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Texas Rangers GM Chris Young on finishing strong, Wyatt Langford's improvement
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Pick your favorite team, your favorite players, and get customized highlights, stories, and breaking news right on your home fee. Follow the action with Game Ted where 3D replays add another dimension. Plus notifications can keep you connected to every pinch, every hit, every game. The MLB app, baseball, your way. Download it now for free from the App Store or Google Play. Block out another research and supply major league baseball trade bar to use with permission. - Welcome back, nation. It's time now for the Chris Young Show here on your home of the Rangers 105 through the fan. The CY Show is brought to you by PlayScore and Ann Heiser Bush. Segments brought to you by soda. Pregame at eight o'clock tonight, to first pitch about eight thirty seven here is a CY joint and now here on the fan in a good afternoon, sir. How the heck are you? - Hey guys, I'm well. How are you all? - Oh, we're doing about the same. You know, schedule finishing up here late summer. I was wondering, are you relieved that we get to take this season out to the back 40 and just be done with it for good? Or how you looking at the final week? - Well, it's funny, I was in Boach's office two days ago and he said, see why, what do you want to see this final week? And I said, Boach, I want to win, you know, I want to win. That's the most important part to me. I want to come out and play good baseball for the last week and, you know, go out and close out 2024 on a winning note and then we turn the page and we move on to 2025. And, you know, maybe it's just a competitor in me. I know there are a lot of young guys that, you know, we'd like to see, but that said, I want to put a winning team out on the field and I want to finish strong. - And I want to play the baseball that I think we're capable of playing. And if we do that, I think we'll finish, we'll have a good road trip here and finish the way we want. - Will that be a good way to head off into the off season? Now, what do you think about the last series in Oakland for the Rangers? Is this, it is a place, a rich in baseball history, what first comes to mind for you? - Yeah, you know, it's funny, I actually pulled into the stadium here this afternoon in the parking lot and there are already fans lined up at the lot waiting to get in. And, you know, it's been a lot of time here as a player. And I like this place. I mean, there's a lot of history here, a lot of great players, a lot of great teams that have come through Oakland. And, you know, it's sad. It's sad for baseball that they're leaving. And, but I am happy that we're here to close it out. I do have fond memories of pitching here, of playing against the A's and it's a great environment. When the place is full and the fans are here, they're rowdy and create the great environment. I think that's what we're going to expect this, this these last three games here. And I'm excited to see it. And I just hope we play well and find a way to win in a rowdy environment. - One of the few ballparks where you might have a possum sneak up on you or something, huh? (laughing) - You hope it's a possum. There may be bigger than that. (laughing) But yeah, but no, it is. I mean, it's an old ballpark. It's run down. The amenities are not, are not the best. But I always thought that was part of the A's identity too, is that they found a way to embrace that and just sort of have a chip on their shoulder. And there wasn't much, you know, there weren't many frills of being a player in Oakland, but they always put together good teams and they play hard. And this year's team is no different. Mark Hose has got them playing very, very hard. And the guys seem to embrace kind of the, you know, the blue collar mentality that exists and playing in the Coliseum. One of the positives to the end of this season is certainly been the way Wyatt Langford's been playing. Had another home run over the weekend. How impressive is this for him as you look at his season coming to an end in the excitement heading into next year? - Yeah, I mean, I can speak from personal experience in your first full season. By the end of September, it's a, it's a mental grind. You've never been through a season that long in your life. You've never played this many games in your life. And so you kind of hope to get to the finish line. You don't expect to sprint through it. And Wyatt is accelerating as he's reaching the finish line. And it's really fun to see. I think it speaks to Wyatt's aptitude, the adjustments he's made over the course of the season, his mentality of getting better, not letting things fade them and just taking it day to day. And he's got all the attributes of a really, really good player. And to see what he's done over the last six weeks and the way he's come on strong, it's so exciting to think about what he's gonna be in 2025 and beyond. - See why I know you have games still in hand that you have to finish out. I was just curious, in the NFL, we have with the exit interviews and stuff like that. We always met with the players and talk with them and kind of told them our ideas and what we need to do for the off season. Do they do the same thing in baseball? Do you meet with everybody when the season's over with and kind of get ideas going forward? - Yes, it's why I'm on the trip and we'll meet with every player. Coach and I will meet with every player and really lay out the season. What we saw, what we think needs to improve is we go into the off season areas of focus and where players can get better and what we want collectively is a team going into the winner and coming back next year. I think it sets a tone and an expectation. I never actually believe they're not in baseball. It's not something that's commonly done. And so I never had that as a player. Not one team I was on had exit interviews. I've done it three of the four