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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
Last month in Arizona, 38 miles apart, the two managers who shared the World Series stage last autumn returned to work after very different offseasons.
Texas manager Bruce Bochy spent his winter basking in the glow of his fourth career championship, the first in franchise history for the Rangers.
“You get a deeper appreciation for something like this after you step back from the game,” Bochy said on a recent sunny day at Rangers camp in Surprise, Arizona. “You take them all in, in different ways. I just enjoyed having all my family there, including my grandkids.”
Across the valley, Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo needed time to process his team’s loss in last year’s Fall Classic, but he arrived at camp able to put what his club accomplished in perspective.
“My wife and I sat down at the dinner table about three weeks after the season,” Lovullo said. “She said to me, ‘Do you know what kind of an accomplishment that was? … It’s time for you to understand what you guys did and how proud you should be.’
“I started to focus on that.”
But even as his mindset shifted, he couldn’t escape reminders of what happened in those five games in late October and early November.
“I was watching Kyle Shanahan walk off the field after losing the Super Bowl and he looked so sad,” Lovullo said of the San Francisco 49ers head coach. “He looked like he was ready to cry. I was like, ‘I’ve been there, buddy.'”
Bochy knows his team hasn’t fully moved on yet, either, as the celebration of the past postseason will linger into the regular season when the Rangers are honored for their title on opening weekend.
“I say it’s the gift that keeps on giving,” Bochy said. “We’re seeing it here with the fans. It won’t be long before we get the rings. It’ll be cool to see people get their first rings. That makes it even more special.”
If there is one thing in common between the winner and loser of the World Series — especially in this matchup, featuring two clubs that weren’t expected to be there — it’s that the motivation to return has only deepened. For Arizona, it’s about getting a taste of something that slipped through the team’s fingers; the Rangers crave another chance at the feeling they experienced.
Both clubs are united in a belief in themselves in 2024, despite two dramatically different offseasons.
‘We enjoyed our time, but it’s time to move on’
When a contender doesn’t add an impact player to its roster, the front office usually draws a fair share of criticism from fans waiting to see their team in the hot stove headlines and players who notice holes upon arriving at spring training. The exception to that rule seems to be when the team is the reigning world champion.
The Rangers declared early this winter that they wouldn’t be spending like previous offseasons. Uncertainty with local television right fees created a necessity to be “financially prudent,” according to Rangers GM Chris Young.
As a result, Texas is running it back with nearly the same group that lifted the World Series trophy, minus free agent Jordan Montgomery, who remains unsigned. The Rangers did address the bullpen that threatened to undo them during the postseason, adding relievers Kirby Yates and David Robertson. They still believe they’re good enough to become the first repeat champions since the Yankees did so from 1998 to 2000.
“Jordan was great for us,” second baseman Marcus Semien said. “Wish the best for him. If it’s here, that’s great. We have enough to compete, though. We have this nice blend of veterans and young players. Plus those coming back from injury eventually.”
Among those reinforcements the Rangers hope to have back midyear are Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom. If all goes according to plan, adding those two pitchers for a pennant race could feel bigger than any offseason move.
But the Rangers aren’t waiting for that star infusion to give them a lift. They’re using spring training to focus on doing the mundane things well every single day — – especially considering the thrill of October baseball has long worn off.
“It’s great to have veteran guys for that,” outfielder Travis Jankowski said. “The common consensus is the hardest thing to do [after a deep playoff run] is get back into playing in April. You go from playing the most adrenaline-ridden atmosphere to going back to normal games. It’s realizing that we’re not going to have the adrenaline boost right away.”
Having been through this three other times in his managerial career, Bochy also knows that his team will need to bring its A-game. “I don’t think you can pace yourself,” he said. “April is a big month. We have 12-13 in our division and 17 consecutive games. We need to be ready. I love the attitude from these guys so far.”
