Rangers Notes: Offseason Needs Shift into Focus

Shin-Soo Choo could give the Rangers a left-handed power hitter in the outfield, something missing since the departure of Josh Hamilton.

Trying to move past another stumbling finish to a disappointing season (not to mention the loss of the most notable icon in franchise history), the Rangers will be in the unfamiliar position of trying to improve their offense via free agency or trades this winter.

The Texas lineup that lost Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli and Michael Young heading into this year did not fare as well as many had hoped, and Nelson Cruz’s late-season suspension highlighted multiple weaknesses in the batting order.

Cruz is going to be an unrestricted ‘Type A’ free agent for the first time in his career this offseason, and while the Rangers are expected to make him a qualifying offer of roughly $14 million, the Dominican slugger could elect to seek a more lucrative multi-year contract from another club on the open market.

Alex Rios has already supplanted Cruz as the team’s everyday right fielder, and both Craig Gentry and Leonys Martin saw regular playing time down the stretch, but Texas could look to add a left-handed power bat to the outfield mix.

Some of the top names available to that end include Shin-Soo Choo, Jacoby Ellsbury, Curtis Granderson and Grady Sizemore, each of whom is 33 years old or younger and has reached double figures in home runs at least once in their career.

Barring a blockbuster trade this offseason, the Rangers appear to have most of their infield set with Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler, but they are likely to seek a utility man to replace free agent Jeff Baker.

In addition, the club could look for a more reliable power source than Mitch Moreland at first base, with Kendrys Morales, Justin Morneau and former Texas slugger Mike Napoli among the top players available at that position.

Behind the plate, both A.J. Pierzynski and Geovany Soto are eligible for free agency in a class that features a considerable gap between the most coveted name on the market — Atlanta catcher Brian McCann — and the next-best option.

The Rangers figure to be in the running for McCann’s services, and it would not be surprising if they brought back Soto because of the successful rapport he appears to have developed with starter Yu Darvish.

Aside from Darvish, left-hander Derek Holland is about the only other sure bet to begin next season in the Texas rotation, although 22-year-old Martin Perez certainly earned himself strong consideration by posting a 10-6 record across 20 starts this summer.

Matt Garza, acquired from the Cubs in a July trade, is eligible for free agency after winning just four of his 13 starts with the Rangers, but he’s thought to be one of the better pitchers on the market this offseason.

Also drawing interest this winter will be a handful of serviceable veterans who have shown the ability to surpass 200 innings pitched in a season, including Dan Haren, Ubaldo Jimenez, Ricky Nolasco, Ervin Santana and Jason Vargas.

Finally, the Texas bullpen does not figure to see a great amount of turnover next year, although some roles could be shifted if closer Joe Nathan decides to turn down his 2014 contract option and become a free agent.

Davis to Serve as Controlling Owner

With Nolan Ryan resigning from his ownership post, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said last week that Ray Davis will replace Ryan as the controlling owner of the team.

Davis, who already serves as co-chairman of the organization with Bob Simpson, is expected to be bestowed with his new title at the annual meeting of MLB owners in mid-November.

Following six years as a Rangers executive, Ryan announced two weeks ago that he will be stepping down from his front-office position at the end of this month, at which time he will sell his stake in the team to Davis and Simpson.

Leyland Retirement Could Open Door for Maddux

While he does not appear to among the finalists for the vacant Cubs’ managerial job, Texas pitching coach Mike Maddux is now being discussed as a potential candidate to replace Jim Leyland in Detroit.

Leyland announced he would not return as manager just two days after his Tigers lost to the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series, and Maddux has said he would “absolutely be interested” in the Detroit opening.

“This team is built to win now,” Maddux said of the Tigers. “I would try to put my own brand on it and just try to fill Jim Leyland’s shoes — not that anyone will be able to fill his shoes.”

Rangers to Host Tampa Bay in A.L. Wild-Card Tiebreaker

Craig Gentry (left) celebrates as he crosses home plate in the seventh inning of Sunday’s 6-2 victory over the Angels at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

After putting the skids on a seven-game losing streak and bouncing back to win the final seven games of the regular season, the Rangers have finished in a two-way tie with Tampa Bay for the American League’s second Wild Card spot.

Texas will play host to the Rays on Monday to determine which team will move on to face Cleveland in the A.L. Wild Card play-in game, which is scheduled for Wednesday night at Progressive Field. The winner of that game will then travel to Boston to open the American League Division Series against the Red Sox this Friday.

“Tomorrow we’ve got to come in and be prepared,” second baseman Ian Kinsler said following the Rangers’ 6-2 win over the Angels on Sunday. “It’s just one game so it’s a tough task. We’ve done it seven times [in a row] so hopefully tomorrow we can make it eight.”

