Recent Rangers moves put Pirates on the clock as spiral continues

The Texas Rangers are off to a 17-18 start and they are unhappy with it. Despite being just one game below .500, they decided to fire Donnie Ecker, their offensive coordinator, and placed struggling outfielder Leody Taveras on outright waivers.

Their starting pitching has been among the best in baseball, ranking in the top three in the league in ERA and WHIP. The offense has been an unexpected and tremendous problem, though, ranking 25th in wRC+ (85) and slugging percentage (.359), 26th in batting average (.228), and 29th in runs (113). Because of that lousy offense, Ecker got fired.

They also moved on from Taveras, a former top prospect who has turned into a defense-first outfielder. He is off to a terrible start, posting a wRC+ of 68 with an OPS of .601 and a 28% strikeout rate.

Even though it is only the beginning of May, the Rangers believed changes needed to be made. That feels especially relevant to the spiraling Pirates after their cold start.

Pirates could follow recent Rangers decisions with Derek Shelton firing, Tommy Pham DFA

Last month, Ken Rosenthal wrote an article about which managers' jobs might be in jeopardy, and Derek Shelton was indeed on that list. He may not be the guy who makes the moves to bring in platers, but his offense ranks 28th in OPS (.641) and home runs (25). It also is seventh in strikeouts (298).

Their pitching was also supposed to be the strength of the team, yet the team ERA (4.27) ranks 21st in the league. This staff has not been strong in either the rotation or bullpen; despite a few outliers who are doing well, it has been very disappointing overall. The lousy team is exactly why Shelton is on the hot seat, and with the record sitting at 12-23, who knows? Maybe he doesn't even make it out of May if changes aren't made quickly.

Tommy Pham is the Pirates' equivelant to Taveras. In fact, Pham has been significantly worse, but is still rostered. Pham currently is working with a 28 wRC+, which is terrible considering the league average is 100. Additionally, his .460 OPS and 27.6% strikeout rate are borderline useless. No one expected him to be an All-Star, but this is much worse than what fans expected.

It's hard to picture what this front office will do to address things, but something needs to happen fast to have any chance of turning things around. Being 11 games under .500 is not where you want to be at any point in the season, especially the start.