4 Things the Texas Rangers must do to make the playoffs

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Every Major-League baseball team fights from April through August to get to September and have a shot to clinch a playoff spot. That is where Texas finds itself as they enter the defining month of the season. These will be the days where Texas will truly show themselves to be a contender as they have been all season or they will be shown to be a team that was an overachiever.

Texas as of Saturday morning has a 65.5 % chance to make the playoffs according to Fangraphs. No matter what happens Texas will be playing meaningful September baseball for the first time in seven seasons. While fans are excited they also want to see this team end its seven-season playoff drought. They want to experience Texas Rangers playoff games at Globe Life Field for the first time since it opened. The question becomes what can Texas do on the field to ensure that the fans go home happy this September and come back in October.

#1 Bruce Bochy needs to work some of his bullpen magic

One of the season-long issues for this team has been its bullpen. They have one of the worst save percentages in the entire league. They are coming off a road trip that saw them blow six saves in nine games. They started the homestand on Friday night with a blown save by Brock Burke in the 7th inning on the way to a 5-1 loss. Their save percentage is under 50% in 2023. Lately, it has not mattered whether it is Aroldis Chapman, Will Smith, Jose Leclerc, or Josh Sborz closing the game as they have all had their issues.

Bochy came to Texas and had a reputation as a bullpen maestro and a master of handling a pitching staff. That comes from more than 25 seasons of sitting in the dugout and a playing career spent behind the plate. I am sure he has seen it all including having a bullpen that struggles as much as this one does.

Bochy needs to be unconventional this month and play matchups as much as he can. That includes bringing in Will Smith to face left-handers with one or two outs so that Bochy can better control what batters he faces. That means using players such as Martin Perez, Glenn Otto, or Cody Bradford in certain late-game situations if the matchups call for it. He does not need to hold himself to specific players in specific roles.

If he does this it will make Texas much harder to game plan for as teams will not know what pitchers to expect in what situations. Bochy and the bullpen need to adopt the attitude of everyone being ready for any situation and doing whatever it takes to get to the end of the game. These games are too important for the bullpen to continue blowing leads at the rate they have been all season long.

#2 Offense has to come through with runners in scoring position

The calling card for this team through the 40-20 start was primarily two things, a dominant starting pitching staff and an offense that had an unreal batting average with runners in scoring position. They led the league for much of the first half in that category. The team batting average reached as high as over .330 into the month of June. That production slowed down as the team entered the break and has not really reached those levels that were seen through April and May.

The issue became so pressing with the team that Marcus Semien spoke up on the road trip and implored the team to try and win a game without a three-run home run. The home run is not a bad thing, but I think he could sense that the team had become too reliant on home runs and was not doing the little things that it takes to win baseball games. This is what he said to the media on the road trip,

When things are going great, we just focus on who we’re playing against and go out there and score eight or 10 runs like we’ve done a lot. But when the offense is struggling, we talk about scoring run. And it’s not just getting on first and then Corey hits a home run. It’s getting on base and scoring from second on a base hit, going first to third. Sometimes you lose focus. I think those things will help us get to the playoffs.
Marcus Semien

Those comments led to the Rangers winning consecutive one-run games in New York. That included their first win when trailing in the eighth inning or later this season.

They are going to have to find multiple ways to score runs especially against some of the pitching staffs they will be facing this month. September got off to a poor start as the Rangers could only manage to score on a Corey Seager solo home run on Friday night. Scoring runs will certainly not be easy, but they can make it less difficult by remembering to do the small things and playing good situational baseball. That starts with Semien and Seager and goes all the way down the lineup to Leody Taveras. It will take an entire team effort to get this team to the finish line and into the playoffs. If they can do that they will certainly be better prepared for who they will face in October.

#3 Starting Pitchers have to lead the way

This team was built with a starting rotation that was the backbone of the team. That continued even after Jacob deGrom went down in April with his arm injury. Starting pitching is what Chris Young decided to trade for at the deadline. It stands to reason then that if this team is going to make the playoffs the rotation will be leading the way throughout this month.

A rotation that leads is one where the starter can be counted on to give the team six to seven innings every night. Texas is at their best when the starter gets deep into a game and takes the pressure off of the bullpen. It will help the entire rotation when Nathan Eovaldi takes his spot in the coming days. Eovaldi's return will also help the bullpen as it will likely push Andrew Heaney from the rotation into a more limited bullpen role.

The starting rotation as of September 2nd now has the best starting rotation ERA in baseball. They are currently being led by a second-half resurgence from Max Scherzer. Texas will also need strong contributions from Jordan Montgomery, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning, and when he returns Eovaldi.

Max Scherzer set the tone for the month with a six-inning, one-hit, seven strikeout performance on Friday night. It did not lead to a win unfortunately, but it did show what this team will need on a nightly basis if they expect to be able to compete in this three-team divisional race. It will be up to the rest of the staff to follow that up with strong performances of their own.

#4 Win Baseball Games

Process is important, and routine is important, but as we get to the end of the season results are ultimately what is most important. This team has to find a way to win baseball games. It is as simple and hard as that. This team is stocked with veterans that have been through tough pennant races. They have players such as Seager and Scherzer that have World Series rings. They have players like Jordan Montgomery that have played on the biggest stages in New York and St. Louis. They have players like Aroldis Chapman who have been called upon in the most difficult of situations and come through. They have players like Will Smith who has closed out a World Series.

Texas needs to take that knowledge from these veterans and use it to help this team be able to come together and win games. The teams they are competing against have that postseason experience. Seattle is in their third straight season of making a September playoff push. Houston has been a postseason regular since 2015. Toronto has been in the playoffs or making a September playoff push in every season since 2020. They all know what it will take to get to October.

Texas is still learning how to do this as a unit and unfortunately, with a leaky bullpen, it makes winning that much more difficult. If Texas is going to make the playoffs they are going to need the bullpen to do their job when called upon, they are going to need the offense to come through with timely hits, and the starting rotation to pitch deep into games. The formula to win baseball games is tried and true and is as old as the game itself. The teams that are championship contenders have figured out how to apply that formula to their squads.

Texas is still working to figure it out. The individual knowledge of what it takes is immense on this team, but they have not gone through this as a team. Next season this team will be better for having gone through this in 2023. 2024 can wait though as this team is still in the hunt for a playoff spot this season. This team despite a terrible bullpen and an all-or-nothing offense has a chance to really surpass preseason expectations by making the playoffs. Texas could spend October on vacation or in the playoffs. It is on them to do everything they can so that their season goes well past the end of September.