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Texas Rangers GM Chris Young thrilled with demeanor of Jacob deGrom’s rehab debut

Young spoke about the team’s goals for the home stretch of the season, deGrom’s rehab and Wyatt Langford’s progress in center field.

Texas Rangers general manager Chris Young made a Monday appearance on the GBag Nation on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM) to discuss how he is preparing for the offseason, adjustments to be made, as well as an update on Jacob deGrom’s rehab.

Here are some of the highlights, edited for clarity.

Where does your competitive focus turn to now that the playoffs are out of reach?

Chris Young: Everything that we need to do to evaluate our current group of players who are under contract into 2025, and then also our minor leaguers. Then making sure that we’ve got our scouts deployed throughout the league looking at players whose contracts may be coming up and then potential trade candidates as well. So there’s a ton of work to be done here in these last five weeks and we’re certainly working very hard as a front office that we’re prepared going into the offseason.

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Young: One of the things that really stood out to me last offseason was we talked about our team being younger and more athletic, but there was a moment when we sat together as a front office when we wrote nine veteran names on the board that were a part of the 2023 team, some of whom weren’t on the playoff roster, some of whom really weren’t significant on-field contributors, but all of whom contributed in the clubhouse in terms of creating a stable environment and sort of a veteran calmness that exists. I didn’t take for granted that in the offseason, but I also recognized that we had some younger, more athletic players who were probably a little bit more cost-controllable. With that, we felt the roster was going to improve and the team would be better. But I didn’t take for granted those veteran players and their contributions, and as I look back and reflect a little bit I think we certainly have missed some of those veterans. Maybe it was just a necessary step that we had to take in terms of giving so many young guys an opportunity at playing time, which I think has been great for their development, and I think we’re going to benefit from that long term. However, losing so many key veteran players, not again in terms of on-field performance, but in terms of the clubhouse, I think certainly had an impact.

What have you seen from Wyatt Langford in center field?

Young: Wyatt looks pretty good out there. I’ve been impressed with him. He certainly one, hasn’t been afraid of the position, even with limited reps. Two, seems to be pretty comfortable from what I’ve seen. We’ll continue to evaluate him out there and get him more exposure there, obviously if he can play a quality center field moving forward, that helps our organization immensely.

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What were your takeaways from getting to see Jacob deGrom throw and what are you hoping to see in his next rehab start?

Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom, playing in his first rehab of the year as the Friso...
Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom, playing in his first rehab of the year as the Friso Roughriders, throws a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against San Antonio Missions, on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, at Riders Field in Frisco. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)

Young: Jacob looked great. I was there in Frisco and he looked great. The first two guys got base hits on fastballs, then Jacob started mixing in some off-speed and they didn’t touch him. Most importantly, what I saw was a player who was relaxed, happy, you could tell physically he was feeling fine, he wasn’t stressed, he was just enjoying the moment. To see that smile on his face and see him out there competing was really satisfying for me, and I’m hopeful it was gratifying for Jacob as well. He deserves so much credit for how hard he’s worked to put himself in this position. Looking forward to seeing him build off of that tomorrow night, and then we’ll reevaluate and see what the next step is.

Young was asked about his contract talks, but elected to keep them private and ensure the team isn’t distracted.

“At some point, there will be a resolution and when that comes I’ll talk more about it,” Young said.

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