Sunday hops, 5-10-26.
A weekly compendium emptying the bench, with Rangers developments, rumors, and takes — and yes, a little TROT COFFEY.
Happy Mother’s Day, you guys. Let’s get right to this week’s Hops.
Today: 40.
The Rangers play Game 40 this afternoon. It’s an artificial signpost, but one we talked about at the start of the season. After their Opening Day loss to the Phillies, I wrote this:
Here’s the other thing about drawing a pitcher like Sanchez today: no team has a more challenging Q1 on the schedule. The Rangers are going to see a lot of very good starting pitchers in their first 40 games, which stack up like this:
3 @ PHI
3 @ BAL
3 vs. CIN
3 vs. SEA
3 @ LAD
4 @ ATH
3 @ SEA
3 vs. PIT
3 vs. ATH
3 vs. NYY
3 @ DET
3 @ NYY
3 vs. CHC
If the Rangers are going to be a playoff team — their rotation certainly entitles them to believe they will be — they’re going to need to do to Christopher Sanchez types what the Phillies did today to Nathan Eovaldi.
If they can come out of this 40-game stretch with, say, 19 wins, I’d feel pretty good about things. It’s going to require the lineup to meet the moment and put more pressure on opposing pitchers, even those with Sanchez’s stature.
Wyatt Langford has been absent for half of these 40, and Corey Seager’s bat has been for much of it as well. If I’d been told those two things at the end of March, it would have felt silly to shoot for 19 wins, but here we are. They can hit that number today, as Jacob deGrom gets the ball opposite Cubs righty Jameson Taillon.
Yes, we’ve still got a few ticks left in the first quarter, but some teams have already taken big measures. The Phillies and Red Sox — both in the top six in payroll — have moved on from longtime managers. Stories are written regularly that speculate on where the Mets and Astros stand in that respect.
And the Giants made a statement of their own yesterday on where they believe they stand, shipping a perennial Gold Glover away at age 26 and not even in his arbitration years yet.
Let’s talk about that a bit.
