It isn’t really Chris Young’s question to answer.

Then again with an owner, who often for better, occasionally for worse, likes to remain out of the headlines, there is nobody else around the Rangers qualified to do so. It is the one question that has lingered over this offseason of austerity.

“Why?”

We know the payroll is coming down from the $241.3 million the Rangers spent in 2025. It’s really $241.45 million when you factor in the 50% tax penalty for going over the luxury tax threshold for a third consecutive year. We just don’t know why. Not that we haven’t offered Ray Davis the opportunity to explain. He’s declined – politely – as is his usual stance during the offseason.

Who knows exactly why it’s coming down, though best guess is a combination of things: While the Rangers Sports Network’s on-air production was a huge improvement over the past, the revenue may not have hit projections; the future for RSN is uncertain with Rob Manfred pushing toward getting all MLB teams’ local broadcasting rights under the league’s umbrella; there is the possibility of a work stoppage looming for 2027 and, with it, the possibility of a different salary structure; and there is the fact the Rangers have spent roughly $3 million per win the last two years and haven’t played a postseason game. This season, only three clubs spent more per win than the Rangers’ $2.98 million and didn’t see the postseason.

But still the question lingers. Why?

So Tuesday, we asked the only person available to try to explain.

“I can’t perfectly answer that,” Young admitted. “I don’t make all the decisions.”

Then he launched into a two-minute soliloquy full of passion, candor and eloquence. If you listened to the whole thing, darned if you didn’t come away believing his point: It’s not about the payroll; it’s about performance. And Young expects performance to improve in 2026 via changes to the roster still in progress, but mostly from repairing internal underperformance.

“But I will say that ownership has been great, and for three years straight, we exceeded the luxury tax,” Young said. “It led to a World Series in one of those years and in two of them we didn’t make the playoffs. So, it starts with me. It’s my regret that we did not make the playoffs the last two seasons and that we underachieved what our payroll was.

“So as I’ve stepped back and calibrated in terms of what we need and how we’re going to win, it’s not always about the additions. It’s about what we are going to do internally. There were a lot of playoff teams last year that had payrolls significantly lower than where ours is going to be. Spending does not necessarily guarantee success.

And there have been teams that spent hundreds of millions of dollars last year and didn’t make the playoffs. We were one of them.

So I just have to say that ultimately, I believe in the talent of this team, and I am really excited about our manager, our coaching staff, the alignment from our front office to the staff, to our players, and ultimately, what will decide our fate is our environment and how hungry these guys are.

“There is not one person in this organization that does not have something to prove. And for me, the teams that I’ve been part of, the championship teams that I’ve been part of, they didn’t have the highest of expectations externally, but internally, there was a hunger and a fire and a desire that brought that group together, that allowed them to achieve great things.

That’s been my experience my entire life from little league to the World Series. Those are the things I’m focused on. I want to see our group hungry and passionate and fighting and playing with grit and fearless determination. If we do that, I’ll bet on the talent of this club. It’s a disappointment for me that we didn’t exhibit enough of that to get to where we needed to go.

We’re focused on getting back to that. And that’s my goal for this organization.”

And that was edited for brevity.

More briefly: Young isn’t focused on the payroll. He knows its constraints and the Rangers have done a fine job of operating within them thus far, addressing three holes in the lineup and buying a crate of relievers without using a penny more than the $11 million they saved by trading Marcus Semien.

He has some resources to address further needs, like more bullpen arms, an extra bat and a depth option or two for the rotation. He will operate within the unannounced budget to add them. And he will hope to create some advantages on the margins.

But, for his money (and the owner’s), the biggest improvements the Rangers can make in 2026 are all well within the margins. The Rangers’ acquisitions, particularly on the offensive side, should go a ways toward fixing their on-base deficiency.

They can make bigger gains if Jake Burger and Josh Jung can be more discriminating at the plate. They can make even bigger gains if Evan Carter can stay healthy.

They should be, at least in theory, a more well-rounded offense than last year’s one-dimensional emphasis on slugging. Young acknowledged that was an area the Rangers “whiffed” on in 2025. There was no pun intended.

Throwing money at something is always the easy attempted solution. It’s not guaranteed. The Rangers have tried that for a couple of years now and, like it or not, are focusing on areas where they believe they can do so more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Will it work? Not sure. But it’s the direction in which the Rangers have moved and Chris Young, the leader of the organization, is leaning into it hard.

That’s what leaders do. They set a tone for the organization. Now, it’s up to the players in the organization to follow that lead.