Texas Rangers general manager Chris Young made a Monday appearance on the GBag Nation on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM) to offer an update on the Rangers season as well as the health of shortstop Corey Seager.
Here are some of the highlights, edited for clarity.
Question: How do you feel about winning a series against a good Reds team?
Chris Young: “Yeah it was a really good series, they’re a very good team. They’re a young team, they’re talented. They’re exciting. They can really cause some different problems, especially offensively. When they get on base they run wild. It was a challenge for us, but to come out of that series with two wins I thought was very good, especially given where we’ve been as a team and not playing our best baseball. Still playing well, but I think there’s room for improvement. I’m excited to see where things go as the calendar flips to May here. The schedule -- I don’t wanna say it lightens up, but we’re playing some games we should feel pretty good about winning series.”
Q: How about Dane Dunning, we used to think of him as a groundball pitcher but he struck out 10 batters on 69 pitches in [Sunday’s] win. What have you seen from Dane and how he’s been able to improve?
Young: “Exactly that. Yesterday was the best he’s pitched this year, it was fun to see. It was really good I think for Dane to see, his pitch count efficiency was really important to him and getting deep in the game. He doesn’t have to throw a lot of pitches to get strikeouts, strikeouts are a byproduct of making really good pitches. I think sometimes Dane gets in trouble where he gets in pitcher’s counts and then doesn’t quite put the guy away, next thing you know it’s back to a hitter’s count, or a 3-2 count. So I think for Dane, he did a great job of getting ahead, staying ahead and finishing the hitter. And that’s really one of our pitching mantras, ‘Get ahead, stay head and finish.’”
Q: At what point with the offense do you consider that maybe something needs to be changed? Or do you just have faith in who the players are gonna be?
Young: “I do have faith, obviously at some point if we’re not clicking or scoring runs at the level we expect, then certainly we will tinker with the lineup or personnel. But really I have such a high level of confidence with this group, and given their track record and what they did last year. You know you look at them and, Adolis [Garcia] had sort of a slow start to spring training, Corey Seager missed most of spring training, Josh [Jung] missed most of spring training and now we’re missing Josh again, and then Nate Lowe missed a lot of spring training. Langford and Carter are going through their first full major league seasons... there are explanations as to some of the performances so far. We haven’t clicked as a group yet, but I know it’s in there, these are super-talented players and their talent didn’t disappear over the offseason.”
Q: On Corey Seager, everything you hear about the guy is how hard he works and how prepared he is. Are his current struggles all related to his health?
Young: “I don’t think it’s health from a structural standpoint. The surgery he had, medically, he is fine. Everything is structurally intact and fine. But with any surgery, first of all he didn’t get a normal offseason because he was nursing the injury. He wasn’t able to train the way he wanted when he went through his rest period after the World Series. Then he got into his workouts and realized ‘This thing’s still really bothering me’ and at that point we had to get more medical answers and surgery was the recommendation.
“So really it kind of wiped out Corey’s offseason. Then he gets into spring training and he’s recovering from surgery. To his credit, it’s just amazing how hard he worked to be ready and out on the field for opening day. What we’re seeing now I think is a function of the offseason and the surgery. I’ve had my fair share of surgeries and I know it takes a long time, and the fact that Corey’s out there, really more than anything I’m grateful for him to be pushing himself to even be out there right now. Because even when he’s not going well, he’s Corey Seager, and everybody on the other team knows that Corey Seager can change the game with one swing of the bat.
“Beyond that I think he’s playing phenomenal defense, he’s played great shortstop and he sets a really good example for the rest of the players, in terms of playing through pain, playing when you’re not perfect, not feeling great. He’s such a leader in so many ways and he’s gonna get going at some point but man it’s just impressive that he’s even out there.”
To listen to the full interview, click here.
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