Will the Texas Rangers become sellers? Chris Young wants the team to make the decision for him

Texas Rangers Managing Director Chris Young appeared on the GBag Nation show on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM) to discuss the return of Josh Jung and Evan Carter as well as the team’s plans for the transfer window.

Here are some of the highlights, slightly edited for clarity:

How close are Josh Jung and Evan Carter to a return?

Chris Young: I was just out watching Josh (Jung) take batting practice. The next step for him will be live batting practice against a pitcher. Then we’re hoping we can get him out for a couple of games to rehab. I’m hoping he can be back in about 10 days if everything goes well. Evan (Carter) is making great progress as well and is feeling really, really good. He’ll take his first batting practice tomorrow and I think that’s when we can start to accelerate his progress as well. I’m hoping Evan will be back in shortly after August 1st. So we’re on the right track with those two guys. We need them badly. They’re big pieces of our lineup, obviously two pieces we’ve relied on this year. If we get them back, I hope it will make our lineup a little bit more complete and our run production improves.

Is it frustrating that people describe the Rangers as sellers?

Young: Well, that’s a great question because I’m competitive by nature. I came into the season with very high expectations and had very high belief in this squad. I really believed we were going to be the team to beat in the West. It certainly didn’t go to plan because we had some injuries, we didn’t all play well and we couldn’t consistently string together good streaks like we did last year and like good teams do.

When people ask those questions and I even have to think about the fact that we could potentially be sellers, that’s not something I enjoy, that’s something I’m not proud of, quite frankly. The competitive aspect of my character comes out and I don’t like that. But the reality is, it’s my job to evaluate not only the present but the future and make decisions based on what’s best for this franchise this year and 2025 and beyond. That’s part of the decision I have to make here at some point. We have a great group in the front office, we’ve spent a ton of time preparing for a number of different paths we could take here leading up to the deadline. I think this is a very important series for us to determine where we are and what we can become as a team. I hope we get going here, that we play some great baseball against the White Sox and that carries over into the road. Because the deadline is next Tuesday and we’re going to have to make some tough decisions next week.

Is this the time of year when you get the most calls about your team?

Young: The teams have been very respectful, which I appreciate. These are tricky decisions. I was on the other end of those calls last year, of course, when we were clearly buyers. So you have to be respectful and not understand what the opposing general manager’s mentality might be. Other than that, the one thing I’ve taken away from almost every call with winning teams is that they look at us and say, one, “You have a lot of really good players,” two, “We see you making a run here.”

Other teams see the same thing I do in terms of the talent on this roster. They obviously envy some of our players, so they’re calling because they want to improve and upgrade their own teams. They’re looking at what players we could provide if we went down that path. But in those conversations, they make it very clear that they see our division, they see our place in the standings. They know we weren’t fully healthy, and they understand what we’re getting back. They also understand why we would make that decision if we decided to do it. So I’m not sure it gives me any more clarity on where we are and how we should move forward.

But I think as far as the reputation for being aggressive, I appreciate that. I think there are times when you have to be aggressive. I think there are times when you have to be disciplined. I think we try to balance the two. But at the end of the day, I know how important this team is to our fans. I know how important last year was to our fans, what it meant to our fans, and I’ve said this since the day I got the job: Our fans deserve winning teams. It’s our job to give them that. So being aggressive means we can give our fans the best chance to see a winning team. I’m all for that. But with that said, I also want to be disciplined and know that we have an uphill battle ahead of us and there may be times when we have to be disciplined. At that point, I have to make that decision and decide what’s the best path for the franchise.

How does the internal decision-making process work? Could you try again before the deadline and see how good the offers are?

Young: We talked about it as a group today and I think it’s really difficult not to have a solid plan in the last 24 hours, especially because we have so many players that are coveted on the transfer market. With that in mind, we just don’t have the bandwidth or the manpower to get so bogged down when it comes down to the last 24 hours. So what I really want to see is us come out here and play really good baseball, get hot, win four or five games in a row and make the decision for us, make it very clear that this is a team that can compete into August and September. If we do that, and I say that with all my heart, I believe we can. But I’ve been telling you this for weeks and every time we take a step forward, we seem to take a step back. So I really want us to start getting that going and developing to the level that I think we can. In this case, I would be willing to bet that this group of guys goes out and finds a way to play really good baseball over the next two months and make the playoffs.

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