The Rangers spent half a billion dollars last winter and still lost 94 games in 2022. The focus was always more on the 2023 season than the 2022 campaign, given the timeline of the team’s top prospects. Still, ownership likely expected better results, as evidenced by the surprising August dismissal of president of baseball operations Jon Daniels — who’d been the third-longest-tenured baseball ops leader in the game. It’s now general manager Chris Young’s ship to steer.
Guaranteed Contracts
- Corey Seager, SS: $287.5MM through 2031
- Marcus Semien, 2B: $150MM through 2028
- Jon Gray, RHP: $41MM through 2025
- Brad Miller, INF/OF: $4MM through 2023
2023 commitments: $80MM
Total long-term commitments: $482.5MM
Option Decisions
- Jose Leclerc, RHP: $6MM club option for 2023 with a $750K buyout (contract also contains $6.25MM club option for 2024)
- Kole Calhoun, OF: $5.5MM club option for 2023 (no buyout)
Arbitration-Eligible Player (service time in parentheses; salary projections via Matt Swartz)
- Mitch Garver (5.045): $4.2MM
- Brett Martin (3.151): $1.5MM
- Taylor Hearn (3.125): $1.7MM
- Dennis Santana (3.095): $1.1MM
- Jonathan Hernandez (3.041): $1MM
- Nathaniel Lowe (2.145): $4.3MM
- Non-tender candidates: Martin, Santana
Free Agents
With Young installed as the baseball operations leader, the Rangers don’t need to go through a time-consuming search for a new front office boss. However, Young’s first order of business will be to determine whether interim manager Tony Beasley, who stepped up when manager Chris Woodward was fired (just two days before Daniels), is right for the permanent job. The 55-year-old Beasley’s time with the Rangers organization predates Young by years; Young, in fact, was still active as a player and won a World Series ring with the Royals in 2015 while Beasley was just getting started as a Rangers coach.
Given his eight-year stint on the Rangers’ staff, Beasley will likely have a role of some sort offered to him, even if he’s not tabbed as the long-term skipper. It’s common, however, for a newly minted general manager or president of baseball operations to want to bring in his own field staff. Young has already interviewed Beasley, but he’ll presumably be just one of several candidates.
Whether it’s Beasley or an outside hire, the new manager and Young will be tasked with finding a new pitching coach, as co-pitching coaches Doug Mathis and Brendan Sagara were ousted earlier this month. As with any managerial change — particularly one on the heels of a disappointing season — it’s possible the switch could bring about further turnover on the coaching staff.
As far as the roster is concerned, left-hander Martin Perez’s future is the first piece of the offseason puzzle for Young and his staff to consider. Originally signed by the Rangers more than a decade ago, the now-31-year-old Perez ranked as one of the game’s top overall prospects while rising through the minor league ranks. He had a solid, if unspectacular rookie campaign as a 22-year-old, and the organization saw enough to lock Perez up on a four-year extension with multiple club options.
As is too often the case with pitchers, injuries set in and quickly derailed the promising start to Perez’s career. He had Tommy John surgery in 2014, missed most of the 2014-15 seasons as a result, and upon returning settled in as a fifth starter — never recreating the 3.62 ERA that led to a sixth-place Rookie of the Year finish for him in 2013. Perez bounced from Texas, to Minnesota, to Boston, soaking up innings at the back of the rotation and generally beginning to look the part of a journeyman.
A one-year, $4MM reunion with Texas last offseason was met with a collective eye roll by many longtime Rangers fans, but Perez not only rebounded — he turned in far and away the best season of his career. Leaning more heavily on his changeup, Perez made 32 starts and piled up 196 1/3 innings with career-best marks in ERA (2.89), strikeout rate (20.6%), FIP (3.27) and Statcast’s “expected” ERA (3.59) — among other categories. Along the way, both he and Young publicly expressed interest in working out an extension, and the two parties are set to meet this week to discuss just that. Given Perez’s strong desire to remain in place and the Rangers’ arguably stronger need for reliable pitching, it seems quite possible that Perez won’t even reach the open market.
