Thinking about the Texas Rangers, Michael Young, and Jamie Benn

And a podcast you absolutely need to listen to

PC: @Rangers

If you’re not following the Texas Rangers these days, now is a great time to do so. No other sports are really happening in July and August (though the Premier League is kicking into gear next month), but these Rangers recently made up a ton of ground on the Houston Astros*, and the trade deadline at the end of July promises to be a fascinating one.

In other words, the Rangers are far more than just a default option. They have, for the first time I can remember, the lowest staff ERA in Major League Baseball—something largely unfathomable for the last few decades. They also have Corey Seager, who continues to remind you that he’s basically Alex Rodriguez 2.0, except with a whole baseball team around him this time, at least in the defensive half of the inning. The offense? Well, the Rangers are basically going through their version of the Stars’ 2017-2019 Stars Pivot to Defense, except it feels much more accidental.

Do you remember how the 2019-20 Stars wound up 2nd-best in goals against and 3rd-worst in goals for? Well, the Rangers are bottom-ten in runs scored (437), but they have allowed the fewest runs in baseball by a large margin—just 363. Thus, the Rangers have the fourth-best run differential in baseball. It’s wild stuff, and surely the Rangers are hoping the offense shows up when it matters, just like it did for those Stars in the bubble.

But while you wait for the bats heat up, the pitching will continue to make you feel things, as Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom (I always thought of him as “Jake”) are the sort of one-two punch that used to mean everything to a team’s playoff fortunes, before workloads and openers and third-time-through-the-order data disabused us of our romantic notions about what the best pitchers can or should do.

Still, the Rangers Finally Got Some Pitching Up In Here, and it’s led them back into the wild card race at the perfect time to fight off your summer doldrums, even with most of the offense is still looking questionable to earn even a participation ribbon. It’s not quite Marty Turco in 2007, begging his team to score just one more goal against Vancouver, but ask me again in September. (Or better yet: Don’t.)

In moving to an indoor stadium (except for the, like, five times a year they deign to open the roof—never when I’ve been there, sadly) the Rangers have drastically reversed the park effects of what I’ll always remember as Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. And when I say “reversed,” I mean that Globe Life shed Field is the 7th-most pitching-friendly ballpark in the league, per Baseball Savant.

You die-hard Rangers fans know all this. And if you don’t, then I can’t recommend a better way for you to stay apprised of All The Developments than by following Jamey Newberg, who has been writing about the Rangers for what has to be something close to 30 years at this point.

Sunday hops, 7-27-25.

He’s also unlocked a few of his recent posts, so really, if you’re not following Jamey, now’s a great chance to sample some of the unparalleled work he puts into Rangers coverage.

That point was driven home especially forcefully to me over the weekend, when Jamey shared an episode of the Rosters to Rings podcast featuring Michael Young and Jon Daniels. It’s the rare sort of podcast where you get equal parts reminiscence, candor, pain, and joy, along with a couple of profane-but-good-natured comments from a franchise player looking back a decade or two and offering his honest thoughts, fears, and perspective. It’s as close to a must-listen as I can imagine, so, you know, listen to it, so long as you don’t mind a couple of well-placed no-no words.

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I was born in Dallas, but my family moved west just a couple of years after that, so my Native Texan status always comes with an asterisk usually reserved for teams like the Astors. My older brother, John, was old enough to be going to Rangers games at Arlington Stadium with my dad during that time. That more or less embedded Rangers fandom within our family, even if my own first memories of ballparks will be forever associated with the Dodgers.