Are the Rangers ready to move on? Adolis García saga hints at looming breakup

Texas Rangers President of Baseball Operations Chris Young might say otherwise. Still, it doesn’t feel like the team and veteran outfielder Adolis Garcia are getting along all that well these days. The two sides may be headed for a divorce.

All the talk is about “fixing” one of the big heroes from the Rangers' 2023 World Series. However, when you look behind what Young has said in the last few days about Garcia and why he’s been benched for three straight games, it’s not encouraging for those who hope the two sides can work things out and that the outfielder will be back in the lineup soon.

“We need him to kind of commit to some of these changes that we think will get him back to the '23 version of himself and help him be the player that we know he can be," Young said before the Texas Rangers’ win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday. 

“We need him to commit” is not what you want to hear about a veteran player. Unless you are rooting for him to get shipped out. The idea that Young had to say that aloud could be a very loud hint that Garcia is not committing.

Chris Young’s public challenge fuels talk of Adolis García exit from the Texas Rangers

He said something similar on Monday during an off-day radio appearance. “Some of it’s a matter of just how quickly we can make these changes with Adolis, how quickly he can buy into these changes and feel good with them.” That quote certainly sounds like he hasn’t bought in yet. That’s not great, especially since the team has already hired a brand new hitting coach to try and improve Texas’s offense.

Young even went so far as to make it seem like he doesn’t believe the Rangers need Garcia. Instead, he listed all the ways manager Bruce Bochy can make lineups that ignore his existence entirely.

“Another aspect of this is who is performing? We’re getting Evan Carter back tomorrow, we’ll have Wyatt [Langford], Evan, [Alejandro] Osuna, Sam Haggerty’s been playing very, very well all in the outfield. Josh Smith can play in the outfield now that Corey’s going to be at short more.”

When Young asked how the conversations with Garcia were going, his response wasn’t all that encouraging:

“This is about winning games and the players are there to help us win. As much as we love Adolis, like I said, there’s been 45 days of extended struggle here, without real sign that it’s going to change. Until we change something mechanically, in fairness to the team, we have to put the group out there that’s going to produce.”

It is, of course, possible that the relationship between the outfielder and the Texas Rangers can be repaired. Perhaps Garcia finds his stroke again with the changes the team wants him to make. But he’s a veteran outfielder who is used to starting. And not only is he getting some days off, but he also got the whole weekend off. And the Rangers scored 19 runs in three games without him. The divorce papers just might be in the mail.