The Rangers spent more than half a billion dollars in new free-agent contracts last year — by far the largest outlay in baseball — and wound up losing 94 games anyway. But while it was not a successful year by any stretch of the imagination, many of those long-term deals set the foundation for the roster as Texas attempts to exit a long rebuilding cycle. And with a solid, if expensive, core to build the lineup around, it isn’t hard to see where the major holes on the roster are: the pitching staff. Last year, the Rangers allowed 4.59 runs per game, 23rd in the majors, and their starters put up ERA- and FIP- marks of 119 and 111, respectively. With Jon Gray essentially the only established option written in pen for the rotation, they have a lot of work to do this offseason.

To that end, the Rangers acquired Jake Odorizzi from the Braves in exchange for Kolby Allard on Wednesday. Atlanta will be covering $10 million of Odorizzi’s $12.5 million salary in 2023 after he exercised his player option prior to being dealt. The unique two-year deal that he signed with Houston in 2021 included a number of performance bonuses and escalating clauses that pushed his player option from a base of $6.5 million to the current $12.5 million salary the Rangers will pay. Those escalators also increased the size of the buyout on his option from $3.25 million to $6.25 million. By meeting all of the thresholds and maxing out his potential salary, his decision to exercise his option became an easy decision. To make things even sweeter, his player option for ‘23 also includes a number of performance bonuses that could increase his total salary to a maximum of $15.5 million.

Odorizzi will be joining his sixth organization in his 12th season as a big leaguer. Over the last two years, he’s posted a league- and park-adjusted ERA (104) and FIP (107) just a hair over league average across 45 starts and 211 innings. These past couple of seasons have been a bit of a disappointment after what seemed like a breakout season back in 2019, when he put up career-bests in FIP, strikeout rate, and WAR. Unfortunately, a host of minor injuries cost him most of the shortened 2020 season and have prevented him from pitching a full season since then. Last season, with a healthy starting rotation full of better options, the Astros traded him straight up for Will Smith (the reliever) at the trade deadline. Read the rest of this entry »

Intern, Baseball Operations

Location: Arlington, TX

Summary:
It’s fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they’re doing!

We’re committed to bringing passion and customer focus to the business.

The Texas Rangers Baseball Club is seeking interns for next season including a number of roles beginning in January or May.

Responsibilities would include but not limited to:

• Assist in maintaining database and querying reports, including but not limited to data entry, data quality assurance, database queries, and other administrative tasks as necessary.
• Assist Major League Operations Department in Arbitration preparation and maintaining payroll outlooks.
• Aid in the development of tools, outputs, and presentations that both inform and help shape execution strategy for key transactional processes, including but not limited to Free Agent Signings, Trade Acquisitions, Waiver Claims, and the Rule 4 Amateur Draft and the Rule 5 Draft.
• Conduct general baseball research and look-back analyses pertaining to industry trends, league economics, and various innovative topics within the baseball operations landscape.
• Area of interest project to be worked on throughout year.
• Participate in educational program that exposes individual to multiple departments within Baseball Operations along with tasks associated with said departments.
• Assist with daily administrative tasks within multiple departments of Baseball Operations.
• Prepare information and logistics for meetings and assist with administrative and research projects.
• Operate various technology during home games.
• Assist in logistical needs related to Amateur Draft, Trade Deadline, and rehab/transactional moves as needed.
• Exposure to all areas of Baseball Operations.
• All other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Ability to multitask in stressful situations.
• Ability to relocate to Dallas-Fort Worth area.
• Availability to work nights, weekends, and holidays.
• Completed or currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree.
• Demonstrated passion for baseball.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to develop and maintain relationships.
• Familiarity with advanced baseball statistics.
• Growth oriented, desire to learn.
• Must possess highly proficient skills in the use of Microsoft Office suite (Excel, Power Point).
• Strong administrative, organizational and communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail. Meticulously completes work assignments thoroughly and in an accurate, and prompt way.
• Experience in SQL, R, Python, Tableau is a plus.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of the job.

If you like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you’ll enjoy your career with us!

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Texas Rangers

Position: Player Development, Data Apprentice

The Texas Rangers are seeking multiple apprentices in Player Development. Each Apprentice will work with one of the Rangers’ minor league affiliates and report to the Minor League Video Coordinator. Apprentices will operate as an extension of the coaching staff and be a resource for both players and coaches. They are expected to manage the collection and application of data and technology at their respective affiliate and will gain experience across multiple areas of Baseball Operations.

