Is Adolis Garcia a key to the Texas Rangers’ rebuild?

The Texas Rangers have a history of late bloomers.

One of the toughest things about having a rebuilding franchise is that any emerging talent is viewed as trade fodder – or, at least, that worry exists among the fans. And it’s a bummer to think about. Difficult decisions have to be made for teams that aren’t competing; do they keep the guys who provide value to their struggling franchise, or do they send them off for a higher return and future investment?

I think it’s safe to say that Texas is in a really good spot when it comes to this dilemma – better than they’ve been in a really long time, actually. For starters, the team is no longer shelling out money to veterans like Andrus, Choo, Minor, and Lynn, who were all welcomed and enjoyed as high-profile players here, but weren’t helping the Rangers win long term. Nick Solak, Joey Gallo, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Willie Calhoun, Nate Lowe, and Jonah Heim are all 27 years old or younger. That’s two-thirds of the general batting order for Texas.

Where the Rangers need to get younger is in their rotation. Kyle Gibson seems to be the most entertaining deadline piece for Texas to move, as he’s enjoying a stellar year so far on the mound and won’t turn 34 until October, leaving a beneficial window for a team looking for pitching depth. With Gibson being placed on the 10-day IL on May 25 and Arihara out for three months, the Rangers decided to call up Demarcus Evans, a 24-year-old pitching prospect who hurled four innings for the club in 2020. He has a career 2.52 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in the minors to go along with 385 strikeouts. Kolby Allard could also see some action as a starter, as the 23-year-old’s numbers have vastly improved during his time coming out of the bullpen.

Looking at the history of the Rangers, particularly within the last ten to fifteen years, most of the star talent has been players late into their twenties and beyond. This front office hasn’t relied on its farm system to put a winning team on the field, and they haven’t really needed to, either. Josh Hamilton didn’t win his MVP until his age 29 season. Nelson Cruz didn’t emerge as one of the league’s best power hitters until he was 29 and into his early 30’s. Adrian Beltre, perhaps the most beloved player in franchise history, didn’t even become a Ranger until he was 32.

The Rangers don’t have one of the hottest farm systems in baseball. They’re not pumping out big-league talent left and right, and while reaping the benefits of a great development system puts teams at a much higher probability of building a championship-contending roster, Texas has completely overhauled the attention of its 2021 roster to its youth. As mentioned above, two-thirds of their general lineup are all 27 or younger. Dane Dunning has looked very confident on the mound for a 26-year-old pitcher who only just made his MLB debut in August of 2020. The point is, the Rangers have guys who can blossom over the next six to seven years as perennial ballplayers, and they’re not stuck giving roster spots to guys past age 33/34 who aren’t contributing to at least some semblance of a future for the team.

But where does that leave Adolis? There have been murmurings of Garcia emerging as a trade piece because of his age. Realistically, if he were to maintain this level of production, fans could expect, at best, around a six-year window of him at his prime. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to tell based off less than 50 games of a sample size whether he’s a long-term impact guy or not. Cruz slashed .303/.397/.595 with 16 HR in the shortened 2020 season at age 39. It’s not impossible, and certainly not in this era, for athletes to carry their value well into their thirties.

Can Adolis Garcia be a piece to build around for the Texas Rangers?

None of this is to say that Adolis Garcia has been the ONLY guy providing value for the Rangers so far. He may be the popular name that’s selling tickets at the moment, and he may be getting the loudest applause every time he steps into the batter’s box, but the Rangers have enjoyed success from many other pieces this year that are worth taking a look at in terms of where to improve and where to stay put.

When it comes to hitting, I think it’s safest to say the Rangers are fine. Nothing eye-popping, but nothing objectively concerning. No, getting no-hit twice does not factor into this take. Joe Musgrove and Corey Kluber were flat out untouchable in their historic games against Texas and the Rangers are merely one of three teams to get no-hit twice in the same season already in 2021. No-hitters are going to become commonplace very quickly and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see at least another couple by the All-Star break.

The Rangers don’t have any red flags at the plate that are holding them back, but they haven’t exactly raked, either. They’re a middle-of-the-pack lineup when it comes to getting on base. As a team, they rank 13th in baseball in batting average of balls in play, 17th in total bases per game and 14th in hits per game. Outside of Adolis, their offensive production has been very spread out rather than front-loaded by any specific player. But that’s the key right there – Adolis has been far and away the Rangers’ best hitter in 2021. If they decide to move him in July, and he’s still on pace to compete with Mercedes for the AL ROTY, then they chunk out a huge portion of their run production.

On the defensive side, Adolis has the quickness and flexibility to earn the starting spot in centerfield. With Gallo at his side, a lot of gap hits can be covered very quickly. Garcia combines his raw power at the plate with speed that gives him an advantage as an outfielder, and if he develops his throwing abilities, the outfield should be covered fairly well for Texas for a while. As of May 25, 2020 Gold Glove winner Isian Kiner-Falefa leads Major League Baseball in defensive WAR and defensive runs above average. Who comes in second among Rangers defensive WAR leaders but one Adolis Garcia!

