Friday Newsletter time: Not a big believer in team chemistry? Rangers GM Chris Young might change your mind.
The former MLB pitcher said the best teams he played for, including a World Series winner, had terrific cultures.
Chris Young is four weeks shy of his one-year anniversary as general manager of the Texas Rangers, and Year One didn’t go the way he or the team wanted.
But he found some positives amid the 102 losses, the biggest of which he said was actually surviving 162 games and putting the season behind them. An offseason spending spree is looming, and a group of prospects should start filling up the roster in 2022.
Excitement is building.
The newcomers, both prospects and those who will be acquired via free agency or trades, will join a team that has its culture in place.
That was another of the critical accomplishments in 2021, Young said Thursday on the Texas Rangers Baseball Podcast. All winning teams know how to work and also want to put in the work for the greater good and for their teammates.
“Going back to all good teams I’ve been a part of — whether it was in high school, college, the minor leagues and into the professional ranks — there were certain similarities and traits that those teams exhibited, and that was a respect for each other, a respect for the game and playing the game the right way,” Young said.
“I’m a firm believer in that. It’s up to us to choose the right personnel that embody those traits but also to create the environment and expectation and to set a really high standard for everybody.”
Players don’t play in a vacuum. Not every player is a fits on every roster. Chemistry is real, Young said, and the Rangers are building toward it. It’s not just the players who played for them in 2021 who are part of the formula, but also players in the minor leagues have created it.
"I understand it’s hard for fans to understand that when we’ve lost 102 games, but nobody here was satisfied with the results and our players weren’t satisfied,” said Young, who was hired Dec. 4, 2020.
“To the contrary, I’ve been on other teams that were under .500 and there was a complacency. That’s the difference between good organizations and ones that really can’t climb out of these things.”
Young believes that chemistry in baseball is more important than in any other sport. Players spend more time with their teammates during a season, beginning in spring training, than they do with their families.
They have to like each other and pull for each other, as Young’s 2015 World Series-winning Kansas City Royals did, or there will be problems.
"If you don’t have a group that really gets along, that cares for one another, if you have guys that don’t fit in or are distractions, they take away from the environment,” Young said.
Another strong outing
Owen White continues to blaze a path toward being the top pitcher this year in the Arizona Fall League.
The Texas Rangers’ second-round pick in 2018 allowed one run Wednesday in 4 1/3 innings to improve to 4-0. His ERA actually went up, to 1.40, and he walked four, which prevented him from hitting five innings, but he’s been terrific.
White missed much of the regular season with the broken hand in the season opener after he punched the ground following a throwing error. The right-hander should make two more starts before the Fall League season ends Nov. 20.
Infielder Ezequiel Duran (.986 OPS) continues to pace the three Rangers position players on the team, and 6-foot-10 right-hander Spencer Mraz has a team-best three saves.
Card of the Week
In honor of the World Series-winning Atlanta Braves, this week’s Card of the Week is the rookie card of their best player, though he technically isn’t on their roster right now.
It’s free-agent first baseman Freddie Freeman and his 2011 Topps Series 1 card, No. 145.
The general consensus is that Freeman will return to the Braves, the only team so far in his career. He has won an MVP and a Gold Glove, which he attributes to the work he did with Braves infield coach Ron Washington, and now a World Series.
Freeman is 32 years old. He has been to the postseason four straight seasons, with a fifth on the horizon if he re-signs with the Braves.
Could another contender woo him? Maybe. Could a 102-loss team that won’t contend in 2022 woo him? Seems doubtful.
If the Rangers want to upgrade at first base, they should check in with the Oakland A’s to see if Matt Olson is available via trade. It might cost a load of prospects and would require immediate extension talks, but might be worth it.
Doggy video!
I’m not sure which is funnier, the attempt to get away or how the dog got away. Enjoy. See you Monday.
Sign a SS quickly and then see if Freeman is interested.
Like Chris Young's comments and he is absolutely correct. You can have a great player (A-Rod comes to mind) but unless there is chemistry with the team it doesn't matter if he hits 52 HRs. Tom Landry said it right when asked if Tony Dorsett was going to start as a rookie. He said, "He starts when the teams says he starts."