Chris Young Says the Rangers Need to 'Reshuffle Our Cards' After Missing the Playoffs by One Game

Rangers fans, here's the number that hurts: 82.

As SI's Matt Postins lays out, the AL West made history in 2026 as the first division won by a team without a winning record. Houston took it at 81-81, one game ahead of the Rangers at 80-82, and it came down to the final day. Texas needed a win and an Astros loss. Neither happened. The Astros were then swept by the White Sox in the wild-card round.

At his end-of-season press conference, Chris Young said the club's internal projections had Texas as an 82-to-85 win team: "Coming into this year, we felt like we were between an 82-to-85 win team, somewhere right in there — and that was if things kind of go our way." The low end of that range would have won the division. "The painful part of that is that even in spite of that, we had a chance to be a playoff-caliber team if we had even just a good last week of the season," Young said. SI notes it's the ninth time in 10 seasons Texas finished .500 or worse, with 2023 the lone exception.

So what's next? MLB.com's Kennedi Landry lists five big offseason questions. First is the coaching staff, where many coaches are holdovers from the Bruce Bochy era. Skip Schumaker said that conversation was coming, but it has been just over a week with no changes announced. Then there are the veterans: Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager, Brandon Nimmo and Nathan Eovaldi all have big contracts and no-trade protection, and deGrom declined to waive his at the deadline. Young isn't committing to a rebuild or even a retool. "If anything, we need to reshuffle our cards to some degree," he said.

The young core of Wyatt Langford, Evan Carter, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker didn't take the step the club wanted. "I don't want to specifically say they've regressed," Young said, but he admitted they didn't see the expected jump. The bullpen needs a rebuild again, likely on a budget. Jacob Latz emerged as the closer, while Tyler Alexander, Jakob Junis, Chase Silseth and Trevor Williams are all headed for free agency. And Schumaker wants more speed and aggressiveness: "It's a tough way to play when you're holding back."

Follow the Texas Rangers all winter. Radio question: reshuffle, retool or full rebuild — which one would you pick?

Sources: MLB.com — Rangers' 5 biggest offseason questions; SI — How the Rangers fell below internal projections.