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The 2022 ZiPS projections for the Texas Rangers are out over at Fangraphs, and...well, they look better than last year’s projections.
Adding a couple of star caliber players to your team is going to, of course, result in a shot in the arm, and ZiPS projects both Seager and Semien to be 4-5 win players in 2022. ZiPS is also bullish about Nathaniel Lowe and Josh Jung, seeing both as major league starting caliber players in 2022, while Dane Dunning and Jonathan Gray both profile as decent major league starting pitchers.
After that, though, there are a variety of problems, as one would expect. The top four pitchers after Gray and Dunning, on the ZiPS list, are Glenn Otto, Zak Kent, Cody Bradford and Cole Winn, and while some or all of that quartet could end up being in the majors this year — and Otto could well start the year on the major league pitching staff — you aren’t expecting to get significant contributions from them (other than maybe Otto) in 2022.
Overall, ZiPS sees the team, as is, as a team that projects to end up with a high-70s win total. The Rangers have indicated that they expect to add another starting pitcher, and there’s a good chance they add an outfielder as well, and if they do so this probably projects, per ZiPS, to be a .500 or maybe slightly better team.
Which...I get that’s maybe disappointing, after making the big moves that the Rangers made this offseason. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, its a marathon and not a sprint, and internal improvement and additions over the next calendar year will hopefully have the team in position to be a legitimate contender in 2023.
And the 2022 team projects to be significantly improved from the disaster that was 2021. Its a team that, if I may be so bold as to say, could be a playoff contender if things go right. Not to say that they “will” be a playoff contender...but if the Rangers add a couple of solid pieces between now and Opening Day, it wouldn’t exactly be shocking for the Rangers to be in playoff contention late in 2022 (particularly with playoffs looking likely to expand to 12 or 14 teams).