The Texas Rangers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 on Wednesday night to clinch the first championship in their history. This capped off an exciting postseason in major league baseball and leads into what will be an intriguing offseason - of course, headlined by the free agency of Shohei Ohtani. There's a lot to unpack about the Rangers' season and their roster construction. Here are some thoughts on what we learned from the series.
Bruce Bochy
Texas manager Bruce Bochy won his 4th World Series championship. He won three times as the skipper of the San Francisco Giants - 2010, 2012, and 2014. This win clearly places him among the greatest managers in baseball history. Only three managers have won more championships than Bochy, and they all coached before anyone had heard of The Beatles. Also, pitching coach Mike Maddux (Greg's brother) deserves a shoutout. He was with the Rangers during their early 2010s World Series losses and returned this year to lead a highly effective pitching staff.
Nathan Eovaldi
The Rangers pitcher earned his MLB record 5th win of this year's postseason. This was his second championship, as he also won in 2018 with Boston. This dude is incredibly clutch. Per Baseball Reference, in his playoff career he's posted a 9-3 record with a 3.05 ERA in 79.2 innings. The Rangers signed him in the 2022 offseason to a 2-year contract with an option for a third year.
Corey Seager and Marcus Semien
During the free agency period in late-November 2021, the Rangers surprised the baseball world by signing these two stars on back-to-back days. Shortstop Seager signed a massive contract for 10 years, $325 million dollars and Second Baseman Semien signed for 7 years, $175 million dollars (Spotrac). This immediately changed the clubhouse culture for Texas, and in just one day their competitive window opened up. On Wednesday, Seager won his second World Series MVP award and Semien blasted a resounding 2-run homerun in the 9th inning off Paul Sewald to seal the win. Semien and Seager pace the Ranger lineup as the 1 and 2 hitters in the lineup and I expect them to continue to do so in the coming years. It was fitting that the TV first captured the embrace of these two when the Rangers recorded the final out of the game.
Evan Carter
At the start of this season, Texas Left Fielder Evan Carter was playing AA ball and was not yet old enough to (legally) drink. Now, he's a playoff hero, making excellent defensive plays and batting third in the Rangers' high-powered lineup. Carter finished this postseason batting .300 with 6 RBIs and a .917 OPS. It's not often that we see a rookie ballplayer step up in the manner Carter has. He deserves a ton of credit. Carter was a 2nd Round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft for the Rangers.
Will Smith
Rangers' relief pitcher Will Smith has won three straight World Series championships! He was with Atlanta in 2021 and Houston in 2022. This guy is going into free agency now, so teams should be lining up to sign him and be automatically guaranteed to win it all next year.
The Diamondbacks
Every time we see a young team like this advance deep into the playoffs and they lose, we say, "They've got a great young core and they'll be back here in the future." The DBacks have an exciting young core - Corbin Carroll, Gabriel Moreno, Alek Thomas, and Geraldo Perdomo all shined in big moments and are 24 and under. Druw Jones (Andruw's son) is in the minor leagues, but he is a star in the making. Ketel Marte was a baller the entire postseason, and he is under contract for at least 4 more years. However, I don't see them getting back to this stage again. First, they are in a division with the Dodgers and the Padres, who will always outspend Arizona to bring in more talent. Second, I have doubts about the Arizona pitching staff in the future. Merrill Kelly, Zac Gallen, and Brandon Pfaadt absolutely delivered when Arizona needed them this October. But Kelly is 35. Gallen is only under club control for 2 more seasons and should be a popular free agent in 2026. Pfaadt is still relatively unproven at this level and may have been on a Linsanity run. In the regular season he was 3-9 with a 5.72 ERA and 1.406 WHIP. Their top pitching prospects seem to be mid-rotation at best.
The Short Rebuild
This has been reported ad-nauseum by now, but Arizona and Texas both lost 100 games two seasons ago and have executed significant turnarounds thanks to sharp roster moves and development. I hope this will inspire decision makers around baseball to do the same and to be more aggressive in improving their squads. Here's a short look at how Texas constructed their current core:
Signed: 2B Marcus Semien (2021), SS Corey Seager (2021), SP Jacob deGrom (2022), SP Nathan Eovaldi (2022), SP Jon Gray (2021), OF Robbie Grossman (2022)
Traded for Proven Guys: SP Max Scherzer (2023), SP Jordan Montgomery (2023), C/DH Mitch Garver (2022), RP Aroldis Chapman (2023)
Traded for Then Developed: OF Adolis Garcia, C Jonah Heim, IF Josh Smith, 1B Nate Lowe
The "Home-Grown" Guys: OF Evan Carter, RP Jose Leclerc, 3B Josh Jung, OF Leody Taveras
The Rangers went "all-in" during this season's trade deadline by adding Scherzer, Montgomery, and Chapman, all of whom had prior postseason experience. Montgomery, in particular, was crucial to their championship run. I also believe Texas deserves praise for the Mitch Garver trade, acquiring him for Isiah Kiner-Falefa and a prospect. Garver had a great regular season and followed it up in the playoffs, finishing with 14 postseason RBIs and 3 HRs.
Lastly, we should remember the Rangers trailed 3 games to 2 against the Houston Astros, a team with a mountain of playoff experience, then responded by winning two straight games on the road and outscoring Houston 20 to 6 in those games to advance. Congrats to the Rangers on a great season.
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