Job Responsibilities:

Video & Technology Operation:

• Operate bat/ball tracking technology and baseball technology
• Capture game video and manage upload process for all games
• Gather high frame rate video of hitters and pitchers
• Manage data and collection process and assist with interpretation with coaches and players

Advance Scouting:

• Collaborate with coaching staff and player development staff to monitor player goals and player progress
• Conduct research and analysis, both at the request of staff and independently
• Use internal system tools to assist
• Communicate research in simple and concise manner to Minor League coaches, players, and Player Development staff

Systems Support:

• Support field staff with on-field responsibilities
• On field skills such as throwing BP is a plus
• Support field staff and players with coach education and various administration tasks
• Support Strength and Conditioning and Athletic Training staff to provide assistance and application to their fields of your finding

Education and Experience Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Demonstrated passion and understanding for biomechanics, pitching or hitting analysis or sports science.
• Spanish speaking a plus

Job Requirements:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Availability to start working in January 2023
• Ability to work seamlessly in teams
• Working knowledge of advanced baseball statistics and publicly available research
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office

To apply
Send an email with your interest to texasrangersda@gmail.com.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Texas Rangers.

I remember the first time I heard Marcus Semien talk about hitting. Coming off a fantastic season with the Blue Jays, he was a finalist for the AL MVP award along with teammate Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the eventual winner, Shohei Ohtani. Not many likely paid him much attention during his interviews on MLB Network’s award show; as you would expect, everybody was patiently waiting for Ohtani to talk about his historic season on a national stage. But in every Semien soundbite during his interview with Greg Amsinger, there was a fascinating tidbit about hitting and progressing through a season. Since then, I have looked at his at-bats differently.

That’s what made watching Semien in the first two months of the season mind-boggling. He was one of the worst hitters in baseball, with a 55 wRC+, and couldn’t keep the ball off the ground. I’m a big fan and supporter of his swing, but that performance had me doubting what his future would be. But the Rangers’ second baseman got hot in the early summer, posting a 137 wRC+ over June and July, and after an average August, his September has been one of the best months of his career, with a .337/.388/.589 line and a 177 wRC+.

Through all that, Semien’s hard-hit rate stayed consistent, including his awful start and two great months in June and July, but since hard-hit rate is strictly a measurement of exit velocity, that isn’t all that surprising. What is a shocker is how he’s nearly doubled that same rate month over month.

On the year, Semien ranks 95th in all of baseball in hard-hit rate, but in September, he has ascended to 15th among all qualified hitters. That type of jump is sticky and often indicative of a concrete swing adjustment. In other words, you don’t luck yourself into hitting rockets for this long. So let’s find out what that change was. Read the rest of this entry »

Dave Raymond has fond memories of June 13, 2012. Then in his final year as a broadcaster for the Houston Astros, the now TV play-by-play voice of the Texas Rangers got to call a historic pitching performance — and it wasn’t even his biggest thrill of the day. Prior to the game, he was in the presence of a legend.

Raymond had an inkling that the season would be his last with the Astros. He was in the final year of his contract, and an ownership transition was resulting in numerous changes throughout the organization. With his future up in the air, Raymond decided that he was going to “hit all the high notes,” making sure to enjoy aspects of his job that can sometimes be taken for granted. That’s how he met Willie Mays.

“In San Francisco, Willie was always down in the clubhouse, just available to chat,” recalled Raymond, who graduated from Stanford University before becoming a broadcaster. “I’d never wanted to bother him all those years, but I decided to make it a point to talk to him, whether that was for five minutes, 10 minutes, or whatever. So I went to the ballpark early, hoping to ask him some questions and hear a few stories. For instance, he’d hit his 500th home run at the Astrodome, and they’d brought him a cake afterwards.”

The hoped for five-to-10 minutes ended up being far longer. Mays held court for hours, to the point where Raymond had to tell the iconic Hall of Famer that he needed to head upstairs, as the game was about to start. As he was getting up to leave, he added that the Astros would be returning to San Francisco right after the All-Star break, and maybe they could talk again. Mays responded by saying, “Well, you’ve got to come over to my house then.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Texas Rangers made meaningful changes this summer when they parted ways with manager Chris Woodward — Tony Beasley is currently serving in an interim capacity — and subsequently replaced Jon Daniels with Chris Young as their top front office decision-maker. But a move that has been every bit as impactful was made 10 months ago. Last November — shortly before Baseball America named him their MLB Coach of the Year — Donnie Ecker was hired away from the San Francisco Giants and given the title of Bench Coach/Offensive Coordinator.

Ecker’s reputation as a tech-and-data-savvy hitting nerd is well-earned. Prior to the two seasons he spent as Gabe Kapler’s hitting coach in San Francisco, the 36-year-old Los Altos, California native built his bona fides as an assistant hitting coach with the Cincinnati Reds, and before that as a minor-league hitting instructor in the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Angels organizations.

Ecker, who is well-educated in biomechanics and analytics, discussed some of the philosophies and practices he brought with him to Texas when the Rangers visited Fenway Park earlier this month.

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David Laurila: You spend a lot of time at the ballpark, often arriving by 9 AM for a seven o’clock game. What does your day typically look like?

Donnie Ecker: “It starts with understanding where all of our people are at, zooming in on our hitters first and looking at the things that we find valuable. How is their performance aligning with our North Stars and peripherals? As a department, we want to be on top of that day-to-day. Most times, that’s a process of going deep and bringing up simple and actionable items to the surface. Everything is from the inside out, leading to what we want our conversations and training to look and feel like that day for that player. Read the rest of this entry »

The English Premier League postponed this weekend’s slate of games following the death of Queen Elizabeth on Friday. Some of you may not have known that — soccer isn’t everyone’s cup of tea — but at the same time, a lot of you did. For many FanGraphs readers, pouring a cup of coffee and watching a Saturday or Sunday-morning match is part of your routine. More often than not, it’s as a supporter of a particular Premier League team.

