For Rangers, the hottest team in baseball, luck is residue of design

Had Josh Hamilton not reported to spring training with a knee injury that led to season-ending surgery in May, the Texas Rangers might not have pursued free-agent Ian Desmond so aggressively.

Had right fielder Shin-Soo Choo not suffered a calf strain on the first weekend of the season, prospect Nomar Mazara would not have been rushed to the big leagues.

Had second baseman Rougned Odor not slugged Toronto’s Jose Bautista in the jaw on May 15 and served a seven-game suspension, infielder Jurickson Profar might still be in the minor leagues.

And had General Manager Jon Daniels not hired Roy Silver, the coach/mentor who helped Hamilton return from a cocaine addiction a decade ago, as a player development assistant in 2015, he would not have signed Matt Bush, the ex-convict and alcoholic who is now a 99-mph-throwing setup man for Texas.

The Rangers have been the scourge of the American League for a month, their 25-7 record since May 20 pushing them to an AL-best 47-26 mark and 10-game lead in the AL West entering games Friday. They are 17-4 in one-run games.

Pitcher Cole Hamels, third baseman Adrian Beltre, shortstop Elvis Andrus and Odor have played huge roles, but the Rangers are getting significant contributions from so many unexpected sources that it seems that luck, or at least a touch of serendipity, has been a factor in their surge.

Daniels scoffs at the notion.

“It’s the result of 150 baseball operations employees working hard and making good decisions over a long period of time to put us in position where you have those options,” Daniels said by phone. “Everyone has injuries. The unpredictable is almost guaranteed, so you have to be prepared.

“Our scouts and development staff have done such a good job of establishing depth that … in a lot of situations, we’ve had internal answers to problems that are better than what we could acquire externally. That’s huge.”

Desmond signed an $8-million contract on Feb. 29 — two weeks into spring training — and has emerged as the Rangers’ most valuable player, batting .316 with an .885 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 12 homers, 19 doubles and a team-leading 47 runs batted in and 53 runs entering the weekend.

The former Washington shortstop was so proficient in left field that Manager Jeff Banister moved him to center to replace the struggling Delino DeShields in May.

Mazara, who turned 21 in late April, had three hits, including a home run, in his big league debut in Anaheim on April 10 and has been such a force (.288 batting average, 11 homers, 30 RBIs in 64 games) that he now bats third.

Profar was called up to play second during Odor’s suspension and hit well enough (.345 with an .891 OPS in 22 games) to forge a Ben Zobrist-like role, starting three or four games a week at second, third, shortstop and designated hitter.

And Bush has teamed with new closer Sam Dyson and left-hander Jake Diekman to form a lock-down relief trio that, combined with a stout defense, has made the Rangers very difficult to beat in close games.

“It seems like we make a big play every night, whether it’s Odor up the middle, catchers throwing a guy out, Desmond and Mazara making special plays in the outfield, and Beltre … you almost take for granted how good he is at third,” Daniels said. “They turn hits into outs and cut runners down on the basepaths.”

If there was a turning point, it came May 19, after the Rangers were swept in a three-game series at Oakland and fell to 22-19. Banister demoted closer Shawn Tolleson and his 9.20 earned-run average and gave the ninth inning to Dyson, who has a 1.93 ERA in 39 games and has converted 15 of 16 save opportunities.

Diekman, who combines a 96-mph fastball with a nasty slider, has a 2.28 ERA in 33 games, with 33 strikeouts and nine walks in 27 2/3 innings. Bush, who complements his near-triple-digits fastball with a 90-mph slider, has a 1.02 ERA in 19 games since his May 13 recall, with 19 strikeouts and four walks in 17 2/3 innings.

“He’s been electric,” Daniels said of Bush.

Bush, who was drafted No. 1 overall as a shortstop by the San Diego Padres in 2004, didn’t fall out of the sky and into the Rangers’ laps. It only seems that way.

The 30-year-old right-hander was out of baseball for four years while serving a 39-month prison sentence for a 2012 drunken-driving accident in Florida that seriously injured a 72-year-old motorcyclist.

Bush, who says he has been sober for four years, was busing tables at a Golden Corral restaurant in Jacksonville as part of a work-release program last fall when Silver, who kept in touch during Bush’s incarceration, paid a visit.

The men played catch in the restaurant parking lot, Bush showing surprisingly good velocity despite his layoff. Silver told his boss he may have found another reclamation project. Daniels initially balked.

“You hear about the alcohol, the off-field stuff, the DUIs, the accident,” Daniels said, “and you’re like, ‘I don’t know if we want to get involved with that.’ ”

But when Silver vouched for Bush’s character, saying he would mentor Bush if he threw 75 mph, “that meant a lot to me,” Daniels said. “Roy knows the difference between a worthwhile cause and a lost cause.”

Bush threw for the Rangers in November and signed a minor league contract in December, agreeing to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly, stay out of bars and share hotel rooms on the road with Silver.

Bush had pitched just 17 double-A innings when he was called up. His dominance has mitigated the need for a back-end reliever, which will allow Daniels to spend his trade trips this summer on a more pressing need: the rotation.

Yu Darvish returned from elbow surgery in late May, only to be shut down after three starts because of shoulder discomfort. He hasn’t pitched since June 8 and won’t return until after the All-Star break.

Left-hander Derek Holland went on the disabled list because of shoulder inflammation on Wednesday, and right-hander Colby Lewis went on the DL because of a rib-cage strain on Thursday.

Two other concerns: Prince Fielder, the $214-million DH, is batting .203 with a .588 OPS, and injuries have limited Choo to 15 games.

But as Daniels showed last summer, when he acquired Hamels, Dyson and Diekman in trade-deadline deals that fueled a second-half run to the division title, he is not afraid to make bold moves.

“We’re enjoying our success, but the season is young — we’re not guaranteed anything more than [47] wins,” Daniels said. “We have a long way to go.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna