Joe Maddon, the former manager who may wind up in the Hall of Fame someday, used to talk often about just how extreme the importance of pitching is in baseball.
So important, he said, “You could call the game ‘pitching’ instead of ‘baseball.’”
Nobody seems to have respected and practiced that philosophy in the American League West more than the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners in recent years — riding two of the best pitching staffs in baseball the last two years to a combined average of 95 wins over that span with a total of six playoff series wins (albeit, five belonging to the Astros).
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No wonder the playoff-hungry, cash-flush Texas Rangers went so big on pitching this past winter after loading up on a half-billion-dollar worth of middle infielders and pitcher Jon Gray in free agency the year before.
The best pitcher on the planet? Check.
Best available manager and expert bullpen manipulator? Check.
Two more established, veteran starters to round out a competitive rotation? Check, check.
“It just feels like we’ve got all our chips in, and we’re ready to go,” Gray said. “I feel really confident about that. Like I don’t feel like we’re overmatched. I feel like we’re just as strong [as top opponents] if not better.
“I’m excited to see what we can do.”
A different vibe for Texas Rangers
So far, so good for an upstart Texas Rangers team that finds itself in first place in the division after its first showdown of the season against the defending World Series-champion Astros — its first series win against the Astros since May 2021 after 10 consecutive series losses.
“It feels a lot different,” Gray said of this year’s Rangers vibe.
And that was before Sunday’s nationally broadcast series clincher in Houston which was a scoreless pitcher’s duel until the Rangers broke out with a six-run seventh inning.
As for all those offseason checks, check out some of the early results:
The Rangers have joined the Astros and Mariners among the top 10 in the majors in rotation fWAR so far in the early going this season, and they’re first in bullpen fWAR.
All that and $185 million free agent Jacob deGrom — the aforementioned best pitcher on the planet — hasn’t delivered his promised impact yet through three starts, thanks to an opening clunker.
“One area that needed some improvement, they more than did that with signing deGrom, [Nathan] Eovaldi, [Andrew] Heaney,” said Bruce Bochy, the first-year Rangers manager hired out of retirement to lead this big-spending Texas team to the World Series he managed the San Diego Padres to once and the San Francisco Giants to three times.
“So the starting pitching is much improved. To compete in this division, you’ve got to try to match up with the rest of the teams. They’ve more than done that with the guys they’ve signed.
“It’s a very balanced club,” he added. “A club that should win — expect to win — and that’s how we all feel.”
The Rangers’ depth in the lineup and field will be tested early, with $325 million shortstop Corey Seager out with a hamstring injury expected to sideline him until close to June.
And they had their rotation health flash before their eyes Saturday when Gray took a 109-mph line drive off his pitching arm in the third inning of his start against the Astros, forcing him to leave the game and leaving him initially fearing “my arm was broken because it sounded so bad.”
But X-rays were negative, and Gray may not even have to miss a start with what was diagnosed as a bad bruise.
If anything, getting through that scare over the weekend and surviving their six-year division nemesis with their top standing in the division intact was just the latest manifestations of the confidence this team had entering the season that Gray called “another level” compared to a year ago.
Jacob deGrom’s key early signing
Of course, that all starts with deGrom, who signed a five-year deal just ahead of the winter meetings in early December.
“He’s the best in the world,” Seager said.
DeGrom heads what’s now a $300 million rotation that also includes All-Star lefty Martín Pérez, back after accepting a qualifying offer.
Is all of it enough to make the Texas Rangers this year’s upstart playoff team some pundits believe it can be — the World Series contenders, even, that the Rangers seem to believe they can be?
“I’ll tell you this: I believe in the group of players that we’ve assembled,” said general manager Chris Young, the former All-Star pitcher — whose vision deGrom credits with much of his decision to sign. “I believe in our leadership in the dugout with Bruce Bochy and [associate manager] Will Venable and [pitching coach] Mike Maddux and bench coach [Donny Ecker]. They’re tremendous.
“And I was part of a 2015 Kansas City team that maybe wasn’t the most talented on paper but was able to accomplish special things. I really subscribe to [the theory that] it’s all about how the team comes together.
“I believe in our group. I like where we are.”
Who wouldn’t? Especially around these parts.
Until the early going this year, the Rangers had not spent a day in sole possession of first place in the AL West since they won the division in 2016.
They were 24-70 against the Astros since then — 5-14 each of the past two seasons.
So how does a team like that, coming off six consecutive losing seasons, get deGrom to agree to sign, not to mention as early in the free-agent process as he did?
The two-time Cy Young winner said it had as much to do with the commitment he saw the front office already make toward building a winner as it did what he could bring to any team’s effort.
“It was a combination of both,” he said. “Seeing what they did, adding Corey and Marcus [Semien], getting Jon Gray over here and the talking to [GM Chris Young] and [owner] Ray [Davis] about the vision, and the hiring Bochy, who’s been there and won three of them.
“You see the vision of the team and then the reaching out early and being in constant contact about the free agency and saying that was a priority made me feel like this was the place I wanted to be,” he added, “And then it didn’t stop there. We went out and got Nate; we got Andrew. So it continued throughout the offseason even after I signed, to continue to make this team better and push towards that goal.”
And if it’s an under-the-radar, even overlooked team despite all those changes?
“Yeah, that’s to be expected,” Gray said. “But I think over this season we’re going to earn a lot of respect.”
Respect? After that first trip to Houston, consider another box checked.
Of course, it’s just a start. More than five months remain to be played, including another big road series in Seattle in early May.
“Let’s go play the game and see what happens,” deGrom said.
Gordon Wittenmyer covers Major League Baseball for Sportsnaut. You can follow him on Twitter at @GDubCub.