Seemingly unable to generate any positive momentum a week ago, Texas is only in the position it is in now by virtue of home sweeps against visiting Houston and Los Angeles, beginning with a 12-0 blowout over the Astros last Monday.

Outfielder Alex Rios became the seventh player in club history to hit for the cycle Monday with his 4-for-4 performance against Houston’s pitching staff, collecting four RBIs and scoring three runs in the process.

The Rangers scored single runs in three consecutive innings Tuesday — capped off by Adrian Beltre’s first home run since Aug. 28 — and the Texas bullpen produced multiple innings of shutout relief in a 3-2 win versus the Astros.

Going for the sweep on Wednesday, the Rangers fell behind Houston 3-1 in the top of the fourth inning, then rallied for five runs in the bottom of the frame to support Martin Perez and nail down a 7-3 victory.

Right-hander Matt Garza yielded four runs on 11 hits Thursday against the Angels while the Texas infield made four errors behind him, but the Rangers’ lineup battled back to tie the game before Jurickson Profar greeted reliever Michael Kohn with a leadoff homer in the ninth to seal a 6-5 walk-off win.

Another late rally was needed Friday as Texas and Los Angeles took a 3-3 tie into the seventh inning, when Alex Rios and A.J. Pierzynski each delivered RBI singles to help lift the Rangers to a 5-3 margin of victory.

The threat of severe weather pushed back the start of Saturday’s game from 7:05 p.m. to 11 a.m., marking the earliest home starting time in franchise history.

Playing through intermittent showers, Texas took advantage of five Angels errors over the first five innings and jumped to a 5-1 lead, then received another stellar performance from the bullpen en route to a 7-2 win that pulled the Rangers into a tie for the second A.L. Wild Card.

Needing to beat Los Angeles in the final game of the season in order to maintain its slim playoff hopes, the team took a while to get rolling Sunday against Jason Vargas before scoring runs in four straight innings on the way to a 6-2 win over the Angels.

Southpaw Martin Perez will get the start for Texas in tomorrow’s Wild-Card tiebreaker versus the Rays, facing off against reigning A.L. Cy Young award winner David Price at 7:07 p.m. at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Cruz to Return for Wild Card Play-In

Having served all of his 50-game suspension handed down last month for violating MLB’s joint drug agreement, outfielder Nelson Cruz will be back in the Texas lineup for Monday’s tiebreaker against Tampa Bay.

In 108 games this season prior to his suspension, Cruz was batting .269 with 27 home runs, 76 runs batted in and a .511 slugging percentage.

Cruz’s return will require a corresponding 40-man roster move, which is expected to be announced sometime Monday afternoon.

Team Draws over Three Million Fans

For the second year in a row, the Rangers surpassed the three-million mark in overall attendance this weekend with good turnouts for their series versus the Angels, finishing with a total of 3,135,477 fans on the season.

Texas trailed only the New York Yankees in American League attendance this year, averaging more than 38,709 fans per game across 81 home dates.

The past two seasons represent the first and only times in Rangers history that the club has drawn over 3,000,000 fans out to Arlington.

Rangers Notes: Texas in Second following tough Road Swing

Center fielder Leonys Martin misjudges a fly ball hit by Oakland’s Josh Donaldson in Wednesday’s game, which the A’s won by an 11-4 final.

With a chance to extend (or at least preserve) their slim American League West division lead over Oakland, the Rangers instead lost four of six on their California road trip to fall out of first place and currently sit 1.5 games behind the Athletics.

Texas began the trip by dropping two out of three to the A’s at O.co Coliseum, starting with a 4-2 loss Monday in which David Murphy hit a game-tying two-run homer in the fifth only to have Coco Crisp answer with a two-run shot of his own to give Oakland the lead for good.

Left-hander Martin Perez turned in another quality outing for Texas on Tuesday, limiting the Athletics to just one run while scattering eight hits over seven innings of work as the Rangers held on for a 5-1 win.

Oakland beat up on Yu Darvish and the Texas bullpen in the rubber game of the series Wednesday afternoon, getting home runs from four different players and routing the Rangers, 11-4, to pull into a first-place tie.

Although the A’s briefly fell half a game back with their loss to Houston on Thursday, they moved back ahead with a 7-5 victory Friday while Texas lost its series opener in Anaheim by a 6-5 final score.

The Rangers played uncharacteristically sloppy defense on Saturday, making four errors in the game — including three miscues within the first seven batters — as the Angels cruised to an 8-3 win over Texas and Derek Holland.

