Wash: No Plans To Move Michael Young From No. 5 Spot

If we’ve learned anything about Ron Washington to this point, it’s that he is faithful to his players. Since he’s led the Texas Rangers to two consecutive World Series appearances, we’ll defer to him on all matters baseball-related; but that doesn’t mean we can’t scratch our heads sometimes when he delivers a vote of confidence for a mightily struggling player.

This week, that struggling player is Michael Young, who has been having a rough go of things lately in the fifth spot in the batting order. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News wrote this week that currently, Young has a .678 OPS when hitting fifth, the worst OPS of any of the 17 AL players with at least 75 plate appearances in the five-spot this year.

Young got the day off Tuesday, but Washington insisted that this was just a scheduled day off--not a response to Young’s slump--and that there were no plans to bump the veteran down in the order.

"Nooooooooo," Washington responded when asked if he might move Young, per the Morning News. "This is the way our lineup runs and I'm going to keep running with it. You have got to make adjustments in this game and he will make them. This [slump] has just lasted a little longer than others.I have a feeling he'll come out of it, just when we need it most."