Commentary

Can Rangers' youth get job done?

Now that the Rangers have convincingly pulled off their Lazarus act, let's see what they do for an encore.

Can they keep whittling away at the Astros' lead? What about their window? Is it closing? If so, how fast?

And should we watch our fingers?

For today's purposes, let's consider not only this season but what's looming on the horizon, because it's more intertwined than you might think.

Will Yu Darvish -- whose five-inning, seven-strikeout effort Sunday was Yu at his best and worst, all at once -- return? Do the Rangers have a shot at his buddy, Shohei Otani, the Japanese Babe Ruth?

Can the Rangers' formerly famous farm system finally produce a bona fide star?

Roogie Odor, Nomar Mazara and Joey Gallo have tantalized and teased, and maybe they're on the brink of something big. Still, Roogie has regressed significantly, Mazara's light flickers and Gallo's power grid runs like that of a Third World country.

Meanwhile, check out the trio of young stars the Red Sox will counter with against the Rangers, which started Tuesday.

In his top 25 players under the age of 25, ESPN's Keith Law listed outfielders Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi (Arkansas Razorbacks) sixth and 11th, respectively, and shortstop Xander Bogaerts 12th. Law also included Mazara (22), Odor (24) and Gallo (25).

Betts, 24, finished second in MVP voting last year and is on a pace to put up similar numbers this season. Bogaerts, 24, coming off an All-Star season, has a slash line of .320/.389/.433.

Benintendi, whom the Red Sox took three picks after the Rangers chose the since-departed Dillon Tate, is in a pronounced slump. And he's still hitting .280 with seven home runs and 24 RBI.

Their numbers trump those of the Rangers' young trio. Good news: Mazara, heating up again, is having roughly the same kind of season as last year. Bad news: Odor's slash line of .199/.254/.347 is a mess, and Gallo either wallops a baseball 450 feet (13 home runs, fourth in the AL) or strikes out (63, tops in all of baseball). Plus, he's hitting a buck eighty-four.

Closer to home, if not the point, Houston's young core is also outperforming the Rangers'.

The Astros purposefully aged their roster this year, adding veteran leaders in Brian McCann (33), Carlos Beltran (40) and Josh Reddick (30). But, unlike the Rangers, their best players remain their youngest: Carlos Correa (22), Alex Bregman (23), Jose Altuve (27) and George Springer (27).

Now, as the mirror reminds me, youth doesn't last forever. One day, you'll pay, and it won't come cheap. Altuve remains the best bargain in baseball: Through 2019, he'll make approximately $17 million. Total. The Astros' other kids work for minimum wage, including Correa, who won't be a free agent until 2022.

Get this: ESPN's Dan Szymborski speculates that if Correa were free after this season, he'd go for 10 years, $331 million.

Can the Astros' owner, Jim Crane, afford that bill when it comes due? If he can, then Bud Selig should have taken his offer and Mark Cuban's for the Rangers.

Even so, 2022 is a long, long ways off, though it'll seem quicker than it takes for Shin-Soo Choo's deal to die.

What baseball has learned since Jon Daniels paid handsomely for Choo and Prince Fielder is that it's a young man's game. Which was the point of this column, if you're still wondering.

Besides the Red Sox and Astros, there are the Yankees on this week's cover of Sports Illustrated. Across a shot of mammoth Aaron Judge, biggest baseball player ever, the headline reads, "The Yankees' Youth Movement Is in Session."

The Rangers need their own youth movement to take a pretty big leap if they're going to keep up from here on out. Daniels needs somebody -- anybody -- to make the kind of impact that the best teams are getting from their young.

Until they get those results, winning 11 of 12 is a nice start on making amends around here.

Sports on 05/24/2017

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