Rosenthal: With Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, Rangers prove spending money works — when done well

PHOENIX — Adolis García spoke first at the daily hitters’ meeting. He wanted to address his Texas Rangers teammates before offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker went through the team’s plan for Game 4 of the World Series.

The news was grim. García’s historic postseason was over. He had taken a couple of swings in the batting cage, only to shut down immediately because of the discomfort caused by his strained left oblique.

What did he tell his teammates?

“Pick me up,” third baseman Josh Jung recalled.

“I can’t be on the field with you, but I’m still with you,” Ecker said.

“It was emotional. It hit us right in the heart,” catcher Jonah Heim said. “And it gave us a little something extra to play for today.”

What followed was perhaps the defining triumph of the Rangers’ season, an 11-7 victory over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night that encapsulated everything that is special about this team. Its resiliency. Its next-man-up mentality. And its stars, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien.

The Rangers signed the two free-agent middle infielders for a combined $500 million after a 2021 season in which they lost 102 games. Two years later, they are 10-0 on the road in the postseason, and one win away from the first Series title in the franchise’s 63-year history, with the last 52 played in Arlington.

The score was 10-0 after three innings. Semien hit a leadoff triple and three-run homer. Seager hit a two-run homer and later added a double. On a night when the Rangers could have been dejected over the Series-ending injuries to García and pitcher Max Scherzer, they refused to be anything other than they have been all season. A cohesive, fiercely determined collective. A team.

It started at the hitters’ meeting. Seager said García’s message “really fired the guys up.” After the outfielder spoke, Ecker flashed the theme for the day on a video screen: “More obstacle equals more meaning. The purpose has been increased.” Not that the Rangers’ sense of purpose ever was in question.

García hit eight home runs in the playoffs. His 22 RBIs set a record for a single postseason. Yet the Rangers pummeled the Diamondbacks while he watched from the dugout, wearing a sweatshirt over his uniform.

“My heart hurts for him, but we scored 10 without him,” first baseman Nathaniel Lowe said. “It’s a pretty good answer from the rest of the team.”

Much of the baseball discussion in the 2023 season centered around the big-money teams that flopped, the Mets, the Yankees, the Padres. But if the Rangers have proven anything, it’s that spending money works. As long as you spend on the right players.

The Phillies, the team the Diamondbacks eliminated in the National League Championship Series, are another example of a team that mostly invested wisely. The Rangers’ choices were not perfect. They signed Jacob deGrom last offseason for $185 million, only to see him require a second Tommy John surgery after six starts.

That move, though, was part of the larger plan that began with Semien and Seager, who bat first and second in the Rangers’ lineup and joined the team on the same day, Dec. 1, 2021, just before the start of the owners’ lockout.

The Rangers finished 68-94 in their first season with Semien and Seager, but continued pushing forward. The additions of deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney last offseason spoke to the commitment of ownership and competitiveness of general manager Chris Young. The deadline acquisitions of Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery reflected the same passion. At this point, no one should be surprised if the Rangers emerge as a player for Shohei Ohtani this winter. They will be all the more attractive if they make their pitch as World Series champions.

Semien and Seager were part of a free-agent class of infielders that also included Carlos Correa, Trevor Story and Javier Báez. All were shortstops, but Semien had moved to second base the previous season with the Blue Jays. Few in the industry expected one team to end up with two of the infielders. But upon learning of the Rangers’ twin signings, which occurred when Jon Daniels was still the team’s president of baseball operations, veteran infielder Brad Miller recalled thinking, “That makes sense.”

Miller, who joined the Rangers as a free agent three months later, has not been part of any of the team’s postseason rosters, but is traveling with the club. After 11 years in the majors, he has a special appreciation of everything Semien and Seager offer.

“I look out there every night and I’m like, ‘Man, that’s about as stable and steady as you can have in a double-play combination,’” Miller said. “What a way to start, with a foundation like that.”

Both Semien and Seager performed below expectations last season while adjusting to their new environment. But both were elected starters in the All-Star Game this season. Semien finished with an AL-leading 185 hits, 29 homers and 100 RBIs. Seager, despite two trips to the injured list, might have been the front-runner for AL MVP if not for Ohtani. He finished with a career-high 1.013 OPS, and matched his career-high of 33 homers despite playing in only 119 games.

