SURPRISE, Ariz. — One magical morning this spring on the back fields behind Surprise Stadium, Jacob deGrom made his debut in a Rangers uniform in a Triple-A game.
A couple of hundred feet away, Nathan Eovaldi did the same, in a Double-A game on a neighboring field. As I walked the 50 or so steps between the two diamonds at inning breaks, I couldn’t help but get caught up in the significance of the moment. And because this is how my brain works, I kept thinking of that moment in the movie “Almost Famous” when Penny Lane — played by Kate Hudson — says, “It’s all happening!”
That should be the motto for the Rangers’ upcoming season.
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The dream of getting back to playoff contention in 2023 and beyond, the one fueled by a jaw-dropping series of contracts handed out by ownership the past two offseasons, was coming together. Last offseason, they shocked the baseball world by signing two elite free-agent shortstops, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. But their 2022 rotation was mostly a disaster, so they went out and signed deGrom and Eovaldi, along with landing Andrew Heaney and bringing back Martin Perez to team with Jon Gray, who was solid when healthy in his first year with Texas.
“When we signed the big arms,” first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who hit 27 home runs to go with a .302 average and 141 OPS+ last season, told The Sporting News, “it was like, ‘That’s what we need!’ That’s no knock on the guys we have in-house, but we added arguably the best right-handed starter in baseball, and other guys who have had a lot of success everywhere they’ve been. It’s cool to see the front office and ownership is addressing a dire need.”
For most of the past decade, the Rangers have been a mid-level team struggling with their own limitations in the harsh face of the stardom of an Astros franchise that passed them by. So what’s different now? Why are the Rangers suddenly attracting — and landing — so many big names in the offseason?
Basically, money. When you look at the additions, there’s not much in the way of below-market-value deals, and a lot of offer-you-can’t-refuse deals. After the 2021 season, Seager got 10 years and $325 million, Semien signed for seven years and $175 million and Gray surprised lots of folks — especially his former team in Colorado — when he got four years and $56 million.
That was just the beginning. This offseason, deGrom (34 years old) got a five-year, $185 million deal, Eovaldi (33) got two years and $34 million, Heaney (31) got two years and $25 million, despite a career 4.56 ERA and that he spent more than half of the 2022 season on the injured list.
This phase of the Rangers’ rebuild has been designed by former All-Star pitcher Chris Young, the Princeton grad who is now the executive vice president and general manager. A big piece of the puzzle was hiring the right manager to make this influx of newness work.
Enter Bruce Bochy.
Bochy has long had a reputation as a player’s manager, and that helps. Is it the primary reason the Rangers were able to have a great offseason? No, that’s still about the money, but hiring Bochy immediately — the Rangers made that official before the start of the World Series last October — certainly didn’t hurt.
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After his start against Triple-A hitters, deGrom was asked whether he’d felt the need to ask around about Bochy before signing up to play on his team the next couple of seasons.
“No, not really. I know (Madison) Bumgarner a little bit, and he has always said great things about him,” deGrom said. “Played against the Giants when I first came up, had him for an All-Star Game and was able to talk to him there. Everybody who played for him said great things. I didn’t really reach out, but just knowing what he’s done in this game, and that guys who stick around a long time and are managers for a long time, they normally are pretty well liked.”
Not every manager could get the best out of so many players with big bank accounts. Three players are making at least $26 million, and another five are making at least $12 million. The number that guarantees everyone listens when Bochy speaks: 3, as in his three World Series championships (2010, 2012 and 2014) with the Giants.
“Anybody I can learn from … you can never know all there is to know in this game,” deGrom said. “He’s been around a long time, and I’ve been able to pick his brain a little bit. Same with Mike (Maddux, the pitching coach).”
Bochy has liked what he’s seen so far.
“I love the vibe. These guys have really done a good job of helping to create that vibe, and that’s how it works,” he said. “It’s not something you can mandate. It’s something you do work at, and these guys have done that. They’re getting to know each other. You’ll see when one of them takes a pen, there’s a lot of them around. They’re out there watching the starter warm up, things like that. That’s important, especially when you have a lot of changes.”
So, yeah, the gap in the AL West is closing. The Astros are still far and away the division favorites, but a Texas squad that won 60 and 68 games in 2021 and 2022, respectively, figures to push well north of the .500 mark. If healthy, the Rangers could challenge the Mariners and possibly even the Angels for wild-card spots out of the AL West.
Last year, after the club signed Seager and Semien, some fans (and prognosticators) fooled themselves into thinking the Rangers could have possibly competed for a wild-card berth. It didn’t take many weeks or months of watching the starting rotation to realize that wasn’t realistic. This year, it is realistic. The pitching staff could be, to borrow another “Almost Famous” line, incendiary. That is, again, assuming the group stays healthy, which is far from a certainty.
The two rotation holdovers, Gray and Perez, made 24 and 32 starts, respectively. But deGrom made only 11 starts for the Mets, Eovaldi made only 20 for the Red Sox and Heaney made 14 (with a couple of September relief appearances) for the Dodgers.
So this spring, the focus has been on health. The debuts for deGrom and Eovaldi were pushed back because of minor, best-to-be-cautious injuries. But the veterans they are, they’ve just folded that into the whole getting-to-know you process.
“For the most part, I’m usually the new guy coming into an organization where they’ve already got everything established,” Eovaldi told TSN about an hour after his Double-A start. “But this year, with Heaney, (Jake) Odorizzi, deGrom, myself, we’ve got a lot of big pieces coming into the mix. And it’s tough when we’re injured at times, had little setbacks. We’re just getting that confidence working with everybody.”
So the rotation is set. In his two spring starts against MLB competition, deGrom — who is the club’s Opening Day starter — had a 0.00 ERA, with 10 strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. Eovaldi had a 2.35 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings, Perez had a 3.00 ERA in two starts, Gray didn’t allow an earned run in 13 2/3 spring innings and Heaney struck out 14 in 12 innings, though he did have a couple of rough outings.
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The bullpen has late-inning options, but no established closer, at least not yet. Jose Leclerc is probably atop the mix, along with Joe Barlow, Jonathan Hernandez and even veteran Will Smith, who signed after spring training started.
The top of the lineup is impressive, with last year’s free-agent shockers, Semien and Seager, taking as many ABs as possible. Then Lowe, who was better than anyone outside of Texas noticed, and Adolis Garcia, who has 58 homers and 41 stolen bases the past two seasons.
After that, though, less certainty. Josh Jung is a dark-horse Rookie of the Year contender at third base, and Johan Heim hit 16 home runs at catcher last year. The Rangers would love Mitch Garver to find the power stroke he had in 2019, when he hit 31 homers in 93 games for the Twins. Speedy second-year outfielder Bubba Thompson, who had 67 stolen bases last year — 49 in Triple-A, 18 in the bigs — could be a big-time threat on the basepaths, if he can consistently get on base.
So, yeah. Things are looking up in Texas. The Rangers have been aggressive in the offseason, and expect another big move or two around the trade deadline, if they’ve stayed healthy and are in contention, as they expect. Another big bat would be welcome.
After that? Maybe, hopefully, important baseball in September for the first time since 2016. That’s when Rangers fans could really know it’s all happening for real, not just in spring training.