The Angels won the 2011 Winter Meetings. In less than 36-hours they signed the best available free agent pitcher on the market and the best available free agent hitter. Angels fans everywhere are celebrating like they’ve won the World Series, but they haven’t. They Angels won the 2011 Winter Meetings, not the 2012 AL West, nor a pennant, nor the Commissioner’s trophy. Have they made the AL West a lot closer? Absolutely but there is still 162-games to be played, and there is still an entire winter of off-season transactions to be made.
Two of the Rangers most influential players in 2011 were Adrian Beltre and Mike Napoli. Both were not signed at the Winter Meetings, yet later on during the winter. As matter of fact, Napoli became a Ranger only after being a Toronto Blue Jay for four-days. Be patient Rangers fans, there is time, an entire winter’s-worth of time.
You could argue that C.J. Wilson signing with the Angels is worse than when LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. Prior to the LeBron deal, the Heat was not hated by all of the United States. Prior to the LeBron deal, the Heat and the Cavs had no relationship. They weren’t rivals. The Angels and the Rangers are. They have been, for quite sometime.
Regardless, you can’t blame C.J. for leaving the Rangers to go to Los Angeles. Take away team loyalty, the colors, the cheers, the fandom, and look at C.J. as an employee for the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. Mr. Wilson had an employment opportunity from Miami. Mr. Wilson had another employment opportunity from Los Angeles. Texas did not. Mr. Wilson went home.
When the news broke that the Angels had signed Albert Pujols early Thursday morning on the last day of the Winter Meetings, I’m sure somewhere inside the Hilton Anatole or inside their offices at the Ballpark in Arlington, Jon Daniels and Thad Levine chuckled. And later that morning when the news broke that the Angels had also signed C.J. Wilson, I’m sure JD and Thad chuckled even more.
We don’t know why the Rangers’ front office made no offer to C.J. What we do know is that JD and Rangers’ front office have something up their sleeves. They made no offer to C.J., and they did so for a reason. We don’t know that reason. Perhaps sometime towards the end of September and on through October, Mike Maddux saw something in C.J. that he didn’t like, and it compelled him to go up to Jon Daniels and shake his head.
We may never know why the Rangers didn’t make C.J. an offer. However, if Majestic is soon forced to start making Rangers jerseys in a size XXXXXXL for Prince Fielder, we’ll have an idea why. If Neftali Feliz throws a no-no in 2012, we’ll have an idea why. Or if on a beautiful afternoon at Rangers Ballpark on April 6th, 2012, a young man takes the mound with a jersey that reads “DARVISH 11” – we’ll have a slight idea why.
The Angels’ front office and the Rangers’ front office are playing chess. It’s now JD’s turn. He has to figure out how to replace C.J.’s 16-wins from last season, but he has a plan. Rangers’ fans have nothing to worry about. In 2011, the Rangers outscored the Angels during the regular season by 855 to 667 runs. Pujols is not about to singlehandedly make up for those 188 runs.
Signing the best players doesn’t always win rings. It didn’t work when the Rangers signed Alex Rodriguez. It also didn’t work when this small team up in New England signed Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford. You can’t buy championships.
I was at the Anatole in the hours following the announcement of the Pujols and Wilson deals. I was three-feet away from C.J. Wilson at one point, and I wanted to say something. I just didn’t know what to say. I deliberated between saying anything at all. I could have easily said something douchey to him. However in that moment, my mother’s words, “if you don’t something nice to say, don’t say at anything at all,” kept running through my head.
My emotions after the Rangers lost the World Series to the Cardinals were in some ways similar to those felt upon hearing the Pujols/C.J. news. I was angry, sad, bitter and upset, and I didn’t know which one to pick.
Now, that I’ve had time to think about it. I wish I could go back in time, walk up to C.J., and say thank you, for being a crucial part in getting us to a World Series two-years in a row. I wouldn’t have wished him luck, but I also won’t boo him when he returns to the Ballpark in Angels uniform.
So long str8edgeracer, see Yu soon.
Jesus Jimenez
@jesusA_jimenez
Chris Lee
December 9, 2011
“See Yu soon”
Nice touch.