Editor’s note: Baseball is back and Yahoo Sports is previewing all 30 teams over the next month. This year’s previews will focus on fantasy and reality, as our MLB news staff and our fantasy baseball crew come together to assess each team before opening day. Next up, the Texas Rangers.
The Rangers are another team whose allure in fantasy baseball is greater than it is in their reality of Major League Baseball.
In real life, the Rangers are just another team in the AL West that’s not as good as the Houston Astros. And they’ve got the Los Angeles Angels and Oakland A’s ahead of them on the list of teams trying to chase the Astros. The Rangers lost 95 games last year, they’re not trying to duplicate that, but it’s not at all out of the question to imagine them in the cellar again.
In fantasy, however, the Rangers have a few guys who will tantalize owners (and perhaps ultimately confound and frustrate them). This is a team that has complemented its talented younger players — Nomar Mazara, Rougned Odor, Joey Gallo, among them — with a number of recognizable veterans. Just look at the pitching staff, there’s no one you immediately want to draft, but there’s probably a guy you had a horror story about picking in the last five years. - Mike Oz
Rangers’ Offseason grade
The Rangers were certainly busy this offseason, although there was not one huge splash of a transaction that will change the course of the franchise. They did hire a new manager in Chris Woodward, the former Los Angeles Dodgers coach, and then set out to stay relevant in the AL West through a series of signings.
Most notably, they added pitcher Lance Lynn to a three-year deal in December, which seems almost unbelievable when you see how many players could get only one-year deals in the ensuing months. They also signed Shelby Miller, Asdrubal Cabrera, Shawn Kelley, Hunter Pence, Logan Forsythe and Ben Revere.
Our grade: C — They didn’t idly by, but it’s tough to say whether any of this will make the Rangers drastically better in 2019. - Mike Oz
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