ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young put the club’s third straight season without a playoff berth on himself Monday, a day after Texas was eliminated on the final day of the regular season. The Rangers finished 80-82, one game behind the Houston Astros in the American League West.
The club held its end-of-season news conference Monday afternoon at Globe Life Field, with Young seated alongside general manager Ross Fenstermaker and Rangers manager Skip Schumaker. On Sunday, Texas lost 6-4 to the Minnesota Twins at Target Field while Houston beat the Athletics 9-0 in West Sacramento, Calif. The two clubs entered Game 162 tied at 80-81, and the Astros held the tiebreaker after winning the season series 9-4.
Sunday’s result was where Young started his opening statement. Even so, he said the way it ended does not take away from what went right in 2026.
“Obviously disappointed to be sitting here today and wrapping up the season the day before the playoffs are starting,” Young said. “Going into yesterday, we all felt good about the opportunity to potentially be back in the playoffs. And to have it come to an end yesterday, it’s been hard for all of us. But nonetheless, it doesn’t diminish some of the positive things that happened this year.”
Schumaker’s first season in Texas ended one game short. The Rangers hired him Oct. 3, 2025, after Bruce Bochy’s three-season tenure ended by mutual agreement following an 81-81 finish, and Schumaker took the blame himself after Sunday’s loss. Young said the coaches in Schumaker’s room are part of what the club has to look forward to.
“And certainly, we’d like to start by thanking Skip and the staff for their work this year,” Young explained. “The effort that they gave, I thought, was tremendous, and I was really, really pleased with the staff’s ability to squeeze just about everything they could from this team this year. And so, really, Skip, thank you and your staff for all you did for our group this year. We have a lot to look forward to moving forward with your leadership and the guys we have in that coach’s room with you.”
Texas went 45-36 at home and 35-46 on the road. The front office knew going into the season that the margin for error on this roster would be thinner, and Young named underperformance and health as the pieces that combined with it.
“Secondly, our front office worked tirelessly this year to try to give this team every chance we could to compete,” Young said. “We knew coming into the season that [we] were going to be faced with some challenges in terms of our roster construction that would maybe make things a little more difficult. And the margin of error would be a little bit thinner. That said, our expectation was to compete and have a team that was capable of being in the playoffs. And we fell short of that goal.”
“And it’s, again, hard to sit here today and rationalize why that was or what happened,” Young continued. “Ultimately, those margins got thin, and when you combine that with underperformance to some degree and the bad luck of health and some significant injuries, especially even the last two weeks of the season, it just made things difficult, and we came up short of our goal. So, again, it doesn’t diminish some of the positive things that did occur and some of the bright spots that we had in players like Jacob Latz, Ezequiel Durán, and Justin Foscue. Some guys that have been developed or traded for internally and developed in the way they stepped up for our team this year.”
Three of the club’s biggest hitters spent long stretches on the injured list. Corey Seager missed 63 days with two back injuries and a concussion, Wyatt Langford missed 55 days with two soft-tissue injuries, and Josh Jung missed 55 days with a left calf strain, MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry reported. Jung then fractured his right hand when he was hit by a pitch Friday in Minneapolis, and Joc Pederson played the final stretch with a small fracture in his left hand.
Jacob Latz converted 30 saves with a 2.13 ERA in 58 appearances and made the All-Star team. Ezequiel Durán hit .260/.320/.419 with 17 home runs and 83 RBIs in 153 games, and Justin Foscue hit .271/.332/.484 with 11 home runs in 100 games. The Rangers have missed the postseason every year since winning the 2023 World Series, going 78-84 in 2024 and 81-81 in 2025.
“But again, our goal is to be a playoff team year in, year out,” Young said. “And this is year three of not reaching that goal. And it’s difficult to sit here and say that we are satisfied. We’re not satisfied. And frankly, we’ve got to look forward, look ahead, and figure out how we are going to get back to where we know we can be.”
Young said he will carry regrets for a while about the move he did not make or the player he did not sign. He built the roster, and he said the result was not good enough to overcome its shortcomings.
