Sure, players sign two-way deals with the G-League in the NBA, but you will not see Luka Doncic sent down after a month's worth of subpar play.
The Texas Rangers spent more on three players going into 2022 than a fair amount of payrolls in any of the other leagues.
Owner Ray Davis fired manager Chris Woodard last weekend, then followed up with firing team president Jeff Daniels on Wednesday. Daniels had been the top man in the Ranger organization for 17 years, while Woodard did not even make 400 games heading the coaching staff. Compiling a 160-224 record in three and a half years certainly does not make the argument for longevity.
With the 10-year, $145 million contract shortstop Corey Seager signed, 7-years and $175 million for second baseman Marcus Simien and 4-years and $56 million for starting pitcher Jon Gray, Texas was hoping to shore up the center of the diamond and challenge the New York Mets for the best tandem in baseball. All we have seen are the Rangers sitting at 53-63 (.449) and 23 games out of first in the AL West.
No one expected the Seattle Mariners to be this good while being this young, but no one expected Texas to be this talented and this bad either.
Come to think of it, Seager’s contract looks awfully familiar for this franchise. I swear I saw almost the exact same contract about 22 years ago…
The Rangers are still paying Elvis Andrus $7.5 million after trading him to Oakland before the 2021 season. The Athletics released Andrus on Wednesday. You can also add Rougned Odor to the list of Rangers being paid while playing elsewhere. Odor is earning $12.3 million after being traded to the New York Yankees last year, then signing a $700,000 contract with the Baltimore Orioles after the season.
Gray went on the 15-day injured list earlier this week with an oblique strain and is expected to be out until mid-September. With a modest 7-6 record and a 3.83 ERA, Gray is failing to lead the Rangers in any significant pitching category, sitting between second to fourth in most of them.
Seager was selected to his third All-Star game, where he also was eliminated in the first round of the Home Run Derby by finalist Julio Rodriguez from the Mariners.
The lack of consistency with Texas in 2022 does not start or end with their payroll, but that their longest winning streak this year has only been four games. The only month with a winning record was May (17-10). Some of the worst teams in baseball have strung together more than four consecutive wins this year.
With Seattle’s resurgence, Houston knows their clock is ticking for being the stalwarts in the division. You had to know the Rangers were cursed when they moved into the $1.1 billion, 40,300-capacity Globe Life Stadium in 2020…just in time for Covid. The first game that allowed fans to attend was the National League Championship Series in October, as part of the playoff “bubble” that most leagues went to that year.
How appropriate that Seager was named the LCS MVP in helping the Los Angeles Dodgers advance to the World Series, then left them to play in the same park just one year later. At least someone was able to use the stadium that late in the year.
-JC24