Brad Miller does exactly that. An ardent Manchester City fan, the Texas Rangers infielder “dove into European soccer” head-first while on the injured list a handful of years ago. What started as a diversion has turned into a passion. Miller not only keeps a keen eye on Premier League and Champions League matches, he assesses strategies and follows transfer rumors.

Style of play is a big reason he adopted Man City.

“They’re obviously really good, and I feel kind of bad admitting that,” Miller said of his initial attraction. “But they’re also a well-oiled machine. There was a documentary on Amazon, ‘All or Nothing,’ where they followed the team. That definitely had me intrigued, just watching the way they play.

“I kind of compare them a little bit to the Dodgers,” continued Miller. “They have a great market, great financial backing, and also a great infrastructure — their player-development system, scouting, medical staffs, and all that. The haven’t poured money into just purchasing players, they’ve poured it into a sustainable model.” Read the rest of this entry »

Glenn Otto is a different pitcher than the one the New York Yankees took in the fifth round of the 2017 draft out of Rice University. Acquired from his original organization by the Texas Rangers as part of last summer’s Joey Gallo deal, the 26-year-old right-hander not only has a better understanding of his craft, he’s attacking hitters with an expanded arsenal. Moreover, his five-pitch mix is directionally diverse. Augmented by an occasional bridge pitch, Otto’s offerings are designed to go north, south, east, and west.

Otto discussed his repertoire, and the education he’s received while building it, when the Rangers visited Fenway Park last weekend.

———

David Laurila: In what ways have you grown since coming to pro ball? Having played at a high-profile program, I assume you already had a good idea of how to pitch.

Glenn Otto: “I honestly really didn’t. I was a reliever in college and pretty much relied purely on stuff. I had a mid-90s fastball and a really good curveball, which was all I used back then. Once I got into pro ball and became a starter, it was about going as deep as I can, commanding the fastball to all four quadrants, developing a changeup — a pitch which has kind of come and gone for me — and I’ve also made some adjustments mechanically. Read the rest of this entry »

The top prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers system lost one of his baseball “brothers” a month ago. Not literally — Alex De Jesus is alive and well — but rather by dint of a trade-deadline deal. A 20-year-old infielder who’d been playing with the High-A Great Lakes Loons, De Jesus went to the Toronto Blue Jays organization, along with Mitch White, in exchange for Moises Brito and Nick Frasso.

Shortly after the trade, I asked Diego Cartaya what it’s like to have a teammate who is also a close friend leave the organization.

“It’s not easy, but I’m kind of happy for him,” replied Cartaya, who along with being L.A.’s top prospect is No. 31 in our MLB prospect rankings. “He’s going to get a better opportunity with Toronto, so we’re pretty excited for him. But it’s hard. As teammates, we spend more time together than we do with our families. He’s just like my brother.”

Cartaya’s real family is in Venezuela, and it was his father who initially taught him how to hit. The tutoring he’s received since entering pro ball at age 16 has resulted in occasional tweaks, both to his stance and his swing. Cartaya told me that he used to be “more of a big launch-angle guy,” but now has a flatter swing. Upon hearing that, I noted that the home run I’d seen him hit the previous night was more of a line drive than a moonshot. Read the rest of this entry »

Coming into the year, expectations were high in Arlington. The Rangers, fresh off of a 100-loss season, went big in free agency, bringing in Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, and Jon Gray. They shopped in the second tier of free agents as well, signing Martín Pérez, Garrett Richards, Brad Miller, and Kole Calhoun to short-term deals. Trades brought in more starters: Mitch Garver joined the team this spring, and last year’s Joey Gallo trade netted several potential contributors in Ezequiel Duran, Josh H. Smith, and Glenn Otto.

Depending on how you weigh the contributions of those last three, that’s something like nine new players. It didn’t make the Rangers overnight playoff contenders – we gave them a 75-win projection and an 8% chance of reaching the playoffs before the season started – but it felt like the opening salvo of a new contender. Sign your free agents when you can get them, supplement them with a burgeoning farm system headlined by top prospect Josh Jung, and pretty soon, you’ve got a stew going.

A lot can change in a few months. This week, the Rangers ownership group, led by majority owner Ray Davis, delivered a clear sign that they aren’t happy with the way things are going. On Monday, they relieved manager Chris Woodward of his duties. Woodward had overseen some down years in Texas after taking over before the 2019 season. He’d shepherded this team adequately, at least as far as wins and losses go; we’re currently projecting the Rangers for 72.5 wins, basically the same as their preseason expectation, and it’s not like we were outliers in that projection; pretty much everyone around pegged them in the 70-75 win range.
Read the rest of this entry »