SEATTLE — Chris Young went to Japan on Friday morning.
But he’s coming back to the Texas Rangers for a long time.
The Rangers on Friday announced that Young, who joined the club in 2020 as general manager, had signed a multi-year agreement to remain with the club. Young will also be promoted to president of baseball operations. No details on the extension were disclosed.
Young’s original deal, which was scheduled to expire at the end of October, was for four years. The industry standard for long-term extensions has become five years, but details of executive deals, unlike player contracts, are held closely.
“Chris Young’s impact on the Texas Rangers organization has been immense over the last four years,” Rangers’ managing partner and majority owner Ray Davis said in a statement. “His leadership and vision were instrumental in helping bring a World Series championship to Arlington for the first time, and he is passionate about producing a consistent winner on the field year in and year out for our fans.
“Our baseball operations group, from scouting and player development to the Major League team, is in great hands with CY at the helm for many years to come. I look forward to continuing our work together.”
Davis declined to further address the situation. He had maintained since the start of the season that an extension for Young was merely a formality of sitting down and hammering it out. He never had any intent of allowing Young’s deal to lapse.
Young, who was flying to Japan to scout Japanese pitcher Rōki Sasaki, said in a release: “The Texas Rangers organization holds a very special place for me, and I am excited to continue building on what we’ve started here.
“While the opportunity to a be a part of a World Series championship in my hometown was a tremendous thrill, our goal is to field a club that can contend for playoff berths every season. I’m grateful to Ray Davis for the trust he’s placed in me, and I’m confident we’ll be successful on this mission. Our fans deserve nothing less.”
In 2023 Young became the first former Major League player to win the World Series in a head baseball operations role since Kenny Williams of the Chicago White Sox in 2005. He was also the first individual to earn a World Series crown as both a player (Kansas City in 2015) and a GM/baseball operations chief since Johnny Murphy, who pitched on seven championship teams with the New York Yankees (1932, 1936-39, 1941, 1943) and won the Fall Classic as the General Manager with the New York Mets in 1969.
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