Sports Illustrated - World Series Commemorative
LEAP OF FAITH
THE FRANCHISE WON ITS FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER MAKING A GROUP COMMITMENT TO ACHIEVING THE UNPRECEDENTED
ORangers general manager Chris Young introduced the biggest free-agent haul Texas had ever seen. His front office had just committed more than half a billion dollars to some of the best players on the market. Before he introduced shortstop Corey Seager, second baseman Marcus Semien and pitcher Jon Gray, however, Young had something to address.
He had to explain why on Earth these players had wanted to join the Rangers.
“In each meeting, we’ve been authentic,” Young said. “We’ve been transparent. We were a 102-loss team [in 2021]. We haven’t run from that. But we have a vision, we have a plan and this is how we’re going to accomplish it. Does this scare you? Do you want to be part of this? Do you want to do something special that’s never been done in Texas Ranger history?”
The Rangers were coming off their worst season in nearly half a century. They had not won a playoff series in a decade. In 60 years as a franchise, from Washington to Texas, they had never won a World Series. Young was right: There was no running from that. But perhaps there was something to run toward. He believed this group could win that elusive title. And he’d convinced Seager and Semien and Gray to join the fight.
And they would get there. Though not without some dramatic turns.
N DEC. 1, 2021,
The Rangers would first suffer through another losing season in 2022, fire both manager Chris Woodward and president of baseball operations Jon Daniels, lure Bruce Bochy out of retirement, sign more big free agents the next winter and make a splash at the trade deadline the following summer. They would still fail to win their division in ’23. But from a wild-card slot, they would put together the best road performance in postseason history and they would end up just where Young had hoped they might at that press conference in December ’21.
They would win that first World Series, and they would do it with key contributions from Seager, Semien and Gray.
“It was a lot of trust,” Seager ref lected after Game 5. “A lot of trust from them to me and me to them, and a
and have the potential to be in this position now.”
There were 700 days between Seager’s introductory press conference and the one in which he met with reporters after being named World Series MVP. No one directly asked him about the questions Young had posed almost two years before. But his answers told the story. The state of the Rangers when he came to Arlington hadn’t scared him, he said. It had motivated him.
“When I found out they had never won here, that was something that intrigued me,” Seager said. “To be able to start at the bottom and try and build something and compete.”
Soaked in celebratory beer and champagne, MVP trophy in his possession, Seager finished his thought.
“To be able to do it,” he said, “is really satisfying.”