FORT WORTH, Texas — The Texas Rangers are not terrible just because of their payroll, although that does help.
Of the many facets of this organization that Rangers supreme ruler Jon Daniels runs, the one that he deserves the most criticism for is the current state of the draft, the farm system and the developmental area.
The MLB amateur draft is Sunday, and the Texas Rangers own the second overall pick. Make your alcohol choices now.
JD should currently be sitting in owner Ray Davis’ office listening to threats that if he blows this upcoming draft he’s going to be a pool cleaner. Instead, the more likely scenario is that the dynamic duo is ironing out the details of JD’s new 10-year, $700 million contract.
We know Ray Ray loves JD, so if Daniels is going to run the Rangers through the construction of the next new stadium, likely to be finished by 2027, better to just make the best of it.
If the Rangers are ever going to improve, it starts in the draft and the organization must improve a farm system that has been less than ideal.
The irony is one of the reasons why JD vaulted to his position of Rangers Czar is because of a farm system that he helped rebuild in the first decade.
But the departure of Scott Servais as this organization’s director of player development in 2010 created a far bigger problem than anyone wants to admit.
Something has changed since Servais left. Namely, the Rangers are simply not producing enough of their own high-end players — or even middle-tier players for that matter.
There is a reason why the Rangers are flirting with 20 games under .500 near the All-Star break.
The people in charge of this crucial area — Kip Fagg and Mike Daly — aren’t exactly killing it.
JD’s loyalty and friendship with Fagg has kept him as the senior director of amateur scouting longer than most people would remain in that role considering the results.
One former Texas Rangers staffer told me, “Not sure how Kip has kept his job.”
“There have been some past mistakes we made,” Fagg said on Wednesday during the team’s pre-draft Zoom call with the media. “We look at that and review it and we try not to make the same mistakes.”
He added, “I don’t sleep at night because of some of those mistakes. How much time you got?”
For this subject? All day.
Jurickson Profar, Nomar Mazara, Ronald Guzman, Chi Chi Rodriguez and a few others should be the anchors of this franchise, but instead none of those prospects worked out.
Only Guzman remains with the team, and while his glove is made of gold, his bat is still made of Swiss cheese.
The Rangers can point to All-Star Joey Gallo and maybe Isiah Kiner-Falefa as the pride of their development system, for those two guys are doing well on the big league level. But that’s not enough.
Injuries, or flameouts, have wrecked the most recent class of potential prospects, guys who could have been in the big leagues by now. JD is trying to sell you on those guys, but it’s a hollow sale. Unless the player is playing, and producing, you can’t sell it.
Former first-rounders, like pitcher Cole Ragans and outfielder Bubba Thompson, are still with the organization but neither look like they will help the big league team now, or ever.
Shortstop Christopher Seise was the team’s first-round pick in 2017, and he’s out for the season with a torn ACL.
Sam Huff was supposed to be the team’s big-time catcher, but he’s currently rehabbing an injury.
Evan Carter, a second-round pick in 2020, was playing well in Low A ball but a back injury will keep him out for two more months.
Cole Winn, a first-rounder in 2018, is a pitching prospect who is doing well in Double-A Frisco, but this is only his first season there.
There are some within the organization who point to the club’s unwillingness to pay for better instructors on the minor league level. Could that explain this team’s continued inability to develop their own pitchers?
This is a topic Daniels and his staff have talked about for forever, and the results remain the same.
Since Davis and Simpson bought the club, they have made it a point to pay big league players and the GM, and have approved JD’s moves to add bigger contracts when appropriate.
They have also cut wherever else they can, which could potentially explain why the development side has yielded so little. You get what you pay for.
There is also the explanation that sometimes no matter what you do, teams just run into a rut of bad drafts.
There is also a thought the Rangers were for too long enamored with the high school talent who was a great story, but a highly risky pick.
As a result, expect the Rangers to shy away from those types of selections in 2021.
“Mistakes are made at all 30 [MLB] organizations and it’s not unique here,” first-year Texas Rangers GM Chris Young said Wednesday. “The record reflects some of the mistakes. The process has improved, no doubt about it. We are very well positioned moving forward. The past few drafts are a part of it.”
That includes the 2019 first-round pick, Texas Tech star third baseman Josh Jung. The Rangers won’t say it publicly, but privately they are all thinking this is their guy.
An injury delayed the start to his 2021 season, but he’s off to a great start in Frisco. The type of start where desperate GMs — and president of baseball operations — may be inclined to rush out their savior to the big leagues prematurely to create some distraction to how bad a season is going.
There is no reason the Rangers should see Jung any earlier at Globe Life Mall than 2022.
The Rangers own the second pick in the 2021 MLB amateur draft for a reason, and it’s not a good one.
Whatever the explanation, their farm system and player development has been a bust for years. Until they fix that, the big league club will remain one, too.
