Will the Rangers take action in response to Adolis García’s resignation announcement?
Coming off a World Series win, one would have thought that the Texas Rangers would be floating on cloud nine this offseason. However, uncertainty about their future TV broadcast revenues turned what should have been a celebration and an influx of cash into a fairly disappointing offseason overall.
Sure, the Rangers did make some moves, but the above revenue concerns have all but removed Texas from the bidding for Jordan Montgomery’s services, as well as kept them away from the deep end of the free agency pool that fans had become accustomed to the team playing in. Instead of trying to push forward and keep strengthening the roster, the Rangers have had to resort to treading water and hoping it is enough.
One bright spot for the offseason had been that the Rangers inked a two-year deal with Adolis Garcia, which allowed the team to avoid an arbitration hearing with him and keep him cost controlled. The deal also put a decent amount of guaranteed money in Garcia’s pocket, with incentives that could bring the deal even higher. Unfortunately, that is where the good news ends this spring … at least so far.
While Garcia was a monster in the playoffs, he battled his fair share of injuries late in 2023. A knee injury slowed him late in the year, and the Rangers famously had to remove him from the World Series roster after he hurt his oblique during the series against the Diamondbacks. Now, it appears as though the Rangers are having to be very careful with Garcia this spring to try and get him to the start of the season healthy.
In all likelihood, the Rangers are simply exercising an extreme amount of caution with Garcia, based on how they are treating his ramp up. Garcia has dealt with knee issues in the past beyond last season, and given how important he is to their lineup, they probably just want to manage everything they can with him so that he is ready to go.
However, the level of “slow playing” — as the Rangers have been calling it with Garcia — is mildly concerning. He has been relegated to playing scrimmages and doing workouts in the backfields while most of the rest of the team has been playing in actual spring training games to varying degrees. If this holds for just a week or two, no big deal. If this lingers late into camp, one can only wonder if Garcia has an issue that he and the team are not disclosing just yet.
For now, fans just have to take Garcia and the team at their word. Garcia has insisted that he feels great heading into camp, and the team has been adamant that he is not hurt and they are just taking the opportunity to ease him slowly into things while providing some opportunities for some prospects/NRIs to get some playing. We’ll know soon enough if that is true, or if Rangers fans can add another disappointing development ahead of the 2024 season.