Even if the Rangers are able to secure a new contract with Perez — which would surely be a multi-year deal at a much heftier price than this year’s $4MM rate — that’ll just be the beginning of the team’s offseason quest for pitching. Re-signing Perez will give the club some direly needed dependable innings, but even an optimistic projection of Perez’s 2023-24 seasons would bake in some regression from this year’s peak performance. It’s sensible to view Perez as a No. 3/4 starter, but there’s a need for higher-impact arms to lead the starting staff, with or without Perez.
At the moment, right-hander Jon Gray is the only clearly above-average starting pitcher on the Texas staff. Signed to a four-year, $56MM contract last winter, Gray made 24 starts and pitched to a 3.96 ERA through 127 1/3 innings, striking out 25.7% of his opponents against a strong 7.5% walk rate. He had three brief IL stints, all unrelated to his arm (blister, knee strain, oblique strain), but was a solid performer with even better secondary metrics (3.80 FIP, 3.59 xERA, 3.46 SIERA).
Right-hander Dane Dunning, acquired two years ago in the trade that sent Lance Lynn to the White Sox, has proven a capable back-of-the-rotation arm, pitching to a 4.48 ERA in 271 frames since the trade. Both Dunning’s strikeout and walk rate are a bit worse than league average, though he offsets some of that with a very strong 53.6% grounder rate. So long as the hip surgery that ended Dunning’s season doesn’t impact him moving forward, he can be slotted into the fourth or fifth spot on the starting staff.
Righty Glenn Otto and lefties Taylor Hearn and Cole Ragans were the only other Rangers pitchers to work 40 or more innings out of the rotation this season, but the results were lacking. Hearn, who finished the year with a 5.13 ERA in 100 innings, might look like a non-tender candidate at first glance but posted a 3.51 ERA and 3.56 FIP in 41 innings as a reliever. That figures to be his role moving forward. Otto made 27 starts with a 4.64 ERA but more concerning under-the-hood numbers (18.2% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate, 5.21 FIP). Ragans posted a 4.95 ERA in 40 innings with just a 15.5% strikeout rate.
Suffice it to say, the Rangers have a clear, pressing need for both innings and, more importantly, for a top-of-the-rotation caliber arm. The free-agent market this winter features several such arms, and it stands to reason that the rumors connecting longtime Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw to his hometown Rangers will again swirl this winter. For the bulk of the 2021-22 offseason, it was believed that Kershaw would either return to the Dodgers or sign with the Rangers, allowing him to live in his Dallas-area home, commute to the park and spend more time with his wife and four young children.
Beyond Kershaw, the market will also include names like Carlos Rodon, Justin Verlander and Jacob deGrom, all of whom will opt out of their current contracts and return to the open market. Verlander and deGrom might prefer to sign with surefire contenders, but Rodon will be hitting the market in search of the first long-term deal of his career. If the Rangers are willing to put forth another nine-figure offer to lure a marquee free agent, he’s a viable target. Alternatively, Texas seems like a logical candidate to pursue star Japanese righty Kodai Senga, who boasts a 2.39 ERA over his past four NPB seasons, features a triple-digit heater, and is expected to be available to MLB clubs this winter.
That might seem unfathomable to some onlookers after the aggressive manner in which the Rangers spent last year, but despite doling out a half-billion dollars to Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, the Rangers’ payroll outlook is relatively clean. Texas has just $80MM in contractual guarantees in 2023 and one of the smallest arbitration classes in MLB. By 2024, they have just $74MM on the books, and because each of the Gray, Seager and Semien contracts were slightly front-loaded, those commitments won’t be quite as cumbersome in their later stages as the typical free-agent deal (which is oftentimes backloaded).
The Rangers ran a payroll of more than $142MM this season and have previously taken that number to nearly $175MM. Between that history of spending and the fact they’re still in the early years of a new stadium, it stands to reason that the Rangers will be able to spend aggressively this winter, even after last year’s spending spree. Young, in fact, has already publicly stated that owner Ray Davis has given the green light to increase payroll with the specific focus of improving the pitching staff.
