Rangers’ vision coaxed deGrom
ARLINGTON — Twotime Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom sees the vision of what the Texas Rangers want to do, not their streak of six consecutive losing seasons and being more than a decade removed from their only World Series appearances.
“The Rangers did a great job with constant communication and making me feel like they really wanted me here,” deGrom said Thursday. “The vision was the same, build something great, and win year in and year out.”
DeGrom is the latest big-money add — on a five-year, $185 million deal — for the Rangers as they try to turn things around. They nabbed deGrom last Friday before baseball’s winter meetings starting.
After completing his physical and the contract in Texas, he was even able to make it for a previously planned Christmas outing with his wife and two small children to Disney World, which is where he was when his signing with Texas was announced last week.
The 34-year-old righthander spent the first nine years of his career with the New York Mets, who won 101 games last season. His arrival comes an offseason after the Rangers made a pricey, long-term commitment to middle infielders Corey Seager (10 years, $325 million) and Marcus Semien (seven years, $175 million), then went 68-94.
Odds and ends
The Mets brought back outfielder Brandon Nimmo on an eight-year, $162 million contract and added reliever David Robertson on a one-year, $12 million deal. … Trea Turner’s 11-year, $300 million contract with the Phillies was finalized Thursday after the AllStar shortstop passed his physical. Turner gets salaries of $27,272,727 in each of the next 10 seasons and $27,272,730 in 2033 . ... Righthanded reliever Chris Martin and the Red Sox finalized a two-year, $17.5 million contract The 36-year-old went 4-1 with two saves and a 3.05 ERA for the Cubs and Dodgers last season . ... The Dodgers signed outfielder Jason Heyward to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training.