The odds of the Texas Rangers repeating as World Series champions are terrible, but there is no excuse why they are a sub .500 team entering the final third of the season.

During the World Series celebration, the team’s primary owner Ray Davis repeatedly said he expects this team to win multiple championships. God knows this team spent the money, and he’s not wrong.

At the MLB trade deadline on Tuesday, GM Chris Young made the mistake he had to make. He trusts a team that was good enough to win a World Series can do it again despite a season’s worth of evidence that says they need help, especially at the plate.

Dealing for pitcher Andrew Chafin and catcher Carson Kelly help, but what Young’s moves say is that he believes the roster is good enough. This is a risk. A risk born from the trust that only comes from winning a World Series less than one year ago.

He trusts the bat that he needs will be the return of third baseman Josh Jung from his wrist injury. Trusting Jung to hit is sound; trusting Jung to stay healthy is unfortunately dicey.

The Rangers are flirting with becoming one of those “one-and-done” teams. They’re better than this.

The Rangers are built to win today, tomorrow, for the next few years, and they aren’t. After losing 10-1 to the Cardinals in St. Louis Wednesday, the Rangers are 52-57, 4 1/2 games behind first place Seattle in the American League West, and seven games behind a wild card spot.

The Rangers will not play a team that has a losing record until Aug. 27, when they face the historically awful White Sox.

With the Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks each providing long playoff runs that ran into late May and June, they provided cover for a Rangers team that has not been above .500 since May 18. Winning your first World Series buys grace for at least a year. Maybe two.

During the extended-hours World Series celebrating we should have seen some of this coming. When Rangers manager Bruce Bochy won his three World Series championships in San Francisco, in 2010, 2012 and 2014, you might have missed in those following seasons the Giants didn’t make the playoffs.

Winning back-to-back championships in any major league is one of the harder tasks in sports, but the Rangers should be both above .500, and a playoff team.

Since 2000, 12 of the 23 World Series winners failed to make the playoffs the following season. Five of those World Series winners failed to hit .500 the next season.

The Rangers are currently neither a playoff-bound, nor a .500 club, because there are too many players who were so good in 2023 aren’t here in 2024.

Most of the team’s stats are around around the middle of MLB, which is what the club is. In the middle.

The offense that was so reliable throughout nearly the entire ‘23 regular season, and for the duration of the playoffs, has been in the OFF position for too much of this season. The club averages 4.2 runs per game, down from 5.5 a year ago.

This outfield badly needs a bat, and it should be Adolis Garcia. His power numbers are impressive, but his all-or-nothing routine has a lot of Joey Gallo in him. Garcia has to make at least a little more contact; if the Rangers miss on the playoffs, don’t be surprised when they try to trade him in the offseason.

Catcher Jonah Heim and first baseman Nathaniel Lowe have been OK. Trusting Evan Carter to avoid a sophomore dip was a mistake, and now after struggling he’s lost for the rest of the season to injury.

Rookie Wyatt Langford has displayed every single tool necessary to be a top player, but he’s still a kid. He’s not there yet. Counting on him to produce like a 5-year veteran was a mistake.

The player who will have to save the Rangers offense from themselves is Jung. He has missed 102 games this season after he broke his right wrist when he was hit by a pitch on April 1. He has two home runs and 6 RBI this season.

The Rangers needed a bat, and Young felt like it’s on the team.

It’s a risk. A risk born from winning a World Series.

And this approach is the mistake Young had to make.