If you aren't playing, October can be a thoroughly boring month for teams. The free-agent and trade-market opening bells have not yet rung. There is a moratorium during the World Series on "major announcements." They don't even keep standings in the Instructional League.
It's all about the planning.
And it's a somewhat unfamiliar environment for the Rangers.
Between 2010 and last season, the Rangers played past game No. 162 in six of seven years. The one year they didn't, they spent the first half of October interviewing managerial candidates and the second half putting together Jeff Banister's staff.