There’s an old saying that goes, “You invest in what matters.” Conversely, you don’t invest in what doesn’t matter.

And what doesn’t matter to Chris Young and the Rangers is a closer. That’s the only way anyone can rationally describe this franchise’s mindset when it comes to closers. 

Blowing leads, losing games late, imploding, those are all things the Rangers want. If they don’t want to lose games in the ninth inning, if they don’t want demoralizing losses, they would have done something about it.

They didn’t.

They wanted to fix an offense that has been all but comatose for two seasons. So they made some trades, released some players, made some additions. 

They wanted to beef up a rotation that suffered free agency losses. So they added a rotation arm.

They didn’t want to solve their end-of-the-game closer madness. So, they didn’t.

According to Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News, the Rangers have the third worst save conversion rate in baseball the last three years. Since 2023, the Rangers have converted just 56.3 percent of all save opportunities. That’s better than only the dreadful 100-loss-per-season Colorado Rockies and the Chicago White Sox. 

It’s difficult to have a team capable of totaling the 88-or-so wins needed to make it to the playoffs when you have a 100-loss bullpen. 

It’s difficult and demoralizing. And exactly what the Rangers want. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone into the season expecting Robert Garcia, last year’s second of four failed closers, to be this year’s closer. Or 84-year-old Chris Martin, their third failed closer, to close out what Garcia failed to close. 

You know the definition of insanity. Watching the Rangers and expecting them to win a close game. 

Defeat is built into the game plan.

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