ARLINGTON, Texas — They have all but perfected this part. On Thursday afternoon, on the airy concourse at Globe Life Field, marched a procession of Rangers ticket sales reps, marketing execs, front office officials and a gaggle of players who have been using the place for offseason workouts.
Among them, smiling more broadly than they have since they were on the dais up on the concourse 12 months ago: Marcus Semien and Corey Seager.
And finally: A trio of Jacob deGrom, Bruce Bochy and giant of a GM, Chris Young. We mean giant in the literal sense, at least for the time being. But it’s worth noting his height since the size differential wasn’t nearly as pronounced when standing beside the lanky 6-4 new ace and the sturdy 6-3 new manager.
It was quite the spectacle up there, but they’ve had practice, using the concourse in the last 18 months to introduce Jack Leiter, Semien and Seager, Bochy and now, at long last, the bona fide free agent ace they’ve sought since Bob Short told Washington he was taking the Senators to Texas.
Now, the next step — moving the good show from the concourse down to the playing field.
Once again, for those who haven’t been paying attention, the giant of a GM echoed what he said at season’s end, at the GM meetings, on the night the Rangers announced the deGrom signing and again this week at the winter meetings.
“Our full expectation is not just a winning record, but we expect to push for a spot in the playoffs,” Young said when the question was asked yet again, which is understandable since the club hasn’t won in six years.
When Young says it, though, it does sound believable. There is a sincerity and earnestness in his voice and there has been resolution to the team’s moves.
It helps to have Ray Davis’ bank account to back it up, of course. Davis has committed at least $789 million — over $800 million if contracts are optimized — to free agents over the last 13 months. The Rangers’ current projected payroll is $172.5 million and they still freely admit they are still looking for an outfielder (hey, maybe deGrom’s old teammate, Michael Conforto, may also share deGrom’s vision). They could use a relief arm or two. The payroll is already the largest in team history and likely headed toward the cusp of $200 million when all is said and done. Money certainly talks.
But the sales job still takes a convincing vision both to get ownership and free agents to commit. Especially when you are asking a pitcher who spent the 2022 season with an organization that won 101 games to join one that averaged 98 losses the last two. Young, who spent more than a decade in the big leagues and won a World Series, can apparently relate the vision without a lot of fluff. He knows what it takes.
“It was the vision of building something special and winning for a long time,” deGrom said when asked why he instructed his agents to tell the Rangers he wanted to move forward last week after a pre-Thanksgiving Zoom with Young and Bochy. “I want to play this game for a long time and want to win. Hearing that from both [Young and Bochy] and everybody, including [Davis] having the same vision, things just lined up
“Seeing what they were doing and the pieces they were adding, if the goal is to make the playoffs and win a World Series, you set a vision, a goal and expectations,” he added. “Ask any of these guys here today: ‘What is the goal?’ The goal is to win World Series.”
But, it could be argued, had he stayed in New York with the Mets, the only team for which he has played, the goal would be reasonably closer. At least that was the question in New York. He was perhaps the most popular pitcher in the club’s history since Tom Seaver, and, yes, that counts Dwight Gooden’s time there. How could that guy pick up and leave CitiField, Mr. Met, the Edwin Diaz trombones and Nathan’s hot dogs for this? Whatever this is. As if nobody bolts other markets for more lucrative offers.
There have been rumblings that deGrom had grown unhappy in New York. He reportedly didn’t engage as much as he had earlier in his career. Two years of being dogged by regular questions about returning from injuries that you can’t answer can make any situation a little less appealing, particularly in a fishbowl setting like New York.
For his part, deGrom wasn’t really diving into any Mets-troversy on Thursday. The Mets universe is also probably mollified by the team’s signing of Justin Verlander. From their perspective, the Mets lost two Cy Youngs when deGrom signed with the Rangers and they picked up three with Verlander.
“I wouldn’t be here without the Mets,” he said. “And I have to thank them for that. They will always hold a special place in my heart. From ownership to teammates to fans, they made me feel welcome there. But this is the business part of baseball and I see something we are building here that I want to be a part of.”
Asked a bit later about leaving New York, deGrom was quickly whisked off to a TV interview. He was on the concourse to talk about a future that looked bright from up there.
Now he and the Rangers just have to take it down to the field.