Hoping to salvage Sunday afternoon’s finale, the Rangers jumped to an early lead when Alex Rios, who was making his first start in the No. 3 spot in the Texas lineup, connected for a first-inning solo home run off Jason Vargas.

Los Angeles scored three times in the first four frames against Nick Tepesch and Joe Ortiz, but the Rangers went on to plate two runs in the top of the seventh to regain a 4-3 advantage, and closer Joe Nathan tossed a perfect ninth inning to preserve the victory for Texas.

Andrus Sits, Returns from Back Injury

Shortstop Elvis Andrus left the Rangers’ Aug. 31 game versus Minnesota due to tightness in his lower back, then sat out all three games of the team’s series in Oakland as he was still dealing with the effects.

“I want to be, not sure about 100 percent, but at least 80 percent,” Andrus said. “I don’t want to go out there and have it not feel well, and then try to hustle and do something worse. … As soon as I feel good, I’ll be in the field.”

Andrus returned to the Texas lineup in Anaheim and collected two hits in each of the three games over the weekend, among them his second home run of the year Friday night.

Roster Call-Ups Include Beltre, Ogando, Wolf

In what is likely the final set of roster additions this season, the Rangers on Tuesday called up outfielders Engel Beltre and Joey Butler and right-handed pitcher Ross Wolf from Triple-A Round Rock.

Also Tuesday, Texas activated right-handed pitcher Alexi Ogando from the 15-day disabled list, where he had been since mid-August because of nerve inflammation in his throwing shoulder.

Beltre and Butler each made their major-league debuts earlier this season for the Rangers, while Wolf has seen his first big-league action in three years as a swingman and occasional spot-starter out of the Texas bullpen.

Darvish Nearly Perfect as Rangers Take Series from Houston

Yu Darvish set a new career high with 14 strikeouts Tuesday while retiring the first 26 batters he faced, part of a 7-0 victory for Texas.

After getting beat 8-2 in Sunday’s opener and having to wait through a scheduled off day Monday, the Rangers were looking for some positive momentum heading into the second game of the season Tuesday at Houston’s Minute Maid Park.

Texas got exactly what it needed as right-hander Yu Darvish delivered one of the best single-game pitching performances in franchise history. Darvish struck out a career-high 14 batters and came within one out of a perfect game, only to watch a ground ball by Astros shortstop Marwin Gonzalez bounce under his glove and into center field in the bottom of the ninth.

Although he still had two outs in the inning and a 7-0 lead, Darvish had thrown 111 pitches to that point and was replaced by lefty Michael Kirkman, who allowed another hit but struck out J.D. Martinez to preserve the shutout victory.

“I think my teammates were more disappointed than I was,” Darvish said of losing his no-hitter and perfect game bid with one out to go. “I think I got lucky today. I felt I pitched better against the Royals last [September] … I had better command in that outing.”

Manager Ron Washington said after the game that he was planning to remove Darvish following the Gonzalez at-bat regardless of the result, citing the 26-year-old’s pitch count as well as the fact that it was his first start of 2013.

“Early in the season there is [caution],” Washington said. “When you’re throwing a perfect game, you try to get through it. He got two quick outs. I felt like if he had walked that guy, if the guy had gotten a base hit, he was gone.

“[Gonzalez] got the base hit. I would have gotten darts in my back if I had walked out there after a walk.”

Darvish was also afforded some breathing room as the game progressed, watching Texas score two runs each in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to turn what had been a 1-0 lead into a 7-0 final. Ian Kinsler hit the Rangers’ first home run of the year in the seventh, and longtime Astro Lance Berkman went 3-for-4 with a walk and two RBIs against his former club.

On the heels of Darvish’s brilliant performance, Alexi Ogando got the start Wednesday afternoon and helped Texas pitchers set a major-league record for team strikeouts (43) through the first three games of a season.

The Rangers had struck out 13 Houston batters in a losing effort Sunday before Darvish and Kirkman combined for 15 strikeouts on Tuesday. Ogando fanned 10 Astros over six-plus innings Wednesday, and Kirkman teamed with closer Joe Nathan to punch out the last five batters and nail down a 4-0 win for Texas.

Andrus Extension Becomes Official

The team announced Thursday what had first been reported late Sunday night, that Texas had agreed to an eight-year contract extension with All-Star shortstop Elvis Andrus worth roughly $120 million.

The new deal for Andrus will go into effect after his current contract, which runs through the end of next season, expires.

“As a player, I treat myself as a winner,” the 24-year-old Andrus said. “Until I get this city and this organization a ring, I won’t sleep. We came so close to getting it that, as a player — that’s what makes you better.

