Rangers set sights on back-to-back titles
Texas wants to ‘make history,’ end WS repeat drought
SURPRISE, Ariz. – Future Hall of Fame pitcher Max Scherzer won’t pitch again for the Texas Rangers until at least June.
Two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom is out until at least August.
Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe has an oblique strain that likely will sideline him for a month, requiring the first injured list stint of his career.
All-Star shortstop Corey Seager (sports hernia) and third baseman Josh Jung (left calf strain) have been injured all spring.
Their two top draft picks of the past two years, starters Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker, likely won’t be ready to pitch in the big leagues this season.
And Rangers owner Ray Davis, at least for now, refuses to bring back postseason pitching hero Jordan Montgomery on a lucrative free agent contract with no TV contract past this season.
But worry?
Uh-uh.
These are the defending World Series champions. They sneer at adversity and swat off obstacles like summer mosquitoes, just like they did over and over last season.
“I really feel good about our world championship,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy tells USA TODAY Sports. “They have something now for the rest of their lives, including Ray Davis and ownership. It’s just the gift that keeps on giving. We have the confidence now that we can play with anybody and pitch with everybody. We got over that last hurdle. The expectations are different for us now.
“The standards are different. “When we start the season, we’ll have the ring ceremony and all of that hoopla, but that’s when you realize it’s over. It’s time to get to work and win another one.”
This is a team that blew more games than any other team to ever reach the postseason. Bochy’s Rangers lost the American League West title on the final day of the regular season. They had to
travel from Seattle to Tampa for the wildcard series. They had to fly to Baltimore for the next series. They had to face the defending World Series champion Houston Astros in the AL championship series. And then face the red-hot Arizona Diamondbacks in the World Series.
And then they laughed all the way home to Texas.
“Everyone counted us out last year, but these guys never gave up,” Bochy said. “They never dwelled on their losses. They just went out and worked. That’s what impressed me the most – their resiliency. They were unfazed the entire time.”
Yep, just like their manager, hired after a two-year layoff last season, who proved why those four World Series championship rings on his hands are hardly a fluke.
“The best move they made was Bruce Bochy,” Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington, who led the Rangers to back-to-back AL pennants in 2010-11, told reporters before their game against Texas. “He’s everything as far as a leader goes. If you can’t follow Bruce, there’s nobody on earth you can follow. “And those guys will follow his lead.” Never once, the Rangers players will
tell you, did he ever look remotely worried, reminding them all along that this was a team capable of winning the World Series.
And, on the night of Nov. 1, 2023, they believed him, winning their first title since the franchise moved to Texas 52 years ago.
“You know what, he’s a tough read,” outfielder Travis Jankowski says. “He’s always the same. So you never really know if he’s stressing or not. He always seems to be in a good mood. That’s one of the reasons he helped us out so much.
“He could have been a duck on top of the water with those feet flailing, but that’s kudos to Boch for keeping his poker face on there no matter what he’s gone through, and just being the same guy every day, and not showing any panic if there was any.”
This spring, Rangers players now know his personality quirks, his slow walks to the mound, and the leadership qualities that has a Hall of Fame plaque awaiting him.
Sure, they’re facing plenty of obstacles this season. They aren’t even favored to win their own division. But Bochy has them believing they can become the first team since the New York Yankees
a quarter-century ago to win backto-back World Series.
“Things are more relaxed,” veteran starter Jon Gray says, “but he tells us to have our eyes forward this year. Last year was great, but you can’t let it get in the way this year.”
This, of course, is the fourth time Bochy will try to go back-to-back. The Giants never returned to the postseason the year after winning a World Series, although their 2011 team, going 86-76, could have had a deep run if not for the season-ending injury to future Hall of Fame catcher Buster Posey.
Bochy, 68, wishes there were lessons he learned along the way to end the backto-back drought. It was never a matter of overconfidence.
“Even in those years in San Francisco, I felt like we were hungry,” he says. “We did all we could. It just goes to show you so much has to go right. One, you have to stay healthy. Guys have to have their normal years with a surprise or two.”
Inside the clubhouse, no one is talking about the past, only the future.
“It’s great playing for him because what he’s done here so far,” Gray says, “and his mind for baseball. It’s not about eye-wash stuff. He leaves it up to a lot of veterans to take care of a lot of things.”
If there’s a problem, it will be subtly addressed. Nothing lingers.
The Giants, they’ll tell you, never had the most talented team during those three championship years, but no one had a better clubhouse culture.
“Sometimes you lose sight that we’re playing for a championship because of contracts and individual things,” All-Star second baseman Marcus Semien says, “and he understands in the middle of the season to address that. He says, ‘Hey, just focus on winning baseball games, playing for each other, and everything will take care of itself.’
“He just feels certain things before it happens.”
They won the World Series last year with just six combined victories and 75 innings from Scherzer and deGrom, while Montgomery didn’t make his first start for the Rangers until Aug. 4.
So why not the Rangers? “We’ve got room for improvement,” Bochy said. “We didn’t win our division last year, and honestly that was a gut punch. So, you try to get better. We know how difficult it is to repeat, but I know this: We’ve got a chance. It’s what I’m looking forward to.
“It’s what these guys are looking forward to.”