What a successful year will look like for the Texas Rangers in 2021

After having one of the worst seasons in franchise history in 2020, the Texas Rangers will look to rebound and find success away from the standings.

As the snow continues to coat the state of Texas, a majority of the Texas Rangers have packed their bags and gone to sunny Surprise, Arizona.

The beginning of Spring Training 2021 and a new season is upon us, and the Rangers are looking to rebound from what was a disappointing 2020 season.

With a different mindset coming into this season, the Texas Rangers will look to find success in other places than the A.L. West standings.

Even in the midst of a rebuild, Texas has plenty of opportunities to see growth and maturation from their minor leaguers, see the next steps in the careers of young big leaguers and watch veteran leadership take over a young core of quality players.

With that being said, here are a few places that the Texas Rangers need to see improvement during the 2021 season to have a truly successful year.

A successful Texas Rangers season: Strong draft day

The Texas Rangers’ farm system has been ranked in the bottom half of league for quite some time now.

Is it because of a lack of talent? Is it due to injuries? Bad development paths?

You can’t pin it into just one of these categories, because they’ve all played a factor, one way or another.

I personally believe that it starts with the MLB Amateur Draft.

Over the last decade, the Texas Rangers have yet to draft a player who has maintained success within the organization or at the big league level in the first round.

We haven’t seen Josh Jung, Davis Wendzel and Cole Winn yet, but in years prior, they haven’t had sustained big league success.

Chi Chi Gonzalez, Lewis Brinson, Dillon Tate and others just have not panned out for the Rangers, or any club that has since acquired them.

You could also argue that the last great first round talent the Rangers took was Mark Teixeira back in 2001.

For me, it begins and ends with the draft.

That’s why the last two seasons, and the one upcoming, are so important for the Texas Rangers.

Winn, Jung, Wendzel and Justin Foscue all have the chance to be good, maybe great, big league ballplayers.

While the Texas Rangers sit second, they have to add to a stacked group of first round prospects from the last three years.

They can’t miss again with this high of a pick.

To begin to count this season a success, the Texas Rangers must choose a franchise-changing player, and hopefully the next stud pitcher in the Rangers’ rotation.