“I love Texas, they treat me well,” he said. “My family loves this city too. I can’t wait to continue to play, continue to grow … continue to fight to get a ring.”

An All-Star in two of his first four major-league seasons, Andrus has a career batting average of .275 in a Rangers uniform while playing Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop, and his presence is one of the main reasons top prospect Jurickson Profar is starting the year at Triple-A Round Rock.

Texas Preps for Angels, Hamilton

The club has a day off Thursday before hosting former slugger Josh Hamilton and the Los Angeles Angels for a three-game weekend series beginning Friday.

Hamilton left the organization last December following five years spent with the Rangers, during which time he was an American League All-Star in every season while hitting .305 and amassing 142 home runs.

Left-hander Derek Holland is slated to face off against the Angels’ Jason Vargas in Friday’s home opener, and he will be followed to the mound by Matt Harrison Saturday afternoon and Yu Darvish on Sunday.

Texas went 9-10 against Los Angeles in 2012, including a split record of 5-5 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Rangers Notes: Texas Keeps Rolling After All-Star Break

Derek Holland began the second half strong with his second consecutive complete-game shutout, part of a 5-0 win Thursday in Seattle.

The Rangers extended their season-best win streak to 11 games over the weekend with a four-game sweep over the Mariners at Safeco Field.

Left-hander Derek Holland – who failed to get out of the first inning in a start against Florida earlier this month – bounced back with his second consecutive complete-game shutout on Thursday, part of the Rangers’ 5-0 win over Seattle.

Holland carried a perfect game into the bottom of the sixth before walking Franklin Gutierrez and allowing a single to Chone Figgins, and he faced just six batters over the minimum on the evening.

Outfielder Josh Hamilton provided Texas with an early lead when he hit a solo homer off Mariners starter Jason Vargas in the top of the first. Nelson Cruz followed with his 21^st home run of the season in the second inning, and Michael Young stretched the lead to 3-0 with an RBI single in the third.

Mike Napoli then connected for a leadoff homer against Vargas in the top of the fifth inning, and Craig Gentry produced the game’s final run when he singled, stole second base, and came in to score on an RBI single from Elvis Andrus.

Meanwhile, Holland scattered five hits over the last four frames and walked only one batter while recording a total of eight strikeouts, becoming the first Texas pitcher to throw back-to-back shutouts since knuckleballer Charlie Hough did so in 1983.

The Rangers received another scoreless outing from their starter on Friday as Colby Lewis tossed eight-plus shutout frames before Neftali Feliz recorded the final out in the ninth.

Adrian Beltre, Endy Chavez and Josh Hamilton each contributed a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the 4-0 Texas win while Michael Young connected for an RBI single in the top of the eighth.

As for Lewis, he allowed just two hits over his first eight frames of work and finished with a total of eight strikeouts, helping to extend the scoreless-innings streak of the Texas pitching staff to 29 dating back to July 9.

Ian Kinsler helped push the Rangers’ win streak to 10 games with a pair of solo home runs Saturday, and Texas received seven quality innings from left-hander C.J. Wilson en route to a 5-1 victory in Seattle.

Kinsler gave the Rangers an early advantage when he homered leading off the ballgame against Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez, who then settled down to retire 15 of the next 16 batters he faced.

Wilson kept Seattle off the scoreboard until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Franklin Gutierrez reached on a leadoff single, moved to second on a stolen base, and scored on Ichiro Suzuki’s game-tying single into center field.

The Rangers took the lead back for good, however, on an Elvis Andrus RBI single in the top of the sixth, then added three insurance runs off Hernandez and reliever Jamey Wright in the eighth inning. With one out, Kinsler clubbed his second solo homer of the game to extend the Texas lead to 3-1, and both Andrus and Adrian Beltre singled and eventually came around to score in the frame.

Sunday afternoon saw the Rangers wrap up the four-game sweep with a 3-1 win over the Mariners, powered by a three-run homer from Mitch Moreland and seven-plus quality innings from left-hander Matt Harrison. The victory also helped Texas extend its overall winning streak to 11 games, tied for the second-longest in club history.

Seattle starter Blake Beavan – traded by the Rangers last summer as part of the deal for Cliff Lee – had to work around Dustin Ackley’s two-out error in the first inning, although he was able to strike out Nelson Cruz with the bases loaded to end the threat.

Beavan wasn’t as fortunate in the top of the second, however, as David Murphy singled and Mike Napoli walked against him before Moreland hammered a three-run home run to deep right field, giving Texas a 3-0 lead.

Harrison, on the other hand, took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and lasted into the top of the eighth, allowing just one run on five hits while seeing his ERA (2.91) drop into the top 10 in the American League.