Chris Young brought the Texas Rangers their first World Series title, and it looked like he would stay with the franchise after he signed a multiyear contract extension. In addition, the Rangers promoted Young as the President of Baseball Operations. He replaced Jon Daniels.
Born and raised in Dallas, Young became GM and executive vice president in December 2020 and is excited to collaborate with Daniels. Although he did not officially take the title then, Young assumed control of all baseball operations upon Daniels’s removal from his position in August 2022.
In 2023, his first entire season as the only head of baseball operations, Young guided the Rangers to their first World Series championship in team history. According to the best pay per head sportsbook, he is now committed to restoring Texas’s glory for the foreseeable future.
Rangers Promoted Young as President of Baseball Operations
Not Corey Seager, team captain Marcus Semien, or even Nathan Eovaldi or Jacob deGrom, the players Young most notably signed, probably weren’t. Bochy, the club’s manager and a future Hall of Famer, returned from retirement to take the helm. As of 2023, Young joined Johnny Murphy and Stan Musial as the only three individuals to win a World Series while serving as both a player and a general manager since 1950. According to sports handicapping experts, Young’s Royals won the title in 2015.
Young played for the San Diego Padres at the 2007 MLB All-Star Game. In 2014, while playing with the Mariners, he was named the American League Comeback Player of the Year.
In addition, he has broken a record that hadn’t been broken since 2005 by a former major leaguer serving as the chief of baseball operations: Kenny Williams of the Chicago White Sox. Two of Young’s thirteen major league seasons were in 2004 and 2005 when he played for the Rangers, his local team. After retiring from professional sports in 2018, he worked for the Commissioner’s Office for three years (2018–2020).
Timing of Young’s Contract Extension
The timing of his deal couldn’t have been more significant; it came the day after Kumar Rocker‘s historic Major League debut, in which he struck out seven batters, and also before deGrom returned to Major League action after a 17-month layoff following Tommy John surgery. On Saturday, Max Scherzer is expected to make his comeback from injury.
Little did anybody know that Young had already left Seattle to meet with contract officials when the news broke. When he traveled to Japan, the 22-year-old right-hander Roki Sasaki was already the object of his scouting efforts.
Developing strong candidates for the long run requires only one basic formula: Fix controllable pitching since it’s unsustainable always to pay retail pricing in free agency. After Young’s arrival, the Rangers made substantial draft investments in pitching, with Rocker and Jack Leiter set to relieve Max Scherzer on Saturday. Though the team has long struggled, they are showing signs of improvement. Beyond that, they have brought up Cody Bradford and have two minor leaguers, Alejandro Rosario and Emiliano Teodo, who are almost ready to play in the major leagues.
When the pitching is under control, the club may allocate resources to other areas. Free agency is a better place to get cheap position players to round out a championship franchise. Bruce Bochy, manager of the Rangers, has won four World Series rings and was the lone member of management who refrained from releasing a statement on Friday without consulting with the media. San Francisco was Bochy’s first stop in the World Series, and for good reason: the Giants cultivated a fearsome rotation core in Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, and Madison Bumgarner.
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