years I've been here with the one exception being last year when there was the best kind of ending to the season you could possibly have. We didn't have the time to do those types of interviews but this year we are doing them. We're doing them this week over the course of the road trip and we'll do the same with the coaches when we get back to Arlington after the road trip. - Well, as we talked with you about last week, the excitement was having rocker into Grom and getting to see them pitch. Have you formulated a plan at all for them moving into next year? Do you have to monitor their innings at all? - Yeah, we'll approach that as we get into next year in the off season. We'll talk with the medical group and the performance department really decide what the right threshold of innings is. And I think it's not just the innings. It's the way we manage their starts and how many starts they do on four days rest, how many starts they do on five, when we need to skip a start, stuff like that. Looking at different pockets of the schedule where we may play 17 in a row or 30 out of 31 and deciding that, okay, this may be a good stretch where we skip a start or at some point if they're looking fatigued, we IEL somebody to make sure that they have ample recovery time and stay strong throughout the season. So there's a number of ways to manage that. It's a bunch of strategic conversations and decisions that we'll get into. The season is the off season, gets underway here and really as we get into spring training, we'll have a specific plan for each player. - Put into context what rockers last start means for his foreseeable future. Is it relevant at all that you know, you maybe had more base runners than you would like or is that just part of the recovery process? - I think it's just part of the natural assimilation of a major league starter. He just, he needs time and there are gonna be moments where he's not feeling his best or he doesn't have his best command and he's gonna run into trouble and he navigated those really well. We actually, we made an error that cost him two earned runs. Otherwise I felt like despite not having his best stuff, he gave us a chance to win. And you know, that's the making of a good pitcher when on the days you're not feeling great that you can go out and still compete. And so I think we saw that. Now my hope is that this last start, it's gonna be a fun start, the last game here at the Coliseum and it'll be a rowdy crowd, a day game, an environment which he's never seen. My hope is that he finishes strong and ends on a real positive outing and builds momentum into the off season. But you know, the natural, it's gonna take him. I don't think we'll know what Kumar is going to truly be, you know, without seeing him at least, you know, 20 starts. He's better over here. Now at T-Mobile, get four 5G phones on us and four lines for $25 a line per month when you switch with eligible traders, all on America's largest 5G network. (upbeat music) Minimum of four lines for $25 per line per month without a paid discount using debit or bank account, $5 more per line without auto pay, plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge. Phones be a 24-monthly build credits for well qualified customers, contact us before canceling entire accounts to continue build credits or credit stop and balance on a required finance agreement too. Build credits and if you pay off devices early, ctmobile.com. Now with the MLB app, you can get baseball your way. Pick your favorite team, your favorite players and get customized highlights, stories and breaking news right on your home feed. Follow the action with Game Tip where 3D replays add another dimension. Plus notifications can keep you connected to every pitch, every hit, every game. The MLB app, baseball, your way. Download it now for free from the app store or Google Play. Block out another research and supply major league baseball trade parts used with permission. - The big leagues. - See why my question for you then is, do you anticipate any changes within the staff? I know that's something you probably have to sit down and talk about with boats and stuff, but you anticipate any changes with your staff going forward? - Yeah, boats and I haven't had the discussion yet, but I will say, I believe in the staff we have, I think they're a great staff, they're very talented. It's the same staff that won the World Series last year, and while we've come up short this year, I know it's no fault of the staff in terms of the effort, the energy, the commitment and the dedication that they've shown to the organizations, to the players themselves. So what I don't know is how many of them will have external opportunities, there may be some callings on staff members, and in which case we need to reevaluate and decide the best way to backfill if we lose any staff members, but, you know, I can't say perfectly if there will be changes right now, but that's the conversation boats and I will have in the coming days, and at which point, we'll evaluate the best way to structure the staff going forward and some of that may be dependent upon what transpires externally with job openings throughout the industry. - And Josh Young with the hand, he's obviously shut down what's his outlook as it pertains to that. - Yeah, we're trying to get some answers there, and I think that it's been frustrating for Josh. He's such a hard worker, and he's so committed, and to have him have a little bit of a setback right now, it's been hard for him. I know he wanted to finish the season strong, but this thing flared up just a little bit, and it's kind of normal when they put a plate into his wrist to stabilize the bone, but there's a tendon that runs along that plate that has continued to get irritated, and so I think we have to step back and evaluate the best way to mitigate this and manage it moving forward, and we hope to have answers within the next four or five days as to what that looks like. - It's Chris Young here with us. You