Hello World Champions!

I can't even begin to describe how excited I am. Twelve years ago our hearts were ripped out in the 2011 World Series, and now here we are celebrating our Texas Rangers being the 2023 World Series Champions! I'm so glad my wife talked me into going. I would have forever regretted not being there to see the Rangers seal the deal.

Now, let's get the off-season started. We got a lot of work ahead us and many questions that need answering pertaining to how we defend our title.

What SP do we retain? Who could we acquire?

What pieces do we retain in the bullpen? Who do we let go? Who could we acquire?

Do we need a more consistent bat at 1B?

Is Ohtani realistic?

What players in the lower levels could we realistically see next season?

I think that is a good start for the discussion.

Congrats again everyone! I am going to remember this forever

Cody Bellinger and Michael Wacha

You guys think Ray Davis enjoyed that so much he will break out the wallet again while CY makes some crafty trades? We have deep infield capital.

Ohtani makes a ton of sense for him and the Rangers. Too much so that it won't happen.

I like Lowe at first, if he continues to play defense like he did this year. His bat is more than serviceable, only a season removed from hitting .300. I also think he's a huge part of the culture, which is invaluable.

The outfield is going to be tricky. I like Taveres, but I can't help but think he could fetch a decent bullpen arm. So with the right offer, I'd be good with moving him, moving Carter back to centerfield.

I expect Carter to come back down to earth and maybe even struggle quite a bit next year. I'm guessing he will continue to sit against lefties until major improvement happens. Adding a right handed outfielder that gets on base would sure be nice.

I'm all for signing Monty and resigning Heaney (at a fair price). Monty will have a decision to make, does he chase a possibly bigger payday, or stay to win another title? Unless, Ohtani is a real option, I expect CYoung to make Monty his biggest priority.

Bullpen. These guys are all so fickle, who really knows. I'd honestly like to just see closer by committee going into next season. Adding arms via trade seems likely. I don't care to overspend on unknowns, unless it's Hader.

Outside of Langford, Walcott and Gutierrez, I'm good moving anyone on the farm.

To baseline things - our UFAs, followed by expected value - N/A if no expected value was quoted.

Jordan Montgomery SP/ SP2 - Age 30.8 - $18,407,467
Martin Perez SP/ SP5 - Age 32.5 - $10,567,887
Aroldis Chapman RP/ SU8 - Age 35.7 - $7,102,369
Will Smith RP/CL - Age 34.2 - $6,577,200
Chris Stratton RP - Age 33.2 - $4,516,185
Jake Odorizzi SP - Age 33.6 - N/A
Ian Kennedy RP - Age 38.8 - N/A

Mitch Garver C - Age 32 - $10,018,410
Robbie Grossman RF - Age 34.- $7,044,609
Austin Hedges C - Age 31.2 - $4,266,420
Brad Miller LF/ 2B - Age 34.0 - $2,254,033
Travis Jankowski LF - Age 32.3 - N/A


Player Option
Andrew Heaney SP - Age 32.3 - Option is $13,000,000, expected value is $13,751,337

Club Option
Jose Leclerc RP - Age 29.8 - Option is $6,300,000, expected value is $10,650,250

Just for reference and tracking purposes for everyone!
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/TEX/texas-rangers-salaries-and-contracts.shtml

Pg1?

fc2112 said:

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I don't think we need t spend the $$$ on Ohtani. Our offense is good enough.

Where does he play - left field? Wyatt Langford will be there next year.

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Ohtani was a SP in which they moved the rotation around for him.

Other than that he was a DH. He really didn't play OF.

I think having Ohtani would be a nice luxury, but I think it would take too much accommodating him. Would our rotation be willing to be bumped or moved to get him on a normal rotation? Maybe.

PatriotAg02 said:

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Ready to digest the first DallasAg essay about next year........

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Had some ready, but looks like other have inserted some additional information, so I'll spend some time just responding to other's comments. I'm a good listener, so I'm going to let others take the lead.

Page one!

Page One!

Brad 98 said:

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I think Ohtani is realistic. I could see W Langford coming up in late April or early May to move to left field and Carter takes over center. I wonder if we can get anything for Leody

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I mentioned late in the season that the Rangers could move Leody or Adolis in the offseason. I think Adolis is off the table.

I think Taveras (25.055) has some huge value. He is a Serf3 in 2024 and has 3 years of Arb. So, 4 years of team control.

1st Half: 76G, .295, 10HR, 9 SB, .339 OBP, .812 OPS
2nd Half: 67G, .233, 4HR, 5 SB, .281 OBP, .642 OPS

2023 Total: 143G, .266, 14 HR, 14 SB.

He went 0-16 in the WS, but had an OBP of .354 in the WC, DS, and CS. Post-Season experience... a played CF for a freaking WS Ring...

On the one hand... he is young enough he could develop to be a .300/20HR/20SB guy. I'm mixed about moving him. His post-season experience could elevate his regular season play.

Can Langford step in? If he can, I think we can get a couple legit prospects for Taveras.

Maybe Langford is our #4 and we watch Leody play himself into a trade of substantial value at the deadline and Langford takes LF moving Carter to CF.

Big moves like that are how you sustain the future.

Danny Vermin said:

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You guys think Ray Davis enjoyed that so much he will break out the wallet again while CY makes some crafty trades? We have deep infield capital.

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I didn't hear it, but somebody on the Radio said during the awarding ceremony that Davis said they weren't done. They implied that he wants to build the type of dynasty the Astros "think" they have built.

Over the past couple weeks, the question has come up about Monty, on the radio. The general belief is that we will be part of the discussions for him.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Duran and Josh Smith. Duran has shown he can handle SS. 37G while Seager was out. He played 22 at 3B.

2023 (24.164): 122G, .276, 14HR, 8 SB, .324 OBP.
Duran will be a Serf2 in 2024, so he'll have 5 years of team control.

Mar 2022 we traded IKF for Garver. It was around IKF's 27th Bday and he was an Arb1. He is now a FA.

I'd be interested to see what Duran is worth.

Pagina uno!

Lt. Joe Bookman said:

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Such a great season with an incredibly fun team to watch. Let's get another!


I'm excited to see a full year of work of Scherzer.

deGrom isn't back until the second half of the season at the earliest, correct?

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It was lots of fun to watch.

I'm concerned about Scherzer. If his injury was not a result of getting hit, that's concerning.

deGrom likely makes an appearance, but my expectations coming back from TJ is, he'll likely help in 2025.

Sticking to pitching... Leclerc is also a concern. Apparently he was supposed to close out G6. It came out that he reported tightness as the reason Sborz finished. It was also said that his Velo was down 3mph in G5. Could just be tired and over used in the Post-Season. But, when we've heard tightness and reduced Velo... that's never been good.

It would not surprise me with going deep into the year, if Max and Leclerc started the season slower than normal and maybe IL to start.

Did you see tightness somewhere? I heard Sborz say last night that Leclerc was sore. Sounded to me it was a matter of pitching back to back nights. But of course that is speculation