Monday, February 19 — 6:55am: We arrived in Surprise, Arizona on Sunday and were greeted with a new sign adorning the plaza wall in front of the Rangers offices at Surprise Stadium: World Series Champions 2023
And this morning, the team re-convenes for the 1st full squad workout of 2024 Spring Training with already some question marks. All Star 3rd Baseman Josh Jung reported to camp last week and immediately strained a calf muscle fielding ground balls. Bruce Bochy says he’s expected to miss at least 3 weeks. This comes on the heels of World Series MVP Corey Seager undergoing sports hernia surgery last month, putting is Opening Day in some peril.
GM Chris Young joined us live on CBS Sports Texas last night. We had fun re-living some of the great moments of the Rangers postseason run last fall. He says things have been so busy this winter that he’s never really had the chance to sit down and soak in all the things that happened last October.
One thing Young did reveal was that he was the one person who was slow to pull the trigger on calling up 21-year old rookie Evan Carter in September. It wasn’t until an injury sustained by Adolis Garcia during a 3-game sweep by the Astros by a combined score of 39-10 that Young became convinced that they had nothing to lose by promoting Carter on September 7th.
The rest, as they say, is history. Carter went on to hit .300 with 5 home runs and 10 extra base hits in 23 regular season games and set a postseason record with 9 doubles and hit .300 in the playoffs.
I can’t wait to see what Evan Carter and the rest of the Rangers do for an encore, starting today here in Surprise.