Yes, we remember ripping the Texas Rangers for bringing the overrated Bruce Bochy into the team fold as manager in an attempt to win again. Then we also shredded the club for spending a ridiculous amount of money on the oft-injured Jacob deGrom … to the tune of $185M. Well, deGrom pitched a total of 30 1/3 innings this season before being sent to the surgeon, and Bochy has posted a minus-8 PPP mark so far.

Yet somehow, probably due to the overall team payroll of $247M, the Rangers are hanging in there for an American League postseason berth, despite blowing a 6.5-game lead in the division and now residing in third place. The Toronto Blue Jays are close behind Texas in projections for the postseason berths, so Texas will need a strong September to hang on to that final AL playoff spot. So far, the Rangers are 0-2, though.

In fact, since reaching a high-water mark of 72-48 on August 15, Texas has posted just a 3-12 record since then as the dog days of summer hit the Rangers hard. More generally, though, the Rangers were 35-20 through the end of May, and they’ve posted just a 40-40 mark since then. Looking at Bochy’s complete mismanagement of the team is easy, as it’s also isolated in the Texas record in one-run games: just 11-19.

So … we were right on deGrom, for sure: that was easy. And we have been mostly right about Bochy and his overrated reputation: he is costing the Rangers playoff security right now, basically, with that horrid PPP mark. The overall record looks “good” compared to Texas’ prior six seasons: all under .500 with a high of 78 wins in both 2017 and 2019. But that’s why the Rangers spent through the roof this year on payroll, too.

In defense of Bochy, however, one of the truly best managers in baseball is having a really rough season in terms of PPP: San Diego Manager Bob Melvin is sitting currently at a minus-11 PPP effort despite his $253 payroll with the Padres. That surprises us much more than any suckitude that Bochy is displaying, for sure. The only other MLB manager so deeply in the red is Kansas City Manager Matt Quatraro (minus-9 PPP).

[We don’t even know who he is. Plus, our favorite whipping boy in the dugout this year, Oakland Manager Mark Kotsay, actually is in the black for PPP right now (plus-1). This tells us it’s a crazy year for baseball, and maybe some of the new rules changes have something to do with it. But generally, the PPP projection is a very solid measurement of how well a manager is running the actual talent on his roster. We stick with it.]

Even through anomalies, which happen all the time in math, we see that Bochy is hurting the Rangers as we predicted, and Texas also has been wounded by stupid spending. Yet the organization still has enough high-priced talent to have a considerable chance (65.7 percent as of today) still at the playoffs. Throw in Bochy’s history as a PED enabler, and it verifies what we’ve always said: the best formula is spending and cheating.

As a close to this piece, who might we suspect on the Rangers roster this season as a PED user? Well, we haven’t even looked until now, so these guys would be our best guesses at probable suspects:

  • Corey Seager: Last season was his first season in Texas at age 28, and his OPS dropped to full-season, career-low .772, even though he still somehow made the All-Star team. This year? That OPS has soared to 1.051, and while we don’t usually see that kind of pendulum swing at his age, it’s possible last year was an aberration, and this year represents his peak. Amid a 10-year, $325M deal that expires in 2031, though, maybe Seager wanted to prove something after a terrible debut for his new club, and Bochy certainly has the track record of enablement.
  • Mitch Garver: This guy has been all over the place with his OPS during his relatively short MLB career. He signed a one-year, $3.9M deal with the Rangers, which is impressive for an age-32 journeyman coming off a .702-OPS season in 2002 with Texas. Why would the Rangers re-up for an old guy on decline? Why, indeed. His .861 OPS this year is certainly going to land him a better deal now. Think he was motivated at his age to secure one last big deal? Think Bochy would care if he did cheat?
  • Nathan Eovaldi: Speaking of old guys, this pitcher is 33 this season and posted a career-low 2.69 ERA in 123 2/3 IP before hitting the disabled list. Again, that’s not natural, and coming off five years in Boston (of all places) with a 4.05 ERA, why would Texas sign this guy to two years and $34M? Unless the club knew he was open to “enhancements” … which in itself is curious, as we never pegged Eovaldi for a cheater while he was playing for the Red Sox in Fenway Park. Then again, we stopped looking soon after the 2018 championship team, didn’t we?
    • We can re-examine Eovaldi now: he missed the entire 2017 season due to injury, and then pitched just 178 2/3 innings for Tampa Bay and Boston combined in 2018 and 2019—to the tune of a 4.63 ERA. Then, from ages 30-32 in 2020-22 with the Red Sox, he posted a combined 3.79 ERA in 340 innings. That’s a fishy comeback at that age after major injury, for sure, and now Eovaldi got even better in Texas at age 33? Nope. Not buying it for a second. We bet his body didn’t like the PEDs, either, and that’s why he’s on the DL.
  • Aroldis Chapman: This guy used to be a dominant reliever, but coming into this season at age 35 (!) with the Kansas City Royals, he hadn’t posted an ERA under 3.00 since the 2019 season when he was with the New York Yankees. Last year, he posted a career-worst 4.46 ERA in the Bronx, and of course, the team let him go. He signed a one-year, cut-rate $3.25M deal with the Royals, in an effort to resurrect his career, and it looks like it worked: Chapman posted a 2.45 ERA with Kansas City, one of the worst teams in baseball, through 31 appearances before getting dealt to Texas—sliding right into Bochy’s wheelhouse, for sure. In 22 appearances with the Rangers, this really old reliever has delivered a solid 3.32 ERA, and he probably gets himself a good long-term deal to see him through to the end of his career now. That totally fits the MO that Bochy oversaw in San Francisco, for sure. Of course, Texas said yes to acquiring Chapman at age 35, in light of the low-risk, high-reward outcome.

This is just a topical analysis, but it would appear that Bochy’s old tricks with the Giants are being repeated with the Rangers, even though he can’t even keep his own idiocy in the dugout from hurting the Texas organization and its spending spree. Maybe the Rangers do hold on and make the playoffs, but if they do? It won’t be because of Bochy’s “skill” as a manager, obviously—it will be because of the age-old MLB formula.

Nothing changes in MLB but the faces and the names, as long as enabling managers like Bochy still live.