The Texas Rangers Front Office Continues To Impress
It’s dawning on me as a write this, that I’m not sure what the average age of our sports readers are. I get ton’s of texts and comments from younger people about my work, but I also know that we have plenty of older readers as well.
I only bring this up, because what I’m about to say next is either going to make a ton of sense, or none at all, but stick with me here, there’s a reason for it. Depending on your age, there’s a strong chance you’ve played a sports video game in your life.
If you have, there’s an even stronger chance you’ve played a franchise or a MyGM mode. This mode allow’s you to take your favorite team, or any team for that matter, and become their general manager. Make the moves YOU think they should make.
Former big league pitcher and now Texas Rangers general manager has been operating the Rangers for the last two seasons like he’s playing a franchise mode. Finally, a general manager who see’s a clear path to rebuilding and is making it happen.
It’s been the better part of a decade since the Texas Rangers were one of the best teams in the league. From 2010-2016 Rangers fans finally got to experience what it was like to have a competent franchise, and to have genuine hope.
Since then, things have been bleak to say the least. Since their last playoff appearance, the Rangers have amassed a record of 373-497, winning 69 games or less in three of the last five full seasons (2020 isn’t included in that, though they went 22-38 that year). That being said, I don’t think things have ever looked as good for a team coming off back-to-back seasons of 69 or less wins, than it does for this Texas Rangers team.
Things took a change for the better back in December of 2020, when the Rangers named former pitcher Chris Young as the new general manager. Young went to work almost immediately, trading solid veteran pieces like Lance Lynn for young prospects.
Young and Co. continued to add young prospects, fairly quickly building what would become a Top-10 farm system in the league. That wasn’t all they were able to do, however, as a year ago they switched gears and starting working on how to build an equally as strong big league squad.
Now are the Rangers a Top-10 roster in the league? Probably not. But they are getting better and better by the day.
Last winter, in a matter of a few days, Young added a pair of MVP candidates, but there were still glaring holes on this roster, mainly being the pitching. This winter, it was a clear goal of theirs to get their pitching on the same level as their hitting.
What have they done since then? The Rangers have added talented arm, after talented arm.
The additions started with trading for Jake Odorizzi, a starting pticher with a career record of 74-69 and a career ERA of 3.99. That with a career WHIP of 1.25 shows success over a sustained period of time.
Perhaps just an important as any move, the Rangers were able to bring back Martin Perez who had an excellent comeback season in 2022. Perez, who hadn’t been with the Rangers since 2018 was back in Arlington last season, and had the best season of his career, going 12-8 with an ERA of 2.89 and making an All-Star game.
Now with Perez back in the rotation, it was time to focus on bringing in more arms, and did they ever. Texas was able to make one of its biggest signings in franchise history, bringing in Jacob DeGrom, arguably the best pitcher on Earth.
DeGrom, who missed time the last few years due to injury was signed to a five-year deal worth $185 million, and could easily be worth every penny. In the last couple seasons, even while battling injuries, DeGrom has amassed a record of 12-6 with an ERA of 1.90. No, that isn’t a typo, even while battling or recovering from injury, in his last 156.1 innings pitched, he did so to an ERA of 1.90.
In those 156.1 innings he also struck out 248 batters, while only walking 19 and only allowing 15 home runs. His WHIP during that time is maybe the most incredible number of all, at 0.63. He is quite possibly, the best pitcher on the planet.
If the moves would have stopped there, nobody would have been able to complain. Sure, would you like to add another arm or two? Of course.
Would you like to try to add another bat or two and really sure up the lineup? That would be great.
But ultimately, if they wouldn’t have made another move, nobody would have been able to complain. They would have more than done their jobs in terms of improving this roster.
The moves didn’t stop there, however. The same day they singed DeGrom it was also announced the Rangers signed left-handed pitcher Andrew Heaney to a two-year deal.
While that may have not made the same headlines as DeGrom, it was still a great sign from the Rangers front office. The 31-year-old lefty has struggled with consistency, but he was very good last year, finishing with an ERA of 3.10 and a WHIP of 1.09. Heaney goes along very well with Perez, adding another strong lefty to the mix.
Finally, it felt like the major moves might be over for the Rangers. Fans have continued to ask for bats, but again, it was hard to ask the front office to do much more than that.
Then, on one of the most historic night’s in Dallas sports history, the Rangers made yet another move. You may have missed it, as Luka Doncic was busy dropping the first ever 60-point, 20-rebound triple-double in NBA history, but the Rangers front office made another big move, they added starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi.
Eovaldi, a Texan native, has had a great MLB career, including some postseason heroics along the way. The right-handed Eovaldi has especially been good over the last few years, finishing with ERA’s of 3.72, 3.75 and 3.87 in each of the last three seasons.
Almost over night, Texas has become a legitimate team, with legitimate hopes.
Last season, the Rangers scored the 12th most runs in all of baseball, and that was while playing a lot of meaningless games. Now, with the return of Perez, and additions of DeGrom, Eovaldi, Odorizzi and Heaney, they might have the pitching to match.
The lineup could still use additions, but again, this team scored the 12th most runs in the league last season. They also had the 13th highest slugging % and hit the eighth most home runs.
It’s also important to remember that Top-10 farm system we talked about earlier. Now with a chance of playing winning baseball, Texas can start to view their farm system the way winning teams do, as assets.
Sure, guys like Jack Lieter and Kumar Rocker may be viewed as future Texas Rangers, and rightfully so. Almost every other piece, however, can now be viewed as trade bait. Trade bait for guys who are already contributing to winning teams.
Front offices have never been Dallas’ team’s strong suit. Even when Jon Daniels was putting together a team who won back-to-back AL Championships, fans complained and complained.
Jerry Jones is often considered to be one of the biggest sports owners of all time, and also one of the worst general managers. Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks is quickly finding himself in the same conversation as Jones, but Chris Young represents a change.
Chris Young is doing all of the things fans always ask their general managers to do. When the team is losing and doesn’t have a chance to win, trade the veteran players. Trade them for prospects who will build our farm system.
When MVP or Cy Young caliber players hit the market, make a pitch to them. Do whatever it takes to bring them in. He’s done exactly that.
Things are far from perfect in Arlington. That coveted first World Series title is still al long ways away. After all, we opened this article mentioning how the Rangers are coming off back-to-back seasons of 60-102 and 68-94.
But things are finally changing. Things are finally starting to look up.
How well will the Rangers finish this year? How close will they come to fighting for an AL West title? How many moves away are they from being an actual title contender?
I don’t know. None of us do. What I do know, though, is the future is much, much brighter than it’s been in a very long time and Chris Young is to thank.
Now, if only Chris Young could hold a seminar for all Dallas front office members and teach them the things he’s been doing in Arlington.