If this feels like a lot of focus on the rotation thus far, well… it is. That’s due both to the acuteness of the need and also due to the fact that the Rangers’ roster is perhaps more rounded than one might expect of a 68-win team. Picking up Jose Leclerc’s $6MM option is an easy call after he returned from Tommy John surgery to post a 2.83 ERA in 47 2/3 innings. He’ll be joined by fellow Tommy John returnee Jonathan Hernandez, 2022 team saves leader Joe Barlow, the aforementioned Hearn and lefty Brock Burke, who had one of the most quietly dominant rookie showings in recent memory: 82 1/3 innings, 1.97 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate, 7.3% walk rate.
Certainly, there’s room to add to the relief corps. Journeyman Matt Moore, like Perez, returned for a second stint in Texas this past season and (also like Perez) posted one of the finest seasons of his career. Moore, another once-vaunted starting pitching prospect who never fully recovered from Tommy John surgery, broke out as a successful high-leverage reliever this season, pitching 74 innings of 1.95 ERA ball. As with Perez, there’s good reason for the Rangers to want him back, but Moore should have no shortage of interest in free agency. Whether it’s Moore or another veteran, it’s fair to expect Young & Co. to bring in some reinforcements in the ’pen.
Turning to the lineup, things are mostly set. Seager and Semien will, of course, form the middle-infield duo. Former Rays prospect Nathaniel Lowe turned in a second half for the ages, elevating his stock from quality regular to potential All-Star. Lowe hit .339/.399/.566 following the All-Star break, and while his poor defensive ratings could portend an eventual move to designated hitter, he’s going to rack up as many plate appearances as possible.
Top prospect Josh Jung got a late-season look at third base, and although he struggled in 102 plate appearances, there’s not much left for him to prove in Triple-A. Jung missed most of the season following shoulder surgery but beat his originally projected recovery timeline by a notable margin and returned with a flourish in Triple-A Round Rock. He’s still appeared in just 58 total Triple-A games, so perhaps the organization will want him to spend a bit more time there, but Jung’s .316/.389/.598 batting line at that level doesn’t suggest there’s too much more minor league seasoning required.
Behind the plate, the Rangers entrusted Jonah Heim with the lion’s share of the workload and figure to do so again in 2022. While his .227/.298/.399 batting line isn’t going to win him any awards, Heim smacked 16 home runs and graded out as one of MLB’s top defensive catchers. Former Twins catcher Mitch Garver, the presumptive regular on Opening Day, missed most of the season with a flexor strain that eventually required surgery. He should be healthy again in 2023, but Garver has more than enough bat to mix in as a designated hitter while shouldering a lesser portion of the catching workload than Heim.
Former top prospect Sam Huff gives the Rangers the option of carrying three catching options on the big league roster, and former Royals prospect Meibrys Viloria is also still on the 40-man roster after a strong year in Triple-A — though he’ll be out of options next year.
The window is open for the Rangers to add a veteran corner infield/designated hitter option, but there’s enough depth that they shouldn’t deem it an absolute need. A veteran catcher on a non-roster deal — particularly if Viloria doesn’t hold his 40-man spot — could also be an option. It’s possible Kevin Plawecki will fill this role; Beasley praised Plawecki’s clubhouse presence when explaining the team’s rationale for bringing in a recently released pending free agent with under two weeks remaining in the season.
More broadly, however, if there’s a clear spot in the lineup where the Rangers could invest, it’s in the outfield. Adolis Garcia has cemented his spot in the outfield mix since being acquired from the Cardinals (for cash) prior to the 2021 season, belting 56 homers and swiping 41 bases while posting standout defensive metrics in both center field and right field. The Rangers would surely prefer an improvement on his .293 OBP in that time, but Garcia’s blend of power, speed and defense have generally offset that deficiency.
