Nick Castellanos is a Cincinnati Red and Starling Marte is an Arizona Diamondback. Neither of them is a Texas Ranger, is the point — even though both of them were rumored to be potential Rangers this offseason. Just like Anthony Rendon and Josh Donaldson. Just like Stephen Strasburg and Zack Wheeler. Just like Madison Bumgarner and Hyun-Jin Ryu and (so far) Kris Bryant and Nolan Arenado. There are an awful lot of baseball players who don’t play for the Texas Rangers.



That’s not remarkable, in and of itself. On any given day in the 2020 season, there will be 754 active big-league players who aren’t Texas Rangers. What is remarkable is that this was supposed to be the winter when the 26 last names on the back of the newly-designed Rangers jerseys would be a bit more recognizable to the casual fan. This was supposed to be a winter of hot pursuit. Jon Daniels and co. revved the engine impatiently, waiting for the World Series to end and the hot stove gates...