“So with that, accountability starts with me,” Young said. “Certainly, I am the one responsible for putting this roster together. And we did our best over the course of the year, but ultimately it wasn’t good enough to overcome some of the things, some of the shortcomings. And that again, that’s on me.”
“As a front office executive, our job is to tirelessly look for ways to upgrade and improve the roster,” Young continued. “And when you fall a game or two short, you look back on the season and wonder what might have been. If you had just been able to make one more move or if you had signed one different player. And I’ll have those regrets for a while. But nonetheless, it’s up to us to look ahead as well and figure out how we’re going to fix this.”
Later in the news conference, Young said Texas has to keep its players healthy and did not get enough games from two of its biggest hitters.
“And so as we move forward, it’s going to be very important, and a goal of ours, to really address the makeup of this team in terms of health, reliability, and dependability,” Young said. “We need to get younger. We need to get more athletic. We need to get more dynamic. And those are going to be offseason goals of ours that we are going to explore and find out how we can improve this roster from that standpoint and put a team together that our fans deserve.”
Texas drew 2,406,217 fans to Globe Life Field this season, seventh among 15 American League clubs, according to Baseball Reference. Fans reached out through the final week, and Young saw people wearing Rangers gear walking through the airport.
“So ultimately, I want to finish by saying a big thank you to our fans,” Young said. “I know this is not the result that we wanted. But that said, our fans were tremendous this year. The support that we have received, the people in the community who have reached out, the positivity, even just walking through the airport and seeing people this last week wearing Ranger gear with pride, it gives me great pride to see that. And I just can’t say enough how disappointed I am that you all are not watching playoff baseball this week with your Texas Rangers in it. That said, we’re getting a head start on the offseason, and we’re back to work already, finding ways to make this better.”
Chris Young Rules Out A Rebuild For The Texas Rangers
The Rangers have not discussed a rebuild, Young said. His goal is a playoff-caliber team in 2027, and he said the front office will be open-minded about how to get there.
“I think we’re going to consider any way we can,” Young said. “I mean, our goal is to make this a playoff-caliber team next year. And nothing is off the table in regards to that. We are going to be open-minded to any way to improve this roster.”
Seager hit 20 home runs in 102 games. Langford hit 17 home runs and stole 15 bases in 110 games. A healthier roster was one of the goals Young laid out in his opening statement, along with a younger, more athletic, and more dynamic one.
“We have not discussed anything in terms of a rebuild,” Young said. “I would call it, if anything, we need to reshuffle our cards to some degree. I mentioned some of the goals that we have in terms of becoming more athletic, more dynamic. And we have to keep our players healthy.”
“We did not get enough from Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford in terms of being out on the field, in terms of games played,” Young continued. “And any team that loses their two biggest contributors offensively is likely going to fall short of their goal. And it happened too often this year.”
The next question named four players 26 or younger: Evan Carter, Langford, Kumar Rocker, and Jack Leiter. Carter hit .194/.288/.315 in 141 games. Rocker went 6-11 with a 4.38 ERA in 30 appearances, 27 of them starts, and Leiter went 3-7 with a 5.29 ERA in 15 starts. Development at the major league level is not perfectly linear, Young said, and Texas drafted all four.
“I’ll start by saying I don’t want to specifically say they regressed,” Young said. “I think there’s a level of performance and a step we expected all of those guys to take that maybe we didn’t quite see and realize. That said, there is development that takes place at the big-league level that is not perfectly linear. But our expectation and hope moving forward is that these guys do take that step. We drafted each of those players. We believe in these players, and they are important pieces to our team moving forward.”
“And so we do need them to really take the lessons from this year and some of the challenges that each of those guys had, respectively, and improve, to use this offseason as a way to really go home, reflect on the season, and commit to getting better in terms of their specific skill set, their health, their strength, and conditioning,” Young continued. “The opportunity to be a major-league player does not last forever. And next year will be big years for all of these players. We’re going to need each one of them, and so we need to find a way to help them be the best they can be.”
