Rangers GM Chris Young on Jack Leiter improvements, pitching injuries, offseason changes
Rangers GM Chris Young joined the GBag Nation to discuss the rash of pitching injuries the Rangers are dealing with right now, what he thought of Jack Leiter's start against the Yankees on Monday, what changes the team will look to make this offseason and more.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00This time now here for the Chris Young show in the Gbag Nation and a good afternoon, sir.
00:20How the heck are you?
00:22Hey guys, I'm well.
00:23How are you all?
00:24We're doing about the same.
00:26So we have a story up on ESPN today that sets the scene.
00:30It's all about how the Rangers are just the latest team to struggle after winning the
00:34World Series.
00:35I was wondering how much you guys talked about that internally or if Boach had mentioned
00:39anything about how tough it was for him in San Francisco.
00:42Well, yeah, I mean, you know, we obviously we came into the season with expectations
00:48that this was a world championship caliber team and that, you know, we understood how
00:53much everything had to go our way.
00:56And what we saw last year with everything aligning there at the end when we got healthy
01:00and everybody performed at a very high level the last week of the season into the playoffs.
01:06And so I don't take for granted, and I've been part of it as a player as well in Kansas
01:10City in 2015.
01:11So I don't take for granted how magical those years are.
01:15You know, I can't say perfectly that we saw this type of regression coming, that we would
01:21take such a large step backwards this season.
01:23And that's been the hard part for us as an organization.
01:27But, you know, we've had numerous conversations, even through the off season, trying to account
01:30for how are we going to get back and play October baseball and give ourselves a chance
01:36to win the World Series again.
01:38And we thought, you know, we put together a very good roster, a very talented roster.
01:42We were depending a lot on a lot of the players that we had returning.
01:45And, you know, for numerous reasons, it just hasn't gone our way this year.
01:50There have been a lot of contributing factors, and I think they all are important, from injuries
01:55to underperformance to maybe, you know, some personnel decisions that me in the front office
02:02are responsible for.
02:03And ultimately, we're going to take a hard look and figure out what we need to do better
02:06this off season to make sure that next year we bounce back and get back to being the team
02:11we believe we can be.
02:12Do you think you could get back to the same level of confidence that you had in this team?
02:17You know, that it can be at that 2023 level when we get to Surprise next spring?
02:24I don't see why not.
02:25I really don't.
02:26I think with the talent we have and the core group that we have returning, obviously, we
02:31have work to do this off season and making the roster better and improving some areas
02:35that we didn't perform well this year.
02:38But my expectation every year is going to be to show up and to have a team that's capable
02:43of competing for a World Series championship.
02:46I just don't believe in this market that we should ever come to spring training without
02:49World Series expectations unless we are committed to an absolute rebuild.
02:54And frankly, I think those days are behind us.
02:57CY, you mentioned that, you know, every year seems to be different, either championship
03:01or other things that fundamental core values that you hold near and dear to you.
03:10Did they get shaken a little bit this year or is it something that it's just something
03:14that you believe in it so much that it'll never shake you?
03:18Well, the core values aren't based on the performance of this year's team.
03:23The core values are based on successful organizations over the history of time.
03:29These core values have really passed those tests and all championship teams exhibit those
03:35core values.
03:36So I think it's up to us to continue to stay true to those values and make sure that we
03:41identify players and create an environment that is going to really bring out and highlight
03:46those values.
03:48And when we see things that are contrary to the values, that we correct them or we move
03:52on from those types of behaviors.
03:54So I really, I don't question the values that we have.
03:58I really believe that we do have a great group of guys.
04:01I think that, you know, for whatever reason, just a lot of them have had down years.
04:07And it's been frustrating.
04:08I think that, you know, there's an argument to be made that if you put this roster together
04:12seven out of 10 years, you'd probably have winning seasons and three of them, you may
04:17not.
04:18And this was one of the years that we haven't, but we are going to be faced with tough decisions
04:23moving forward and who fits, who doesn't and where, where we need to improve and how we're
04:27going to put together a championship caliber club next year, because that's my expectation
04:31and that's what our fans deserve.
04:33And that's what we're committed to.