It’s his team now
ARLINGTON, Texas — The bucket of fan mail in the Texas shortstop’s locker overflows with baseball cards and other memorabilia awaiting his signature.
No, it’s not leftovers from Alex Rodriguez.
Michael Young has replaced the departed A.L. MVP as the fan favorite in Texas. More importantly for the surprising Rangers, he has made sure A-Rod hasn’t been missed on the field.
Young switched to shortstop and is still one of the league’s top hitters. He’s also taken on an expanded leadership role for a team that isn’t on the bottom in the A.L. West anymore.
“He’s really grown as a team leader,” first baseman Mark Teixeira said. “He speaks out when he has to. But the best leader is someone who leads by example. The best example he sets is when he’s on the field.”
Through the first 69 games, Young played all but four innings and was hitting .331 (fifth in the A.L.) with a league-best 34 multihit games from the leadoff spot. He had 10 homers and 45 RBIs, one more than Rodriguez had batting third in the New York Yankees’ lineup. A-Rod hit .292 with 18 homers his first 69 games.
“He’s having the same kind of year he had last year. He played Gold Glove second base and his production keeps going up,” said Rodriguez, who doesn’t believe his departure is the reason for the attention on Young.
“It’s the fact that they’re winning,” he said. “That brings more focus and attention to what you’re doing.”
“I go out and try and play hard and do the things I know I can do well,” Young said. “That’s an added benefit of playing on a good team. I’m not really focused on what I’m doing.”
When Rodriguez got his wish to be traded just two weeks before spring training, plenty of questions were raised for the Rangers:
— Who would play shortstop?
— What to do with two top-notch second basemen? Young had established himself as one of the league’s best playing beside Rodriguez, and Texas got two-time All-Star Alfonso Soriano from New York in the deal.
— How would the Rangers respond after losing one of the game’s best players, the one just tabbed the second captain in franchise history?
A day before the first full-squad workout at spring training, Young answered the first two questions. He went unsolicited into manager Buck Showalter’s office and said he’d play shortstop.
“That avoided a big stink for everybody. By doing so, he took a load off of a lot of people, but put a load on his back,” outfielder Rusty Greer said. “I think his shoulders are wide enough to carry that load.”
Young has since had a major part in the in-season response of the Rangers, who were alone at the top of the A.L. West in June for the first time since 1999 — when they won their last division title. They were last by this point each of the past four seasons, 21 1/2 games back last year.
After Texas was swept last week in a three-game series at Cincinnati, Young sat with Showalter for part of the flight to Florida.
“He came up and talked for a while, it picked me up,” Showalter said. “Talking to him and watching him play picks me up if I’m down.”
Pessimists waiting for the Rangers to collapse thought that was the beginning of the fall. Texas instead won a season-best six games in a row, sweeping the World Series champion Marlins and Seattle.
“There’s a great chemistry on this club and that’s probably the driving force,” said Young, the only Ranger to start every game. “Winning is addictive. Once you start winning, that’s all I care about.”
A minor league shortstop, Young was moved to second when the Rangers got Rodriguez. He started 102 games as a rookie in 2001, and in 2 1/2 years became one of the A.L.’s top second basemen.
Last season, his .987 fielding percentage (10 errors in 786 chances) was third among A.L. second basemen and his .306 batting average was the best. He led the Rangers with 204 hits.
After consecutive throwing errors in this season’s home opener at shortstop, Young went 27 games (132 chances) without an error. While he’s already got more errors (11) than last season, his offensive numbers have improved for the fourth straight year.
With just a few days left in fan balloting for the All-Star game, New York’s Derek Jeter led A.L. shortstops. Boston’s Nomar Garciaparra, despite missing the first 2 1/2 months injured, was second ahead of Young.
Young will have to be voted in by his peers or selected by A.L. and Yankees manager Joe Torre. But missing the All-Star game may be the only way to get him a break.
Even when the Rangers play 14 road games in 14 days before the All-Star game, Young doesn’t plan to take time off.
“Mentally, I’m prepared to do it. I came into the season ready to play every game,” he said. “It’s something that I take pride in. I want to be the type of player that my teammates can really lean on.”
He already is.