Rangers end experiment with former NL MVP in attempt to shakeup offensive production

The Rangers' "Lasso Era" is over as offensive rebound began on Wednesday with the release of former National League MVP Andrew McCutchen.

Such ends a 37-game campaign for the 37-year-old veteran in Texas after putting together a -0.3 WAR and slashing .192/.277/.260 with one home run, five RBIs, two doubles and a measley .560 OPS.

In his place, Texas is calling on infielder Nicky Lopez, who they signed as a corresponding move to the McCutchen release and is getting his Rangers' tenure started on Wednesday, hitting ninth and playing second base.

Cutch's impact was meant to be short and sweet

By the time a player reaches the 18th year of their big league career that has been in a decline over the last five to six years, it becomes more about playing a role that consists of spot starts and veteran mentorship.

For Texas, they were however counting on McCutchen to showcase his career-long skill of hitting left-handed pitchers to platoon him as a DH with Joc Pederson. Early on, he was massive in filling every aspect of his role, including his three-run home run in Philadelphia.

As the offense starting to struggle, the lineup construction did as well. Suddenly, McCutchen wasn't even getting in against lefties and rightfully so. Although 43 of his 73 at-bats happened against his LHP, he was only hitting .186 while barely hitting better against right-handers at .200 in 30 at-bats.

When a veteran, who hardly plays the field, is signed mostly to get hits against one specific group of players and can't even get that job done, it's not going to last long.

Rangers offensive inconsistencies branch beyond just one person

Don't get me wrong, McCutchen's release is not going to magically turn around the Rangers' offense. There's problems far beyond him that Chris Young and the rest or the organization need to address.

For starters, getting Wyatt Langford and Corey Seager healthy and figure out what the heck is wrong with them. Langford (.238) and Seager (.179) were meant to be the faces of the offensive movement this season and have missed the ball completly.

We have seen resurgences from Josh Jung and Ezequiel Duran - while navigating ups and downs from Jake Burger and Joc Pederson - but the problem has been inconsistency mostly. From the top down it's been a cluster of strikeouts and bad decisions.

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