Rangers Big Part of ‘Holy S---’ Winter Meetings

The Texas Rangers weren't the only team spending money this offseason. They just got an early start.

The Texas Rangers spent slightly more than $200 million this offseason, mostly on starting pitcher Jacob deGrom.

Turns out the Rangers were doing it on the cheap.

ESPN detailed the $1.6 billion spent by Major League teams during the recently-concluded Winter Meetings. One particular contract — the $280 million deal agreed to by shortstop Xander Bogaerts on Wednesday — led one general manager to text ESPN’s reporter with the following message: “Holy s---. I'm totally speechless.”

deGrom’s contract, a five-year, $185 million deal, as it turned out, set the tone for the Winter Meetings. He agreed to his deal 48 hours before MLB general managers showed up in San Diego.

And many other teams took up that baton, and then some.

ESPN reported that by the end of the Winter Meetings 20 major league free agents agreed to contracts totaling nearly $1.6 billion.

Foremost among them was New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, who ended up signing a nine-year, $360 million deal with the Yankees. That came after the San Francisco Giants made a competitive push for the American League home run champion and eight months after Judge turned down an extension from the Yankees that would have paid him $150 million less.

Six free agents, including Bogaerts, New York Mets outfielder Brandon Ninmo and shortstop Trea Turner (who signed with Philadelphia), walked away with nine-figure deals like deGrom’s.

That doesn’t include 39-year-old pitcher Justin Verlander, who left the Houston Astros to sign a two-year, $90 million deal after winning the AL Cy Young and a World Series.

ESPN reported that league sources said a new collective bargaining agreement — signed last spring — and the recent $900 million sale of MLB's BAMTech product to Disney as fueling the loosening of teams’ purse strings.

Aside from deGrom, the Rangers spent $25 million on a two-year deal for pitcher Andrew Heaney and will pay $2.5 million to pitcher Jake Odorizzi after trading reliever Dennis Santana for the starter. Atlanta, Odorizzi’s former team, will pay the remaining $10 million.

The Rangers are interested in spending more this offseason, but general manager Chris Young said this week that the Rangers will take a breath after the Winter Meetings.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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