Elsewhere in the outfield, however, things are more open. Leody Taveras had a decent showing in center field, and fleet-footed rookie Bubba Thompson stole 18 bases despite tallying just 181 plate appearances. That said, Thompson hit only .265/.302/.312, and even that below-average output (77 wRC+) included a grisly 30.9% strikeout rate while being buoyed by a .389 BABIP he’s unlikely to sustain. Taveras’ .344 BABIP mark isn’t as suspect, but if it dips even slightly, his already tepid offense could become untenable.
There are other options on the roster, including 25-year-old Josh Smith, 27-year-old Nick Solak and 28-year-old Eli White. Smith, however, didn’t replicate his strong Triple-A numbers in the Majors. Solak will be out of minor league options next year and might well have played his way off the 40-man roster, whether it be via non-tender or trade. (He did have a solid showing in Round Rock.) White profiles best as a fourth outfielder.
If the Rangers prefer to find an outfield upgrade on the free-agent market, there’s no shortage of options. Brandon Nimmo headlines center field options, but Garcia’s defensive prowess — plus the presence of Taveras — don’t box the Rangers into searching for a center fielder only. Corner options range from clear multi-year candidates like Andrew Benintendi and Mitch Haniger to potentially shorter-term veterans like Joc Pederson and Michael Brantley. There’s enough of an outfield need and enough spending capacity to warrant an obligatory Aaron Judge mention, but it’s hard to envision Judge realistically landing in Texas with such a pronounced need for pitching and with last year’s Seager/Semien mega-deals still being so fresh.
The alternate route for the Rangers to explore, be it for outfield or pitching help, is the trade market. Texas has a quality farm from which to deal, ranking sixth on Baseball America’s midseason ranking of MLB’s minor league systems. Given the need for pitching, one would imagine it’d be hard to deal top prospects/former first-round picks like Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker and Cole Winn. That said, the Rangers still have plenty of position prospects who are blocked long-term on the big league roster and/or who are far enough from the Majors that Young and his staff would consider dealing them in an effort to put a winner on the field now. The aforementioned Smith, outfielder Evan Carter, infielder Ezequiel Duran, and infielders Luisangel Acuna and Justin Foscue would all hold varying levels of value.
Certainly, there’s more than enough value in the Texas system to acquire a controllable outfielder, but the Rangers are also deep enough in minor league talent they can make a compelling offer for virtually any starting pitcher that hits the trade market. A lot will need to go right in 2023 for Texas to reverse course, but this is a team that already ranked eighth in the Majors in home runs (198) and 12th in runs scored (707). There are some organic improvements to the offense on the horizon, and Young will now try to pull the right strings with the pitching staff and in the outfield to position Texas as a surprise postseason contender in 2023.
Rangers are part of the reason there’s way more money out there than talent. That trend will continue for several years to come making the small market teams obsolete
LOL
Many small market teams are the smartest and most successful.
It’s a young mans game, and all teams – including the small market teams – own young players contract rights for 6 years.
You think teams can just spend more and more money on veteran players – that get injured more often, take longer to heal, and as the years go on get paid more and more for their production that goes down and down? Didn’t you read the article here detailing not just the luxury tax to be paid for going over the pseudo-salary cap, but the other penalties as well….and those penalties will be increased if the wealthy owners ignore them and keep spending.
The Rangers have been going in circles for years along with the Rockies, White Sox, and even the small market Reds. Right now they’re in the “we’re going to spend our way to contention” phase. That will appear to be working for a bit, but then comes the “we aren’t winning so we have to make trades and cut salaries (where the White Sox are today). After that comes the “we’ve got way too much payroll on the books and we’re winning less and less – just dump the players for anything you can get for them” (which the Reds did last year…..and the teams that thought they were making a killing dealing with them just shot themselves in the foot in 2022).
The Jays are in the cycle as well, but they had a nice young core of cheap players before they spent the money because they couldn’t augment them with more cheap players. But at least they had a strong young core. Rangers don’t have that. All sustainable contending teams have terrific organizations and coaching at both the major and minor league level to make the players they have under contract better. It takes years to build and debug that structure. Buying players never works for long. Just ask this years World Series bound Mets.
I don’t think the white Sox were going in circles. They clearly tore down and rebuilt.
Did they do it right or around the right quality of players on/off the diamond?
