Are the Mariners and Rangers heading in different directions?

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Mariners couldn’t quite pull off the sweep in Texas, but they will take the 5-2 record on their road trip. Derek Holland is a pitcher who has given the Mariners problems throughout his career and Sunday was no exception.

“He’s a good pitcher, he’s a proven pitcher. That wasn’t a fluke, it was a hell of a game,” Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said following Sunday’s 1-0 loss. “It was a great ballgame. We came up on the short end of the stick. As my buddy across the way would say, ‘That’s baseball.’ “

James Paxton took the loss on a run that was generated with a hit, a stolen base and a sacrifice fly. In the bigger picture, Paxton saw it as an outing where he continued to refine and get more comfortable with his pitches.

Against Oakland, he dominated with the fastball. On Sunday, he used his curve and cutter more. He will need all pitches as the season continues, and with every outing he feels closer to what he was coming out of spring training.

So the Mariners fail to pick up more ground on the A’s or put more distance between them and the Tigers, but they will have that opportunity once again Monday.

It was great to see the Mariners continue their drive to the postseason in Texas, but also stunning to see the quick decline of the Rangers. Since Jon Daniels stepped in as general manager to replace John Hart after the 2005 season, they were one of the teams I pointed to as a good example of roster building with a nice mix of development, trades and checkbook. They had the looks of a franchise that was ready to dominate for years with back-to-back World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011.

Last year the Rangers finished 5.5 games out of first and missed the playoffs. Today they are 33.5 games out, and while it is easy to point to injuries – a horrific number of injuries – as being the problem, I’m not so sure that this is fixed with the return of a number of players. It is an interesting situation to watch because of how their situation could impact the Mariners in the future – do they come storming back? – and also as an evaluation of recent moves that were made. Perhaps the building of the Rangers is not the good example I thought it was.

Is it a case of making too many moves? Daniels was lauded for early moves like the Mark Teixeira and Edinson Volquez trades, which brought back franchise building blocks Neftali Felix, Elvis Andrus, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Josh Hamilton. There was also the deal for Cliff Lee, which gave Texas an essential ace for the playoffs. These were good, if not great, moves augmented with big signings, including Adrian Beltre and Yu Darvish. The team had superstars and good role players. They made two trips to the World Series and then lost in the wild-card game in 2012. Is this a hiccup?

Keep in mind these are mostly casual observations on my part, but I am very curious about what is next for this organization after talking to a number of people while in Texas. Take the injuries out of the equation and look at the moves and non-moves. Were they the correct ones? The Rangers missed the playoffs in 2013 yet the Red Sox won the World Series with two players the Rangers let walk, Koji Uehara and Mike Napoli. The Angels are playoff-bound with two other former Rangers, Josh Hamilton and C.J. Wilson. Then there is the Prince Fielder trade. It is far too soon to judge that but obviously it did not work out this year, and they have lost a year of his prime.

The injuries have been significant. Fielder and Shin-Soo Choo were to be a good part of their offense. Losing young players like Jurickson Profar and Martin Perez hits doubly hard, as not only did they lose their numbers this year, the players themselves lost a year of experience and development. Outside of the injured players, plenty of that has been going on, but how many of those young players will we see next year after teammates get healthy and offseason moves are made? What answers did they get with the young players they were forced to play? I have to say, even coming from 12 years of covering the Mariners, it was odd to see four different No.3 hitters in four days.

And what of the pitching? The Rangers have used 37 different pitchers (40 if you include position players who pitched) this season. Yes, that is a ridiculous number, and a ridiculous number out of necessity. They would have dearly loved to see any number of guys step up and grab roles, but for the large part that hasn’t happened.

It is all very interesting and worth keeping an eye on. There was plenty of talk while we were here, including that the general manager was trying to run the club like a fantasy baseball team and this being the lowest point one veteran reporter had seen in his years covering the Rangers. Before the season there was the controversy of Nolan Ryan leaving the club and now the manager has stepped down. It is not outrageous to believe that there is a fair amount of turmoil surrounding the organization right now and it certainly does not appear to be moving in the direction it was two years ago. In the big scheme of things, have the Mariners and Rangers crossed paths going in opposite directions? We shall see.

Notes

• Dustin Ackley said before the game that he expects to miss no more than one or two games after coming out of Saturday’s game with what was called a jammed ankle. He said that he does not believe this is related to the bone-spur problems he has had with the same ankle in the past.

• McClendon was asked for an update on Michael Saunders and he gave a very positive answer. He expects Saunders to be activated Monday.

• Taijaun Walker was ready to go Saturday if Chris Young faltered, but that of course did not happen. McClendon said that Walker’s role is as a sixth starter, but as of now no starts are scheduled. They will try to keep Walker ready if needed with bullpen sessions and find spots where they can get him an inning.

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