ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – It has been one month since Chris Young moved into the top seat on the Rangers’ flow chart, effectively sitting down at the dinner table to figure out how to eat an elephant. In another month, he will sit down to a second helping: Trying to figure out all the pieces to solving a pitching puzzle that has forever mystified the Rangers.
The weekend offered what could be viewed as one small, but helpful hint. If Tampa Bay calls, offering to take a pitcher or two off the end of the roster, to you know, help out … mark it as spam and block the number.
Nothing good comes from sending Tampa Bay pitchers.
On Sunday, the Rays, very much bidding for their fourth straight playoff appearance, used former Ranger Jeffrey Springs to start and former Ranger Pete Fairbanks to close out a 5-3 win. Fairbanks struck out two of the three batters he faced in a perfect ninth.
With Flower Mound’s Colin Poche striking out the side in the eighth, the Rays ran their strikeout total for the day to 13 without allowing a walk. It was the fourth time this year, the Rangers struck out at least 13 times in a game without working a walk; the most in a season in Texas history.
“We know when we come here, we know that runs are going to be at a premium,” interim Rangers manager Tony Beasley said. “I don’t think [the strikeouts] speak to our offense. It speaks to their pitching. Those guys attack you and they know how to finish you. That’s kind of what happened today.”
It hasn’t been a complete whitewash when the Rangers and Rays have linked up to talk trade. The Rangers did get Nathaniel Lowe, who is battling for a batting title, and reliever Brock Burke out of other deals. Though Burke walked in a run Sunday, he’s been perhaps the Rangers’ most consistent arm this year after two years of shoulder issues.
The Rays have built a pitching model monster, constantly churning out exceptional pitching despite limited financial resources. They entered the day with the fourth best ERA in baseball (3.34), the fewest walks and the best strikeout-to-walk rate. They did what they do.
They did it with Rangers cast offs. Springs, who ran his record to 9-4 with a 2.45 ERA, allowed the Rangers two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. He’d not gotten much play as a Rangers reliever in 2018-19 and was designated for assignment along with reliever Kyle Bird, who had been acquired from Tampa Bay, so the club could sign veterans Robinson Chirinos and Todd Frazier as free agents. Springs was sent to Boston, spent a year there and then traded to Tampa Bay in as part of a roster clearing move.
The link between Fairbanks and the Rangers is more direct and, on Sunday, was even more painful. The Rangers announced before the game that the player they acquired for Fairbanks in 2019, outfielder Nick Solak would be shut down for the year with a broken bone in his right foot after being hit by a pitch. It could be Solak’s last act with the Rangers.
He had an impressive final five weeks of 2019. Since then, he’s gone backwards. He was optioned to the minors in each of the last two years and spent more time in Triple-A this season than in the majors. Solak, 27, has slashed .246/.317/.354/.671 since the start of 2020 and has fallen down the pecking list of outfield/DH options.
He will finish the season with about two years and 120 days of service, which is likely to qualify him for salary arbitration under the “Super Two” service clause. The Rangers would have to make a decision on whether to tender him a contract with a significant raise or take him off the roster, making him a free agent, to create space for other prospects on the 40-man roster.
“It’s been tough,” Solak said of the season. “I struggled early on. I’ve tried to grind things out, work hard to get better. That’s how I look at the year.”
Fairbanks, who overcame a history of shoulder issues, has averaged 97.6 mph with his fastball since reaching the big leagues. Over the last four years, only 19 relievers with at least 100 innings of work have averaged better than 97 mph with their fastballs. The list is headed by Emmanuel Clase, another former Ranger, now closing for Cleveland.
Fairbanks started the ninth by overpowering Rangers top prospect Josh Jung with a 99.1 mph elevated fastball. It was the third pitch in the five-pitch at-bat of at least 99 mph. In his first 10 days in the big leagues, Jung, who homered off Springs earlier in the game, had not faced anything over 98.
“He’s got a good, hoppy fastball,” said Jung, who has three homers and 18 strikeouts in 10 games. “I thought I took some pretty good swings. It was pretty good stuff. But now I’ve faced him.”
That much is true. That knowledge could be of help in the future.
What might help more, though, is not answering the Rays’ calls.