Probably not. But there was a plan. But they did quite well selling off their assets a few years back. Something those other teams really did not.
The Phils aren’t that much different than the Mets as far as buying most of that team via serious trade & extension or FA.
1. The White Sox did not rebuild. You want to see a rebuild, look at the rosters of the Orioles and Guardians this year.
2. As for the Phillies they signed a lot of FA’s. But they also made trades, had their coaches rework players – most notably bullpen pitchers and making their defenders better – and brought up a number of players from their farm system in 2022 that contributed.
The object in MLB today is to make the players a team has under contract better. The Phillies did that in 2022.
That White Sox team is almost entirely homegrown players.
You can rebuild and fail. Happens all the time. The orioles, guardians etc. did it much better but the intent was there.
They rebuilt around the wrong core? Too many misfit players? Sure. But it was a team built around homegrown prospects. Many of which were acquired by the assets they sold off in the tear down.
You let a slant come in to your arguments sometimes. You provide very good analysis most of the time.
When it’s DD—it’s all good w/ you. When it’s the Mets it’s a bash fest. They won 101 games and pretty much every guy they signed this off-season performed as good or better than expected.
Marte, Canha, Bassit, and, Scherzer were very good for them.
Taijuan Walker has looked a lot better since coming over to NY. David Peterson has taken steps this year. Ottavino came back and was really good. Edwin Diaz was elite.
The two teams are built using the same style. You crush the Mets but praise the Phil’s. Neither one looks like a good bet to compete with ATL in 3 years to me but that’s not today.
The ChiSox changed direction, traded youth for veterans, hired the town drunk to manage and coddle devisive personalities. Their rebuild was coming fast and strong until they changed direction.
The Phillies players got tired of hearing about their poor defense and the players, except Nick Castellanos, worked to improve their defense.
Still forever no to a salary cap ! More money to the players less to the owners forever ! The players are all that matter!
Just to let you know that their % of revenues is lower than it has ever been, at least in modern times. They should’ve simply have taken 55% in exchange for a cap, when it was first offered. “Salary Cap” is meaningless in the context of a % of the revenue.
Outlook: dismal
50 years and still no pitching arriving anytime soon.
Joey Gallo;
B I N G O
Teams that don’t develop and recalibrate their own pitching can’t possibly buy a sustainable staff.
I absolutely agree on the developing their own pitching. However, SF showed in 2021 u can do it with free agents. However they likely got extremely lucky and they could not replicate that success this past season. And definitely not sustainable as pitchers like they chose in 2021 are on one year prove it deals or are seeking opt ours.
They’ve produced their own aces from time to time like any other club. Could there have been more, yeah. Bad trades limited that. Kenny Rogers and David Clyde before they burned him out were homegrown .
madmanTX;
A team has to pitch 1,400 inning a year.
So from time to time they get a guy that can cover 150-180 innings?
You think that’s a way to compete successfully?
The Rangers do pretty well with SP FA signings.
Perez, Lynn, Gibson, Minor etc. over the last few years were good for them.
Just can’t develop one from their system to save their life. Haven’t really developed any position players either.
But you know that’s why they stink.
Rogers’ best season for TEX was 3.6 fwar almost 20 years ago…
David Clyde
====================
Yup, let’s take the #1/1 and toss him to the wolves for some cheap publicity.
They will get pitching this off-season.
What I witnessed this year are that Rangers are more than a few pitchers away from being a respectable club, much less contending. I like their lineup particularly the younger players ( Garcia, Lowe, Taveras,Heim, Jung) – I am not sure signing Seager and Semien to hit below .250 with a bunch of meaningless HRs was a good move. They need to focus on bringing up pitchers from their farm system, and when they start being a respectable club, add some top tier pitchers as free agents.
I doubt Seager hits below .250 next season, but either way, Seager and Semien are still above average hitters with pop; they’re 2 of the 3 best batters in that lineup. Home runs are only meaningless when the rest of the lineup shows an inability to get on base themselves, so I’m curious why you’re high on 5 other batters in the lineup (particularly Taveras and Heim, and I still have questions about Garcia’s low BB/high K approach) but low on the two stars?