Besides — they’ll now have their opponent’s full attention in every city they visit this season. Last year, road games were no problem for the Rangers — they went 11-0 in the postseason on the road — but every team will be even more enthusiastic about beating them this year.
“You hear ‘we’re going to be the hunted,'” Bochy said. “I’m going to tell you right now, our attitude is we’re still doing the hunting.”
“It’s exciting,” Semien added. “When you go into another park that has energy, it brings out the best in us. That can help us. We flew under the radar last year. That’s not happening anymore.”
For World Series MVP Corey Seager, it’s a whole new ballgame.
“We enjoyed our time, but it’s time to move on and turn the page,” he said.
‘Our goal is to be the best version of the Diamondbacks that we can be’
Early this spring at Diamondbacks camp, owner Ken Kendrick and team president Derrick Hall were chatting in the team’s executive office when closer Paul Sewald stuck his head in the room. The two execs had just addressed the team for the first time since losing in the World Series, and Sewald wanted to have a word.
“He said ‘Ken, Derrick, sorry to interrupt,'” said Hall, sitting in the same office this week. “Then Sewald says, ‘Thank you so much for spending more money and making our team even better.’ He walked out and I looked at Ken and was like, ‘When is the last time a player has come up here and said thank you for investing into the team?'”
“The answer is never,” Kendrick said with a laugh.
Times have changed for Arizona — seemingly overnight. Just a couple years removed from a 110-loss season, the Diamondbacks stunned the National League by reaching the Fall Classic.
Kendrick and Hall had already begun discussing how to spend the extra revenue earned during their surprising playoff run. Before Game 2 in Arlington, Texas, the two huddled near the visitor’s dugout, admiring some of the ground level suites at four-year-old Globe Life Field while talking through the best ways to spend money on overdue needed improvements at Chase Field.
But future suite upgrades and improved ballpark amenities weren’t what had D-backs players and coaches buzzing as spring training began. The front office also spent the winter investing its newfound revenue back into the payroll, increasing it to an all-time high of about $180 million for 2024.
“He said it from the first day I was hired,” Lovullo said of Kendrick. ‘”Just so you know, every penny that I earn with this ballclub, I’m going to reinvest.’
“He held serve on that. When we have good years, good things happen.”
Seemingly every time Lovullo checked his phone, there was another dose of good news being delivered by GM Mike Hazen.
The team had entered the offseason looking to improve its starting rotation while upgrading the lineup at third base and designated hitter. So when Joc Pederson, Eduardo Rodriguez, Eugenio Suarez and Randal Grichuk were all acquired — and breakout outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was re-signed — everyone in the organization took notice.
That included Sewald, who was acquired from the Seattle Mariners in July and had experienced something very different with his former team when the Mariners traded closer Kendall Graveman to Houston while in the thick of a pennant race in 2021 — and actually did the same by moving Sewald to Arizona despite being just 3½ games out of a playoff spot at the time.
“I was disappointed how things went with my previous employer when I thought we were at a position that we were so close to getting to that group of teams that could make a real run at it,” Sewald said. “I felt like we got let down. To have the team I’m on now, we pretty much did what we could do to improve the team. That’s all you can ask for. Our 26-man roster is even better than last year.”
That sentiment was echoed throughout the team’s spring clubhouse as newcomers met holdovers.
“It’s exciting,” first baseman Christian Walker said. “It’s cool to feel the dynamic of the team both stay the same but also evolve a little bit. This last year was speed, speed, speed and now we added some thump back into the lineup. It’s cool to see how it can grow and change and get better.”
Like Texas, the Diamondbacks want to hit the ground running heading into the new season. They know they barely made it to the postseason last year, earning the National League’s last wild-card spot on the final weekend. And then there’s the challenge of the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers, who were one of the few teams to outspend Arizona this offseason. Can they be taken down again?
“Our goal isn’t to beat the Dodgers anyway. Our goal is to be the best version of the Diamondbacks that we can be,” Sewald said. “And on October 1, let’s see if we get another series to play.”