Skip Schumaker Says Texas Rangers Were Better Than Their Record
Durán and Latz taking the next step encouraged Schumaker. A couple of the younger players went through growing pains, and he said some players have to understand that playing time is earned.
“I do, yeah, I do,” Schumaker said. “I think that’s what the most disappointing part of this is: sitting here at this table answering questions when I think we should be playing next week or this week. And I think having guys like Durán and Latz really take the next step was really encouraging. And then a couple of guys not taking the next step was discouraging in my seat. And so that’s the part we’ve got to figure out, how to get these guys better in the offseason.”
“And the couple of guys that Evan mentioned, I thought there were some growing pains for a couple of the younger guys,” Schumaker continued. “And there’s a couple of guys that have to understand that playing time is earned. And I think it’s a big offseason for a lot of these guys to come into spring training ready to earn a spot. But as far as the record, I absolutely think [we] were better than the record showed. But I’m always going to say that, probably, just so you know, as long as I’m a coach or a manager, because that’s what I believe in every day: We should be winning every day.”
The collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the players’ association expires Dec. 1. When the last one expired Dec. 1, 2021, Texas announced the signings of Seager and Marcus Semien hours before the owners locked out the players. Young said the front office started meetings Monday on how to map out the four or five weeks before free agency opens.
“It’s a really good question,” Young said. “It’s something that we’re cognizant of in terms of the timing. I can’t predict how the market’s going to play out. What I do know is that we have to be prepared, and we’ve already started those meetings today in terms of how to prepare and how we’re going to map out the next four or five weeks until free agency starts. And at that point, we will have a committed plan, and our hope is to execute that really quickly.”
Schumaker’s point about playing time is one Young took on as a front office responsibility. He said Texas did not provide enough options this year to create competition when players underperformed.
“Just to piggyback on what Skip said in terms of playing time needs to be earned, it’s one of the jobs of the front office, Ross and me, to create competition and to build out the depth of the team in a way that does provide competition when there’s underperformance,” Young said. “And that’s an area where we need to be accountable, that we did not provide those options to the level that was needed this year. And certainly I recognize that, and it’s something that we are committed to doing better moving forward.”
Texas finished 35-46 away from Globe Life Field and dropped all but one road series after the All-Star break, Landry reported. Young said the club showed fight and resilience at times but not with the consistency a playoff team needs.
“You can’t be as under .500 on the road as we were and say that we were as tough as we needed to be,” Young said. “I mean, it would be disingenuous in suggesting that. There were times where we did, and there were times where the team showed great fight and great resilience, but the consistency of it wasn’t to the level that was needed for us to be a playoff team. That’s just very honest.”
Young took over the Rangers’ baseball operations in August 2022, when the club dismissed Jon Daniels. He was promoted from general manager to president of baseball operations Sept. 13, 2024, and Fenstermaker was promoted to general manager Nov. 4, 2024. Young said the club is doing very well on the amateur side, internationally and domestically, and on the development side.
“In one way, we had immediate success in winning a World Series,” Young said. “I think it created an expectation for all of us that this was going to be easy. And I think we’re realizing that it’s not easy. And there are a number of things that you can do in terms of building what you believe is a winning team. But there’s so much that has to come together perfectly to have that. And we haven’t done a good job of, for whatever reason, for a number of reasons, making that happen. And so if you ask me what my expectation would have been four years ago, it would be that we make the playoffs four years in a row and compete for a World Series. We’ve done that one of four years. So that’s, for me, not good enough.”
“And I am proud of the work that our group has done,” Young continued. “I think we’ve had a great process. I think we’re doing some great things on the development side. I think we’re doing very well on the amateur side, both internationally and domestically. I think that the collaboration and the people we have upstairs with the coaching staff, and there’s some real positives. But ultimately, that stuff doesn’t really matter unless you can speak to wins and losses, and we’re sitting here today speaking about a season that came up short, and it’s disappointing to do that.”
Houston opens a best-of-three AL Wild Card Series against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday at Daikin Park.