I agree they’re certainly more than a couple pitchers away, not just because their pitching is bad, but because they only have 4 reliable batters and some questionable defenders.
More questions generally follow stars earning a combined $60m between them. Especially when those stars can’t elevate a roster to a 70 win level. Especially when one star hits 240 and shows no desire to play anything above a barely passing level of SS defense and the other star can’t be bothered to show up motivated to play until June 1.
Would you pay $500-600M for two guys who barely hit their weight, hit a bunch of HRs and don’t drive in 100 runs? And have them tied up for 10 years? And one of them is already over 30 years age. Not a smart use of money in my opinion. The young guys I mentioned all played well and Garcia was their RBI leader probably making about $700k.
Rangers will resign Perez somewhere around 3/35 to 3/39, try to add Rodon around 5/90-100, and then someone like T.Anderson, Cueto, or Kluber on a 1 yr deal C.Martin and Michael Fulmer can be added to help the pen as well as resigning Moore. Offensively they are not too bad. Likely see someone like Pederson, Haniger, Benintendi, Gallo or Bellinger if the Dodgers non-tender him for the corner with Thompson if not traded filling in as a 4th OF. Don’t see much of a reason to keep Garver and no reason to even consider Culberson or Calhoun. Other than one amazing catch not really excited about Eli White as I think Thompson or Smith can handle his position. Villloria a hard no as Hearns should be, simply not enough there that cannot be replaced. Could see them adding J Bell or Mancini if they do add a DH. Earlier on this site, it was reported that TB might be willing to move Arozarena, so depending on cost that might not be a bad option for LF.
Uncertain if there really is a viable OF trade out there other than Arozarena, perhaps Renfroe or M Yastremski. Pitching is a different story as Marlins will likely listen on Lopez, Garrett, and Rogers. TB for Yarbrough, Brewers for Woodruff, or Lauer as Burnes is too expensive. Bieber would be great, but the same problem as Burnes. Plesac is too much of a headcase but Quantrill would be worth consideration. All in all weighing cost and ceiling best trade scenario would be for Woodruff in Milw and if the price isn’t too high perhaps he and Renfroe in a pkg deal.
Conforto would be a nice option for them. Bring in him and Bellinget and you could get lightning in a bottle.
I like the idea of adding Conforto and Bellinger on 1 yr contracts with incentives and mutual 2nd-year options for them. If one of them has close to the best career years and the other is serviceable it makes sense. Add 1 of Degrom/Kershaw/Rodon and 1 of Anderson, Manaea, Stripling, Taillon or Walker and resign Perez and you have created a high upside at only moderate risk.
if you add C Martin,M Fulmer, and resign Moore you up your ceiling a little more.
Hold on now. You need to cross Degrom off the list.
Why would Conforto sign with the Rangers for 1 year? There will be better teams that will offer him 1 year contracts. Look at how much they had to overpay Seager and Semien, they’ll need to overpay Conforto as well.
Your plan has them spending like $70m+ this offseason…
No team has offered him multiple years yet. What would they change their mind about now.
@Rangers, why would Perez sign for 3 yrs $35 or 3 yrs $39? He’d b better off taking the qualifying offer for 1 year @ $19.5. He’s gonna b seeking minimum of $15 AAV if it’s a lengthier contract. The shorter the contract he ll b seeking closer to if not more than $20 AAV
More outlook:
1. Their clueless fans arguing with one another about lineups/FA signings
2. Daily complaining about Nolan Ryan not being in their front office
3. Crying that the Astros are better than them.
At least Jon Daniels was fired, that is all they would ever talk about was how bad he was.
To be clear – Jon Daniels was colossally, epically bad at his job. That incompetent jackwad had been rebuilding for 5 years and still coughed up a roster that featured starts from Koji Arihara, post-mortem Dallas Keuchel, and Tyson Miller. Additionally, it was year 10 and counting where no Ranger draftee contributed. The vaunted arms of the future flamed out spectacularly at AAA and AA. Many things went bad for the Rangers in ’22, but the day when that baseball illiterate was escorted off the premises was a positive day for the Rangers’ future.
