrian Beltre’s number and Michael Young’s number, cementing their legacies as legends of the Texas Rangers organization.

Adrian Beltre got his deserved jersey retirement on June 8th, less than seven months after he announced his retirement from the game. That gap seems like rapid speed for a retirement but Beltre is arguably the best player to play in Texas and despite playing for a few teams along his career, will likely be most remembered for his time in Arlington. He’ll be a first ballot Hall of Famer and the Rangers wanted to be proactive in making sure his legacy and the organization will be intertwined for the rest of time.

Michael Young’s retirement was not nearly as swift and had many more hurdles to overcome. Nobody has worn No. 10 since he left he organization to finish out his playing career in Philadelphia and the NL side of Los Angeles. He retired from the game in 2014 and his number retirement was a no-brainer for the Rangers front office. Still, it took five years for him to finally be honored, likely due to the fact that another influential player in club history, Jim Sundberg, also wore the No. 10 before Young’s time. However, what was once a wrong has now been righted and the Ranger can check resolution one off their list.

Verdict: Completed

Resolution #3: Trust This Process

At the time, this was a bit of an abstract resolution but looking back over the course of the past year, there was a definite process being followed by the club. The organization saw a lot of change, especially with the coaching staff and patience seemed to have paid off. Chris Woodward earned the confidence of a lot of fans moving forward with the team outplaying expectations for much of the season.

Trusting the process the club laid out doesn’t mean everything is going to be a hit. For instance the Isiah Kiner-Falefa as a catcher experiment failed pretty quickly. But for those who were willing to put up with a miserable season by Rougned Odor, we started to see some improvement late in the season and the organization seems to think that’s signal of a long-term breakout happening. For a rebuilding club like the Rangers, this isn’t always easy but it’s clear to see that the club is headed in the right direction.

Verdict: Completed by the organization. Completed-ish by the fans.

Resolution #4: Continue To Acquire Prospects, Even If It Means Unpopular Moves

As any rebuilding team knows, organizations must continue to acquire prospects if they want to build sustainable success. For the Rangers, acquiring these prospects could mean making unpopular deals in the short-term to build for the long-term.

The Rangers did a fairly good job with this resolution making a few moves to acquire young talent. One major move was sending reliever Chris Martin to the Braves at the deadline for young starting pitcher, Kolby Allard. Allard has a long-term reputation as a top tier prospect but dropped off lately. The young lefty has already got some big league time with the Rangers and has a shot at being a long-term starter for Texas.

The biggest move Texas made was a prospect for prospect trade sending Peter Fairbanks to the Rays for young slugger Nick Solak. While prospect for prospect isn’t usually a move rebuilding teams make, moving a right-handed relief prospect for a guy who hit .293 with an .884 OPS in 33 games post trade seems like solid business. Texas had an overstock of Fairbanks-like relievers and were able to turn that surplus into a player that filled a need.

They made a few acquisitions via waivers of young players and capped off their moves by bringing in young outfielder Steele Walker in exchange for Nomar Mazara. While Walker isn’t the highest ceiling prospect in the system but he has the makings of a big league outfielder, even if it’s just as an average contributor.

Verdict: Completed. But is this thing ever really completed?

Resolution #5: Enjoy The Year

Our fifth and final resolution from this past year was to enjoy the season. It was the final year inside Globe Life Park and one where we got to see some young players breakout while other legends were honored. No, in the end, the record wasn’t good enough to get us to the postseason, but we did wrap up the final game in Globe Life Park with a win. We saw guys like Willie Calhoun and Nick Solak emerge as solid possibilities for the future while Mike Minor and Lance Lynn went on to have elite performances. The club is headed in the right direction and that’s always exciting to watch.

Verdict: Completed