A little over a year ago, some of the Texas Rangers fan base was excited about the acquisition of power hitting first baseman Prince Fielder. Sure we thought we would miss Ian Kinsler (some of us), but then Kinsler went and said Texas was too hot, and later talked smack about Jon Daniels, so we were okay with him being gone. A team that was filled with stars like Prince Fielder, Adrian Beltre, Alex Rios, Yu Darvish and Derek Holland was looking good and some publications even had the Texas Rangers as World Series contenders.
As we now know, the trade would up being a bad on for the Texas Rangers, at least in the first year of it. Ian Kinsler went on to be a All Star and hit .275 with 17 home runs and 92 RBI for the playoff bound Tigers while Prince Fielder hit 3 home runs and knock in 16 before having surgery and missing 2/3 of the season for the last place Texas Rangers. He only played in 42 games.
Then of course Derek Holland was injured and that began a string of most of the team being on the DL at some point of the season. Then Ron Washington resigned amidst the worst season in a long time. It was painful at times, even depressing. How could a team that won 90+ games in 2013 look so bad in 2014? Injuries and lack of experience, that’s how. The Texas Rangers now have a more experienced second baseman in Rougned Odor, I have to believe that Elvis Andrus is not going to be as unimpressive as he was in 2014, and Prince Fielder will be back on the field as well as Derek Holland, who looked good at the end of the season when he made his comeback. Adrian Beltre will still be Adrian Beltre, that is to say that he will still be awesome.
So where does that leave us this off-season? I would say cautiously optimistic. If the Texas Rangers can make some deals and bring in a little more help both in the rotation and the bull pen, I think they have a chance to be a much improved team in 2015. They will have everyone healthy going into the season, the have young players with more experience, they have veterans, they have Yu Darvish, they have a new manager, and they have a fan base that is going to get behind them when the season starts. We never really know what is going to happen during a baseball season, but I have to believe that the team will be much better than the 2014 version. I don’t think I can handle another season like that one.