This lifelong Rangers fan has NEVER complained about Jon Daniels. He was a great GM that engineered the only World Series appearances in team history. Perhaps his time has passed, but at the same time, I know that his hands were tied by ownership in some ways over the years. I hope Chris Young can do as well as Jon Daniels did.
I have no patience for the so-called fans that give credit for the World Series teams to Nolan Ryan, and complain about how Daniels ran him off. When that kind of talk starts, I just shut up and walk away. I don’t bother wasting my breath.
Are you sure that wasn’t Preller’s work?
Did ownership tie Jon Daniels hands when it came to developing players?
The Rangers spent half a billion dollars last winter and still lost 94 games in 2022. LOL
“Don’t need to go through a time consuming search” for a PoBO. What? I guess that’s one way of looking at it. Cynical me. Sounds like code for an ownership that wants to be hands on with the baseball decision making part of the business. Much easier to accomplish promoting within. Hope this is not the case. That said, for the sake of Ranger fans everywhere, Mr. Davis, don’t meddle. Let your baseball people make the baseball decisions.
I don’t think Rangers ownership wants to be hands on with anything, truthfully. Simpson and Davis are almost invisible. The mistake they made was giving the rebuild over to the guy that broke everything to begin with. It was probably sobering to them to have spent so much money and still have such a shoddy product.
They didn’t spend a half billion dollars last year. They obligated that money over ten years between multiple players. Those contracts are not failures after one season.
somehow you’ve found a way to make it sound even worse! So, they’ve paid huge money per year for 3 thirtysomething guys that couldn’t get the team past 70 wins in their absolute prime. Those contracts will age great in 5 years.
Those contracts are much more likely to be worse each year, rather than better. So a certain amount of judgement can be at least anticipated.
I think the Rangers get Carlos Rodon.
Along with another top pitcher.
The Rangers did not spend half a billion dollars. They committed to spend half a billion dollars. There is a huge difference between the two. This is Trumpspeak.
Or the Rangers spent $75m in ’22 on three thirtysomethings that couldn’t get them past 70 wins.
Rent free…
Rangers signed Seager knowing they were going to do away with the shift
I want for Young to finish the job he started last week, and fire every other member of the major league coaching staff, including Tony Beasley. This team needs an entire culture change, and that starts with the new manager being given the latitude to bring in ALL of his own guys to coach this team.
Couldn’t agree more
This isn’t hard, the Rangers in state rival for fans figured it out. six of nine in their lineup and 4 of 5 in their rotation are home grown. Better than that, when they lose someone, like Springer or Correa, another steps in. Draft well, internationally sign well, coach them well through the minors, and you get what the Astros have…..a smart trade or two Verlander, Alvarez helps alot too !
Unfortunately not every team has Jeff Luhnow and now neither do the Astros. He was the smartest GM in baseball. Now the Orioles have taken all his understudies for the most part, so they will be the next Astros model.
WampumWalloper;
B I N G O !
At WW: Sweet Astros model take. To place even more emphasis on your point; they didn’t lose Correa, they moved on from him.
At Rocker49: indeed! JL was (still is) a genius. My gut says he’s still around. Probably an in demand consultant in the digital rolodex of many a GM?
Even with all that, they still needed to cheat to win.
All teams cheat and not just in baseball but in all professional sports. I don’t like to call it “cheating”, I think of it more as “gamesmanship” or “gaining an edge”. The Astros just got caught.
Yawn…if you can’t see that the Astros have run a pretty solid organization over the last half decade or so that’s your failure.
I believe the Rangers signed Seager and Semien with every intention of building a strong pitching staff around them. They could have reasonably expected more wins in ’22, but in no way was this years Rangers team considered a finished product. Should be another busy off-season in Dallas.
Rangers need to draw from their excess/strong in numbers spots and trade for pitching.
e.g.: Catching..
Heim stays..
Garver stays..
