Big Spending Begins To Pay Off For AL West-Leading Rangers

In the 2021-22 season, they spent $500 million combined to revamp their middle infield by signing shortstop Corey Seager (10 years, $325 million) and second baseman Marcus Semien (seven years, $175 million) as free agent.

Yet the Rangers finished with a 68-94 record last season and manager Chris Woodward was fired with 48 games remaining.

The Rangers again made one of the biggest splashes of the past offseason by signing two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom to a five-year, $185-million deal…

While the Rangers wait for DeGrom to get healthy, they have risen to the top of the AL West on the strength of a relentless offense. Texas is averaging an MLB-best 6.33 runs a game with right fielder Adolis Garcia helping lead the charge with 14 homers and 49 RBIs – both AL-leading figures.

“They can hit, and I think you’re looking at a lot of professional hitters that know how to work counts and work at-bats,” said Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton, whose team lost two of three games to the Rangers earlier this week. “When you do that, you end up getting more mistakes. I think if you look at it on the large scale, when they’ve gotten mistakes, they’ve impacted the baseball and because of it, they’ve scored a ton of runs.

“It’s an old-school American League lineup. We talked about those lineups at the end of the end of the 2000s, beginning of 2010, 2011, and I can tell you because I was fortunate enough to coach some of those in Cleveland and Tampa where the guys hitting 7, 8 and 9 can do damage, too.”