The Rangers as a defensive squad don’t commit many errors, but they also aren’t among the league’s best at run prevention, and Adolis doesn’t have a cannon arm stable enough to fix that overnight. Garcia has garnered attention because of his hitting far more than his glove, but with time in the majors, he can continue to adjust to Major League hitting and has plenty of defensive help around him to feed off of.

All of these things considered, I think it’s imperative that this team spends money. The only teams with higher payrolls than Texas right now are the Dodgers, Twins, Yankees, Mets, and Astros. Two of those teams have won the World Series in recent years. The Mets definitely have the roster to win their division, and the Yankees are always going to be competitive as long as they continue their spending habits. Ownership has to be aggressive when guys like Garcia appear out of nowhere. Names like Kershaw, Bryant, Freeman, Story, and Castellanos all become free agents at the completion of this season. The Rangers will be able to afford players of their caliber and should be assertive in pursuing them.

Whether or not Garcia is the centerpiece of a rebuild, however, is a long way away from being determined. Texas has a handful of good, dependable ballplayers that are producing, but they’re not in the camp of a team like San Diego that clearly has “their guy” in Tatis Jr. to put talent around. Adolis isn’t there yet – none of the current Texas Rangers are. That’s not a bad thing in nature, because developing an MVP talent, franchise-caliber player doesn’t happen every day.

The Texas Rangers need attitude. Garcia brings it every day.

Teams such as the Padres, White Sox, and Rays have all enjoyed recent success because of home-grown talent. But that’s not the sole ingredient in the recipe for winning – they’re also having fun! Fernando Tatis is out there flipping bats and taunting pitchers. Yermin Mercedes cranked a moonshot home run on a 3-0 count in a blowout win over Minnesota, his manager criticized him for it, and essentially the entire baseball community came to his defense. Shoot, even the Astros have kind of adopted their “Houston against the world” mantra after the cheating scandal, however misplaced that attitude may be, depending on who you ask.

Part of the slow decline of the Texas Rangers over the last six years has been because of the team’s inability to put intimidating players on the field. Rougned Odor’s punch has gone down in history as the Rangers biggest highlight since the 2015 postseason, and he followed that up by becoming the worst hitter in baseball. We don’t even need to mention the whole “Warning to the West” marketing scheme that ended with Corey Kluber pitching a grand total of one inning during his time in Texas.

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Now the Texas Rangers have a guy who yells. He walks to first base as he admires his homers. He is the first guy up and yelling in the dugout when his teammates are hitting. When is the last time a Texas Ranger waved goodbye to a catcher as he hit a walk-off home run against their biggest rival? Who’s the last Ranger to bat flip and pound his chest as he rounds the bases? If anything, the Rangers have been on the wrong side of the “cool” part of baseball for a long time, most recently being the victims of Fernando Tatis Jr.’s greatness and Chris Woodward publicly having a problem with it. Odor turning into the worst hitter in baseball and being the team’s intimidator didn’t help, either.

The debates over the unwritten rules of baseball have gotten quite tiring for most over the past couple of years. Objectively speaking, players who celebrate are good for baseball. Adolis Garcia likes to win. He likes to hit home runs. He likes to score, and he likes his team. Whether or not that helps a team win, again, depends on who you ask, but “El Bombi”, as the city has so adequately adopted him, absolutely adores the game of baseball. It’s been a really long time since Rangers baseball was fun, and he makes watching games fun!

Is Adolis Garcia a key piece of the Texas Rangers’ rebuild?

Fun doesn’t win you championships, unfortunately. If you’re going to talk the talk, you have to back it up, and so far Adolis has done that tenfold. He’s been the primary catalyst in a large number of Rangers wins so far this year, and it’s imperative that the team capitalize on it while he’s on this memorable run. Regardless of what his future is in baseball, these last few weeks have been some of the most thrilling to watch for Texas Rangers fans in what feels like an eternity. For a fan base plagued with haunting memories of David Freese and Jose Bautista, the Rangers finally have a guy who steps up to the plate – literally – and tells the baseball world he and the Texas Rangers mean business.

There are drawbacks to Garcia, as fun as he is. He’s been so lethal, so quickly, but his plate discipline leaves a lot to be desired. Pitchers are going to start throwing outside at a higher rate at him because of his eagerness to swing. He’s one of those players that really only makes mistakes, both at the plate and in the outfield, when he’s trying to do too much.

The biggest factor in Adolis’s future here is whether what he’s doing right now is sustainable. He could be an MVP candidate three years from now, or he could just be another Danny Santana enjoying his day in the sun. If you’re asking me, I’m not even so much as thinking of trading the guy as long as he’s consistent.

Adolis Garcia deserves every bit of praise he’s received in 2021. He has brought a franchise coasting in the rebuilding phase a glimmer of hope that the future is, indeed, brighter in Arlington. Baseball fans are turning on their televisions to watch a Texas Ranger do incredible things, and he’s brought the metroplex a fiery intensity that he supplies to the team night in and night out.