The Texas Rangers have had several bumps in the road to start the 2015 season.
Texas has the worst record in American League and is the only team yet to win consecutive games.
Some of that could probably be attributed to youth, injuries and adjusting to a new manager in Jeff Banister. At least that could be the case for the first 24 games, which have seen the Rangers get off to an 8-16 start.
Texas general manager Jon Daniels made it clear Monday in a conference call that the results on the field have to start improving now. If not things could start to change.
"We need to start seeing some production," Daniels said. "We need to see focus and preparation and a little more attention to detail and I expect we will. If not, we'll make some other changes but that's always the last result. I'd rather err on the side of patience and I do believe in these guys."
Daniels said he believes in his team because they've played better in their past. He singled out Prince Fielder and Mitch Moreland for getting off to good starts but said no one on the offense has overachieved.
Several have underachieved. Second baseman Rougned Odor was out of the lineup Monday against Houston as he's batting .148 and is a 6 for 49 freefall. While Daniels said Odor needs to show improvement, he isn't alone in that regard.
"I hesitate to single him out or anybody else," Daniels said. "He's got, before we called him up, really half a season above A ball. I don't want to imply that he's the only one who's struggled. I think that's fair. He's a young player that we ultimately believe is part of the solution, not the problem, but he is struggling so far. He has some things he's actively working on offensively and defensively. I think the challenges that are talked of a sophomore season we are season right now. He's going to get an opportunity to make that adjustment."
Daniels said the blame for the worst start for a Texas club since 2008 starts with him. A Texas bullpen that was torched by Oakland now has the second-highest ERA in the AL at 4.47 and Daniels said he may not have given the team enough pieces to work with in the offseason.
He said he's pleased with the performance of manager Jeff Banister. One thing Daniels wouldn't talk about is hitting coach Dave Magadan. Texas went into the Houston series hitting .216, the worst average in baseball.
The .210 average the Rangers had in April was the lowest by a Texas team in any month of at least 15 games since the designated hitter was introduced in 1973.
"I'm never going to evaluate any of our staff, coaches, staff front office, anybody, publicly," Daniels said. "I don't think that's fair. From a staff perspective, I include myself in this, I think we can all be better. I'm not going to address our staff publicly."'
While the Rangers have struggled they still do have players who would draw interest as the trade deadline approaches. Daniels said it's too soon for the Rangers to start thinking of themselves as sellers.
"We're nowhere close to that point," he said. "We're in the first week in May and there's lot of time between now and when those decisions have to be made. We're not thinking along those lines at all. I think there are some things we have to address. I'm confident we're a better club than what we're playing right now and we're going to take that approach that we expect to be better and go out and try and make that happen."
And if the players on the current 25-man roster can't make it happen, Daniels said the team has options. The Rangers made a minor move Monday but sending down struggling reliever Roman Mendez (5.40 ERA in 12 outings) and recalling righty Spencer Patton.
Other changes haven't been ruled out.
"There are guys that down in Triple A that are improving and being recommended," he said. "There are guys coming off the DL that we think can help us. We're going to take a critical look at the guys up here and who gives us the best chance to win. There's a fine line between patience and inaction and when you have players that you see them put in work in the winter, you see them put in work in the spring, pregame, pre series, the effort's there and the results aren't, you've got the go back to the process and if that's there you want to give them the benefit of the doubt. At the same time it's a results driven industry and we need to start seeing some results."
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