The Sunday Read: Q&A with Rangers general manager Chris Young
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
ARLINGTON — Baseball officials for all 30 MLB teams have entered into their busiest time of the season.
The MLB Draft is three weeks away, the Aug. 1 trade deadline is three weeks after that, and in between, by July 25, teams must sign drafted players.
The Rangers have been scouting amateurs and potential trade candidates, and this week the amateur side will head to Arizona for the draft combine. Among the traveling party will be general manager Chris Young.
His team has the No. 4 overall pick and again should land a premium prospect on the heels of selecting Jack Leiter (No. 2 overall) and Kumar Rocker (No. 3 overall) the past two years.
Considering that the first-place Rangers could part with premium prospects in trades, this is another big pick. Young wants to know what the Rangers might be getting.
“I find it very beneficial,” he said. “I love the meetings. I spend all day meeting with players, just kind of understanding who they are, what makes them tick, what their goals are and then also explaining a little bit about the organization and what we’re about.”
Right now, the Rangers are all about making the postseason. Two key additions Young helped lure late in 2021, Marcus Semien and Corey Seager, are leading the offense, and the pitching staff continues to do its job most nights even though Jacob deGrom is out until late next season.
Manager Bruce Bochy is keep things on course.
The Rangers hit a bumpy patch the past 10 days but entered Sunday leading the American League West by 4 1/2 games over the Astros and the Angels.
Young found a few minutes last week for Rangers Today.
Who do you want Texas to draft? I’m hoping for Crews, Langford, Jenkins, Clark, and Skenes in that order 1-5. They don’t exactly have too much pitching, but they have bigger issues in the outfield to where Skenes would be a moderate disappointment to me. Also, thoughts on who they should go for? It seems the BP us the biggest issue, either starting and left field as secondary issues. I would love some of Barlow/Chapman/Bieber/Diaz/Giolito/Burns and perhaps Robert Jr.
It looks like it’ll be one of the high school guys, though who knows. I would be surprised if the Rangers took a pitcher, but 100 mph in the eighth inning is pretty intriguing. One trades, I like Bieber, Cease and Burnes as starters and Diaz, Barlow and Chapman for the bullpen. Chris Young’s 2015 Royals had an unbelievable bullpen. Maybe that’s route the Rangers take.