Your Texas Rangers have the third and final wildcard spot as of today. That says more about the weakness of the American League than it does the strength of the Texas Rangers.

Five teams, however, are within 1.5 games of the Rangers. What that means is: don’t buy your playoff tickets just yet. 

The gulf between the third and second wildcard seed is so wide that no team where the Rangers are or below should harbor any crazy thoughts about anything but being the wildcard barnacle. 

Somebody is going to finish with the sixth-best record in the American League. It could just be the Rangers. They have a chance to pad their record the next ten games—they play three really bad teams in the Orioles (three games), the Angels (four games), and the Athletics (three games). 

Then, you realize, Baltimore, as bad as they are, is only one game behind the Rangers in the wild card. At least the Angels and Athletics are so far behind, even the Rangers don’t have to worry about them. That’s the benefit of being in the easiest division in baseball. 

It’s a mad dash to mediocrity these last 47 games. The Rangers didn’t do anything to strengthen its team at the trade deadline. So this is what they have. Embarrasingly, it might be enough.

*****