The Texas Rangers 2013 season was an up and down roller coaster. They were in contention for the division into September, and forced a one-game playoff for the wild card game with a 7 game winning streak to end the season. If not for a bad start to September they would have made the playoffs. They came up just short. Most of that is because of what happened in the previous offseason. Going into the 2012 season the Rangers were armed with money and players they were wanting to get. They were aiming to get Justin Upton in a trade from the Diamondbacks and sign Zach Greinke. They were also in the market to resign Josh Hamilton and do about a half-dozen other things. Unfortunately none of it happened. They were left to put a raw Leonys Martin in center. sign A.J. Pierzynski to play catcher, and sign Lance Berkman to play DH. Then when you thought things couldn’t get much worse, the Biogenesis scandal broke in February. It implicated Nelson Cruz as one of the buyers of PED’s from this clinic in Miami. MLB then started their investigation and stated that they were aiming to suspend these players that were buying and using these PED’s. Going into the 2013 season all the question marks revolved around the offense. As the season progressed we got to see that those question marks were well deserved. Leonys Martin did get better as the season progressed and Pierzynski produced offensively, but Berkman was awful. He couldn’t stay healthy and when he was healthy he wasn’t hitting. In August there were even rumors that he was going to retire. He didn’t though, but he also did not play a lot down the stretch. He was replaced at DH by Jurickson Profar for most of the second half. With a disappointing offense and numerous injuries in the pitching staff it was no surprise that they came up short. They just were not good enough. They still did finish with 90 wins for the fourth straight season. That is a Rangers record. It wasn’t a complete disappointment, but Jon Daniels had a mission this offseason and that was to improve the lineup.
The checklist for the Rangers this offseason read like this, improve first base, catcher, settle the middle infield positions, and get a middle of the order DH type hitter. As far as free agents they had decisions to make on Nelson Cruz, Joe Nathan, Pierzynski, and Geovany Soto. They also had to decide what to do with the middle infield combination of Andrus, Profar, and Kinsler. Profar had definitely earned a spot in the 2014 lineup. With all of this and about 30 million to spend the Rangers had the potential to make some big moves.
It started early for the Rangers. On November 1st Joe Nathan declared for free agency and you saw the Rangers pretty much move on from him. Then three weeks later they made one of the biggest trades of the offseason and shocked two fan bases. They traded long-time fan favorite Ian Kinsler for first baseman Prince Fielder and 30 million dollars. That made my mouth drop. I could not believe it. With one trade the Rangers had solved two problems. First, it filled the hole they have had at first base since the Mark Teixiera trade and it resolved the middle infield issue they had last season. The downside was losing Kinsler, but to get something you have to give up something. From there it sent the message that the Rangers were willing to open up their wallet and spend money.
They followed that up by signing J.P. Arencibia to compete for the catching position. They signed him based on what he had shown in the past and they hope that he can recapture that. He certainly is a catcher that can hit for power as evidenced by hitting more than 15 home runs these last seasons and for 1.8 million they might have gotten a steal.
From there is was a pretty quiet December. They were rumored to be in on outfielder Shin Shoo Choo. He was going to replace David Murphy. It was a long wait through December until December 27th it was officially announced that he had agreed to a 7 year/ $130 million deal. It was an enormous deal, but it showed the Rangers ownership was willing to step up and pay the price to help this team get better. Going into the 2014 season the Rangers are hoping that Choo will continue to have a high OBP and provide some pop in the outfield from the left side. He will be the starting left fielder.
Just when you think they are done they make a trade with Oakland A’s to acquire outfielder Michael Choice. In that trade they sent Craig Gentry and Josh Lindblom to the A’s for young outfielder Michael Choice and middle infielder Chris Bostick. Gentry had been a guy who is great defensively and light hitting offensively. Choice is a player that is under control longer and has a higher ceiling. He will certainly be competing in spring training for the fourth outfielder spot, otherwise known as the David Murphy role.
The Rangers then finished off their offseason by signing pitchers Armando Gallaraga and Daniel Bard. Gallaraga is again trying to get his career back on track. Since that perfect game that wasn’t he has really struggled and has been on multiple teams. Bard also is a reclamation project that the Rangers have signed. He is coming back from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery on January 2nd. He will not be ready for opening day, but the Rangers hope he can contribute in the second half of the season. If he can get healthy he could be a real asset for the bullpen. Gallaraga will be competing for a spot in the rotation in spring training.
The Rangers after all was said and done accomplished all of their goals. They improved the lineup and found Profar a spot in the infield. After all of these moves the Rangers look poised to make a run at the AL West division title. The A’s are not going to be a pushover and the Angels will be better. The division looks to be up for grabs. The Rangers have done all they could this offseason to give themselves a shot. It is now up to the players to perform. In my opinion I give the Rangers a grade of 9 out of 10 for this offseason.