know, here on the radio side, we entertain all kinds of ideas and scenarios. Is the thought of a Corey Seager transitioning to first base something that's relevant in your world at all? - Well, you know, if Corey was struggling at shortstop, we may consider that, but Corey has been so good at short, he's played a great defense. He grades out very well in all our objective defensive metrics and external metrics from third parties. So I think that right now he's really a premier shortstop, and there may come a time at which Corey, his body doesn't allow him to play short, but that time is not now, and we have high, high level of confidence that Corey will bounce back and be healthy next year and play a great shortstop for us. - See why it's gonna be the 24th year that Major League Baseball does not have a repeat champ. That'll be 25 next year when, of course, you and the Texas Rangers are back winning the World Series. But if somebody were to say, hey, what were some of the biggest things you learned and challenges when it comes to repeating outside of the injuries, 'cause you were snake bitten this year? What are some of your thoughts reflecting back on that? - Well, you know, I think that, and I experienced this as a player in 2015, going into the 2016 season in Kansas City when we won the World Series. And I think that as a player, it's natural that you have this emotional month where you reach the pinnacle of the game and you win, and then you start your off season and you need time mentally and physically to recover. And then you're kind of behind the eight ball, so the off season accelerates on you, and then you get into spring training and you say, okay, I got to ease into it because I'm not as far along as I was last year when there was a full off season. And all of a sudden you look up and you get into May and June and you're a little bit behind the eight ball still because you haven't sped up and caught up in terms of the work that you've missed out on. And I'm not sure there's a perfect way to avoid that aside from just making sure that you really have the same complete off season and do it with the same edge and mentality as you did in the losing seasons. And it may be just natural that guys do let down their guard a little bit after they win. And I saw that in Kansas City. And I think one of the things that's important about this game is that you really never arrive. There are very few players that ever have this, have the job security and they fully arrived in this game. And so I think for all of our guys to stay hungry, to stay focused and continue to work because the off seasons of the foundation in terms of what you can expect during the regular season, if you don't build that good strong foundation in the off season, it's really hard to catch up during the season. - And of course that foundation in pro sports all, no flows from capital. TV money gonna be right next year. Do you anticipate it'll impact your budget again? Or how do you look, what do we know about that? - Well, I mean, to some degree, I don't know exactly the extent to which it will, but we'll have those conversations. When I get back next week, I'll sit down with Ray and our ownership and really look at what next year looks like in terms of revenues and our TV money and we'll formulate the best plan possible to put a winning team out on the field. But I am very excited about the core group that we have and I'm very confident that if we run this group out there and they all have great off seasons and come back motivated and hungry, that this team can be capable of winning and doing special things. And it's up to us to really fill out the rest of the roster around the core group that we have. And I'm looking forward to doing that. - Yeah, I can't wait to get a chance to catch up with you maybe in the off season, probably our last chat till then. - Anytime guys, I really appreciate it. I appreciate all the support that you guys have provided this year and a tough year and really to all the fans listening. I just want to say a big thank you for what has been really the most special 10 or 11 months in Texas Rangers history. And throughout the community hearing so many people, their gratitude and support for our organization, the fanfare, seeing kids and fans wearing the Ranger T with pride throughout DFW. It's been such a rewarding experience. And while I regret that we're not going to be back in the playoffs and having a chance to compete for World Series this year, it has meant so much to me and everybody affiliated with the Rangers to have the support that we have. And I can't wait to get back to work and bounce back in 2025. So thank you, thank you to all our fans and looking forward to a great off season. - We'll see why we can't wait to read the book on, 'cause you're a pro's pro about the way you handle your job. And thanks for being so great to us as a station. We really, we love interviewing you every week. You're a stand up guy. And again, thank you for everything you've done for us to educate us as baseball fans for sure. - No guys, the feeling is mutual. You guys do a great job and just the support and love that you guys bleed for our organization. I can't thank you enough for it. So go, let's have a great last week here. And thanks again, and I'll join you anytime you have time for me to talk to you then. - Heck yeah, we'll drink to that buddy. Have a great week, we'll catch up with you soon. - Thank you guys. - Chris Young brought you by PlayScore and Ann Heiser Bush. Usually every Monday at 4.20 here in the G bag nation, that'll do it probably until the Rangers toy drive. We'll be out there and we'll be gathering toys and you'll be getting tickets to an upcoming Ranger game. And hopefully see why I'll have a bounty of talent to crude. And at that point, probably December, mid December, something like that. Okay, Mark Schlerath talking NFL with him. And he joins us next year on 105 through the fan. 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