Plawecki should be kept
Huff could bring back the kind of upside pitching (SP and RP).. from a team known for their ability to develop pitching and needing catching: cleveland
Make a deal.. respecting who Cleveland can/will deal.. The Cleveland team didn’t become a pitching factory by sending their special prospects away..
CLE has Bo Naylor who is much more well regarded with the bat and glove than Huff. He was brought up at the end of the year and likely will be the favorite to win the bulk of the C AB’s in the spring.
Bo’s glove is lagging. I doubt the Indians doubt have a strong defensive catcher to pair with him.
A reunion with Hedges makes a ton of sense.
It’ll be interesting to see how much they’re willing to spend. Not to add players—to retain what they have.
Quantrill, Bieber, Rosario will all see fairly significant arb raises and there’s really nothing coming off the books.
How far away are Leiter and Rocker ,? Keep Perez , sign Judge , deGrom and stripling or such , and away u go , you’re set for years now. lots of cash the rangers have to spend. It’s Texas man. Think big Ranger fans Miss those Ranger teams of Juan Gonzalez era. Bangers up and down the lineup. I think one year Kevin Elster drove in 90 or 100 from nine spot lol
lol. The Rangers are incredibly middle of the road on their revenue. They are likely 4th in revenue in their own division. They aren’t small market, but they are definitely middle market.
They are not middle market.they gave 5th largest market in major leagues .behind only new york Philly Chicago and la.
They are very much middle market revenue. The cable TV contract is very much middle of the pack. They are most likely 4th on their own division in revenues. There are a ton of people in DFW, but those people don’t give a rip about baseball.
Ah yes, just add another 70M+/yr to this team, maybe they’ll sniff .500!
Degrom and Judge would be over 80 million alone. Then add Stripling and your talking 100m.
Edp0072 hours ago
How far away are Leiter and Rocker ,?
==================================
They had pretty rocky years. Leiter issued 5.4 BB/9, and wasn’t exactly around the plate in college either, with a 3.7 in his one full year. And Rocker, in very limited AZFL time, has a 3/5 K/W.
I really hope they do spend a lot of money.
The players get it and the Orioles get another AL team that won’t be a factor for at least a decade.
Start by non-tendering Santana. He’s a 4A reliever type that might do better in the NPB. They should look at picking up Scott McGough for their bullpen (Tony Barnette wasn’t as good in NPB and was a serviceable set-up man type), maybe also look into picking up Kodai Senga as well in addition to resigning Perez. Also could use a better outfielder or two to help solidify the offense.
About 75% of the outlook was well researched and informed. That’s not bad for a guy who doesn’t cover the team on a regular basis.
The comments and replies, on the other hand, range from wishful to downright stupid. Baseball fans’ obsession with numbers seems to encourage knee-jerk assessments.
The 2022 Rangers were a young team. Taveras, Jung, Thompson, Smith, Duran, Huff and Ragans all spent significant portions of the season in the minor leagues. Except for Jung, who had about a month in the majors, they all got an extended look.
So ignore their youthful statistics. Taveras is going to be a good offensive player; he’s already excellent on defense.
The team needs a power-hitting left fielder. It needs a top closer (hello Edwin Diaz?) and it needs two solid starting pitchers. It has the money and a deep minor league system to fill those needs.
Both Seager and Semien had slow starts — the whole team did. But the two recovered and were both playing like All-Stars in the second half.
This team is not that far from being a contender again. I say “again” because a lot of you apparently forget that the general manager you disparaged built World Series teams in 2010-11 and three other playoff teams.
It has taken six lousy seasons to rebuild but the foundation is there. It’s going to be an interesting off-season in Texas.
Oh, the fired guy? The guy who built an 11 year post season series win drought on the way out the door? He was a genius.
BigFly 21 in NFL forums:
How dare you disparage Jerry Jones! He was the GM of a team that won a SuperBowl sometime in my lifetime! He’s hosted playoff losses a few times in the last 25 years! Nevermind that he has no clue on what being a GM is or that the franchise has been a laughingstock for decades – by God he won something in my lifetime!