Chris Young mentioned among MLB execs under the most pressure this Trade Deadline

It's no secret that the 2025 regular season has not gone as planned for the Texas Rangers through their first 73 games. It is however a secret how the front office will react to it.

At 36-37, Texas is six games back of the Astros in the American League West but we also haven't hit the end of the first half of the season yet. And with the Rangers on a 7-3 roll in their last 10 games, people around the league are wondering what is Chris Young's next move.

That has of course landed Young on ESPN's list of MLB executives under the most pressure heading into the 2025 trade deadline.

Chris Young may not be on hot seat, but this summer is still huge for him

According to ESPN, Young has a tough question to answer this summer. Does he wait and hope for a turnaround or does he go do something about it?

Last season he waited for that turnaround to happen. Granted the decision didn't seem too bad given he still had an offense that won the World Series the season before and World Series hangovers are real. Sometimes those hangovers can last the whole season while others might only struggle for a few months. Unfortunately for Texas, that turnaround never arrived.

This year with the Rangers ranked 25th in the league in runs scored (266) and batting average (.228) Texas is wildly underperforming to their roster's skillset. If they expect to get back into the postseason, they need to make a run and to do so, Young needs to not stay pat at the deadline.

What will also be semi-acceptable is Young going the opposite direction and deciding that his team needs to become sellers at the deadline. This can only really happen if the Rangers fail to make a recent turnaround and find themselves in a severe hole in the playoff standings around the All-Star Break.

Buyers or sellers? What do the Rangers need to do?

This is hard to tell right at this point. By the end of May, it would have been a simple answer: sell. But their performance in June has been reminsicent of what fans thought it would be.

In 14 games this month, the Rangers are hitting .251 with a .421 slug, 17 homers, 66 RBIs, 70 runs scored. In addition, Evan Carter and Marcus Semien finally hit their strides and have been performing lights out in the month.

What will be their additions if Texas becomes buyers?

Let's say the Rangers do become buyers at the deadline. Young will likely be looking for ways to improve the bullpen as he stated on MLB Network Radio earlier this week. This isn't to say the Rangers' bullpen has been struggling because it hasn't, that is likely to just give it more depth.

He might also look to add more offense, probably in the form of a designated hitter, first baseman or outfielder. Really any position at this point is a much-needed upgrade but those positions in particular are probably of bigger concern for Young.

What will they do if they end up as sellers?

They will part with pitching. Texas currently has one of the best pitching staffs in the American League with an AL-leading 3.15 team ERA and two of those pitchers (Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle) are within the AL's top 10, with Nathan Eovaldi not far behind if he still qualified.

At one point or another this season the idea of trading all of these pitchers has floated around. Recently, a rumored trade had Eovaldi being shipped to the Windy City, deGrom is having a career resurgence which would be a massive deal to a contending team and Mahle is an ace with high value.