Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Rangers still basking in glory of 2023
FORT WORTH — The Texas Rangers could finish 0-162 this season, and not a single fan would complain, whine or call for a person’s head. Complaining, blaming and finger-pointing is for 2025. All of 2024 is for celebrating. These Texas Rangers players probably don’t even know it, but they’re done. All of them.
Their individual careers may be years away from ending, but their legacies are pretty much all complete. All of them. When a player contributes to something that has never been done before, chances are good that is how they will be remembered.
The 2024 MLB season begins this week, and the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers (still sounds weird) open Thursday night at home against, quite appropriately, the Chicago Cubs.
If any team can relate to what the Texas Rangers are experiencing, it’s the franchise that made losing chic.
The Rangers’ level of futility was only a few decades short of reaching the level of the Chicago Cubs, but, in a way, it was almost worse. Enhanced by a home park that is a museum, the Cubs were internationally sympathetic, whereas the Rangers owned national irrelevance like few sports franchises.
That changed last November when the Rangers won their first World Series, against Arizona in five games. The team and its fans are still aglow from a playoff run that created crates full of memories.
But that’s what they are. Memories. Great ones. And, they’re in the past.
The ‘23 Texas Rangers made history, and now the task for the ‘24 Rangers is to be historic. To become one of those rarest of groups that does it again.
For the long suffering fans of the Rangers, and there are so many, this season’s team doesn’t need to do it. All of the players, coaches and front office people who were a part of that ‘23 team will forever remain in good standing with the Rangers fans.
If this team wants to do it, they can be historic beyond what they did last season.
In the history of the World Series, 14 teams have won back-toback titles. The last to do it was the New York Yankees, who ripped off three in a row from 1998 to 2000.
Rangers primary owner Ray Davis repeatedly said after the World Series win that this team is built for long-term success. That wasn’t just some standard empty sales rhetoric. He’s right. This team is built to be good for an extended period of time.
Manager Bruce Bochy has two years remaining on his contract, and at 68 he may be at a year-toyear point in his career. As much as he may have missed the game in his four-year “retirement,” he’s not apt to stick around a loser. Or a rebuild. The Rangers are neither. The Rangers are built to win for a while. Their offense, and defense, should be near the top of baseball.
Shortstop Corey Seager is 29, second baseman Marcus Semien is 33, outfielder Evan Carter is 21, third baseman Josh Jung is 26, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe is 26, catcher Jonah Heim is 28, outfielder Leody Taveres is 25 and outfielder Adolis Garcia is 31.
There will always be questions/ concerns about pitching and health. A few injuries can wreck any team, and turn a winner into a loser quickly. Bullpens all over baseball have become monthly trials of arms that are ticking Tommy John surgery time bombs.
The Rangers’ bullpen last season was a mess, and a perfectly good reason why that team could ultimately lose in the playoffs. In the final month of the regular season, the relievers figured it out, roles were established, and they became reliable in October.
It can’t be stated enough how many runs the defense saved Rangers pitchers last season, especially in the playoffs.
According to Las Vegas oddsmakers, the Rangers have the sixthbest chance to win the 2024 World Series. Proceed as you wish with your money.
Whatever the Rangers do this season is free money. They don’t need to do much of anything. Their fans will be perfectly OK with 0-162.
If these Rangers want to win another World Series, they are built to do it again.
If they do, we won’t be surprised this time. They’ve done it before.