“They’re true professionals. I wish I had that when I was coming up, to learn from someone like that,” Rangers outfielder Travis Jankowski said. “And to be honest, I think that’s why our rookies have stepped up and done so well.

“(Seager and Semien) are not so much vocal leaders, do this or do that. It’s just watch. Watch two of the best players in the game go about their business. Watch the drive they have every day.”

Both Semien and Seager put winning first. Both maintain serious, stoic demeanors. Yet, Lowe said, “they have a very different process in the way they go about things. It’s good for everybody in this clubhouse to see two different ways to contend for an MVP.”

How are they different?

“Corey is all offense and he takes groundballs occasionally,” Lowe said. “Marcus is more, short time in the cage, short time in the field. But he does everything every day.”

In Semien, the Rangers’ young position players — Jung, Evan Carter, Leody Taveras, Ezequiel Duran — see a 33-year-old veteran who has missed only one game in the last four full seasons. In Seager, they see a past NLCS and World Series MVP who at 29 never wavers in his approach, both on and off the field.

“Corey is one of those guys who has been there and done everything, it feels like,” Jung said. “His message is, ‘Don’t change a thing. It’s just a baseball game. Come in here and play cards, do the same stuff we’ve been doing all year.’ That has really resonated with all of us. To not make this more than it is.”

Until his breakout Tuesday night, Semien had been cold for much of the postseason, batting just .197 with a .491 OPS, repeatedly chasing breaking balls away. His struggles made his triple and homer in the first two innings all the more meaningful, and his teammates took note.

“He’s what makes this team go,” Heim said.

Seager has had no such issues offensively this October. He went 5-for-8 with the three doubles in the Rangers’ wild-card series sweep of the Rays. He drew a Division Series-record nine walks in their sweep of the Orioles. He wasn’t quite as good in the ALCS against the Astros, but made a statement with his first-inning homer in Game 7.

And the World Series? All Seager has done in the World Series is hit a game-tying, two-run, ninth-inning homer in Game 1 that preceded García’s walkoff in the 11th, and a two-run homer that provided the Rangers’ margin of victory in Game 3. He also started a potentially game-saving double play in the eighth inning of Game 2, rolling to the ground to snare a 101-mph grounder by Ketel Marte, then making a backhand flip to Semien at second.

“I wish I could be Corey,” Heim said.

They all do, but when it comes to durability, Seager probably wishes he could be Semien. Seager has played 150 games in a season only twice. Semien has played 155 or more seven times, and he enters Game 5 four plate appearances shy of setting a record for the most in a single major-league season. He currently is tied with Juan Pierre, who had 830 plate appearances for the 2003 World Series champion Marlins. Lenny Dykstra established the record of 833 with the 1993 NL champion Phillies.

Seager, meanwhile, is making his own history. As noted by Tom Verducci on the Fox broadcast Tuesday night, Seager’s postseason numbers are remarkably similar to those of Reggie Jackson. Seager, like Jackson, has now played 77 postseason games. He has 19 homers and 48 RBIs. Jackson had 18 and 48, respectively, with 10 World Series homers to Seager’s six.

For all that, it’s only year two of both players’ long-term contracts, and it’s possible neither will end well for the Rangers. Semien is signed for five more seasons, Seager for eight more, both through their age 37 campaigns. Then again, how can one measure the value of a World Series title to a franchise that has never won one? And who’s to say the Rangers won’t compete for several more championships in the coming years?

On Tuesday night, they overcame the loss of García, their postseason MVP, just as they overcame the losses of deGrom, Seager and Mitch Garver early in the season, and Eovaldi, Heim and Jung in the second half.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve been punched in the mouth,” Jankowski said. “Guys step up. That’s what this team is made of.”

It was only fitting, then, that Semien and Seager stepped up when the Rangers needed them most. If more obstacle equals more meaning, the loss of García was as big an obstacle as one could imagine. And no players mean more to the Rangers than the two they signed for a combined half a billion dollars two years ago.

(Top photo of Marcus Semien and Corey Seager: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)