Texas’ $556 Million Investment Pays Off With A World Series Berth

On the last day of November 2021, Texas general manager Chris Young committed more than $550 million in an attempt to buy the Rangers out of a hole created by one of the worst three-year periods in recent team history. A 102-loss 2021 was the spark.

Consider it a prudent investment.

Free agent acquisitions shortstop Corey Seager, second baseman Marcus Semien and to a lesser extent right-hander Jon Gray — all signed that Nov. 30 — have pushed the Rangers to within one game of their first World Series championship in the 63-year history of the franchise.

“This is awesome,” said Seager, who had conversations with Semien before they signed on to become the Rangers’ middle infield combination. “This is what we envisioned. This is where we wanted to be.”

Seager had six home runs, 12 RBIs and 1.135 OPS in the Rangers’ first 16 postseason games, and he has become the odds-on favorite to win the World Series MVP award for the second time after being named MVP when the Los Angeles Dodgers won in 2020. Seager would join Reggie Jackson as the only MVPs with two different teams. Jackson won it with Oakland in 1973 and the New York Yankees in 1997.

Another big game or two from Semien could change the dynamic, however. Semien has hit safely in all four World Series games, and he tripled and homered in back-to-back innings when the Rangers scored five runs in the second and third innings of their 11-7 victory in Game 4.

Gray has made two scoreless appearances in the Series, and his three scoreless innings of relief after bailing out injured starter Max Scherzer in a 3-1 Game 3 victory has been the most meaningful bullpen showing in the Series.

“Those guys, they’re the type of guys that can turn a franchise around,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “I think they showed what they mean to us with their outstanding play.”

Seager left the Dodgers, the only team he had known, to join the Rangers on a 10-year, $325 million contract negotiated by the Boras Corporation on Nov. 30, 2021. At the time it was the second-largest free agent contract in major league history in total compensation and the largest in terms of average annual value. Two years later, only the Yankees’ Aaron Judge (nine years, $360 million signed last spring) and Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper (13 years, $330 million signed in 2019) earn more.

Semien left Toronto to sign a seven-year, $175 million deal also negotiated by the Boras Corp. to complete the Rangers’ middle infield remake that day, and Gray jumped from Colorado to the Rangers on a four-year, $56 million deal negotiated by CAA. All contract data is sourced from Cot’s Contracts.

Seager knew nothing but winning with the Dodgers, who made the playoffs in all of his seven seasons starting in 2015, although he missed the 2018 postseason after suffering an early-season elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery. He said he saw similar signs while doing his due diligence during the free agency period before signing with the Rangers.

“It was what they saw in the minor leagues, what they saw in future free agents,” Seager said. “It was their whole process of getting back to the playoffs. When I was in Los Angeles it was a long time since they had won (a World Series) and I saw what that did for a fan base. When I heard they had never won that here, that was extremely exciting for me to be a part of something and to be on the ground floor and build that.”

Seager, the likely runner-up to the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani in the American League MVP race, tied a career high with 33 homers (he also had that many in his first season with the Rangers) and had a career-high 96 RBIs despite missing 40 games in the regular season because of hamstring and thumb injuries.

Semien was his usual iron man in 2023. He had 29 homers and 100 RBIs while playing in all 162 games for the second time in three seasons. He has missed only eight games in the last five years.

Seager hit a game-tying two-run homer in the ninth inning of the Rangers’ 5-4, 11-inning victory in Game 1 to create a sudden momentum shift, and he homered again in Game 4 after Semien hit a two-run triple in a five-run second inning. Semien’s three-run homer just beyond the fence in left field capped the five-run third.

“This is where we want to be,” Semien said before Game 5. “This is where we want to be. It’s a one-game-at-a-time mentality. We win the ball game, we get a ring, of course. But you need to think about the process of how to get that done — good defense, good pitching, timely hitting, two-out RBIs. Those things that we did the last two nights we need to continue.”

The process Young started on Nov. 30, 2021.