Rangers cap turnaround for 1st World Series title
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
PHOENIX — Max Scherzer found Adolis Garcia amid a scramble near the Chase Field pitcher’s mound Wednesday night — moments after a 5-0 victory that sealed the first championship in Texas Rangers history, when the emotions of it all were still fresh — and hugged him so tight it seemed as if he’d never let go.
A mere 28 hours earlier, the Rangers learned they would have to win two more World Series games without Scherzer and Garcia, both of whom suffered season-ending injuries in Game 3. That they did so immediately and vanquished the Arizona Diamondbacks by winning Games 4 and 5 in their building spoke to what many have long believed to be the most important aspect of this high-priced, decorated group of players:
That no matter what took place, they were going to find a way.
“It’s a total team effort to win a World Series,” Scherzer said. “It’s never one guy.”
The latest guy was Nathan Eovaldi, the 33-year-old right-hander who battled shaky command, navigated through a heap of trouble and somehow matched a more dominant Zac Gallen through six scoreless innings until the Rangers’ deep lineup was finally able to break through.
Mitch Garver got the Rangers on the board with an RBI single in the seventh, and Marcus Semien put the game away with a two-run homer in the ninth.
Semien looked back at his dugout and roared as soon as he touched first base, a rare sign of emotion from the typically stoic second baseman. At that point he knew: The Rangers were on their way to the first championship in the 63-year history of their franchise.
“This is the vision, right?” Rangers shortstop Corey Seager said after winning the World Series MVP trophy for the second time in his career. “I’m kind of at a loss for words, but it’s a really special moment.”
The Rangers finished the greatest postseason in their history with an unprecedented 11-0 record on the road. It helped make them the third team in baseball history to win the World Series within two seasons of losing 100-plus games, joining the 1969 New York Mets and 1914 Boston Braves.
Texas lost 102 games in 2021 and responded by spending a combined $500 million to sign Semien and Seager the following offseason. A year later, the Rangers splurged on their rotation — signing Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom and Andrew Heaney — and plucked three-time champion Bruce Bochy out of retirement to be their manager.
Bochy became the sixth manager with four or more World Series titles, joining Joe McCarthy (7), Casey Stengel (7), Connie Mack (5), Joe Torre (4) and Walter Alston (4). His steadying presence proved invaluable for a team that continually faced adversity.
The Rangers were hit with a litany of injuries throughout their lineup and all over their pitching staff. DeGrom, signed to a $185 million contract to be their ace, underwent Tommy John surgery. Scherzer, acquired at midseason to carry the Rangers through October, suffered a shoulder injury that put his entire postseason in question. The likes of Seager, Eovaldi, Garver, Jonah Heim, Josh Jung, Jon Gray, Josh Sborz and Jose Leclerc, among others, all hit the injured list too.
Texas lost eight consecutive games near the middle of August and six of its first seven contests at the start of September. The Rangers held a 2½-game lead in the American League West going into their final series of the regular season then lost three of four to the Seattle Mariners, including the finale, to lose the division title on the final day and fall into the wild card.
It somehow triggered seven consecutive playoff wins, a run that saw them eliminate the 99-win Tampa Bay Rays and the 101-win Baltimore Orioles and take a 2-0 lead on the defending champion Houston Astros.
When they lost three straight home games in the AL Championship Series, the Rangers responded by winning back-to-back games in Houston, clinching their first pennant since the World Series disappointment of 2011. When they trailed the Diamondbacks by two runs in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the World Series, they battled all the way back, getting a tying home run from Seager and, in extras, a walk-off home run from Garcia. And when they lost Scherzer (back spasms) and Garcia (oblique strain) in Game 3, they answered with one of their most dominant performances in Game 4, scoring 10 runs before the end of the third inning, all of them with two outs.
Game 5 showcased more of their moxie. The Diamondbacks put at least one baserunner on in each of the first five innings, but Eovaldi continually worked out of jams, including a bases-loaded one in the fifth, keeping the game scoreless until the Rangers’ offense finally broke through against Gallen, ending his no-hit bid in the seventh.
Eovaldi lowered his career ERA to 1.03 in potential series-clinchers, the third-lowest mark in history.
Seager led off the seventh inning with a single through a vacant third base. Evan Carter, the rookie sensation, followed with a double to right field. And Garver singled up the middle, putting the Rangers on the board.
Texas broke the game open with four runs in the ninth. Heim singled to center field on a ball that snuck under the glove of Alek Thomas, scoring two runs, and Semien followed with his two-run homer.
It was the type of moment he envisioned when he agreed to team up with Seager less than 24 months earlier.
“Everybody in the room wanted it,” Semien said. “We all play for this. We don’t play for any other accolades or anything else. We play for this. We learned that if you get in the playoffs, get hot, get the pitchers going, anybody can win this thing.”
About half an hour after the final out was recorded, Chase Field was still about half full with Rangers fans who stayed to watch the trophy presentation. Many of them chanted “Bruuuuce” when Bochy was handed the World Series trophy. Later, inside the visiting clubhouse, Creed’s “Higher,” which became a rallying cry for this team, blared from the speakers, cutting through cigar smoke and champagne.
At one point Scherzer walked over to veteran infielder Brad Miller, handed him the trophy and instructed him to hold it up high and look at his reflection from the bottom of it.
“Wow!” Miller said in wonder.
The Rangers had finally done it.
“This is unreal,” Bochy said. “A year ago I was sitting in a recliner. To be in this spot, I can’t tell you how blessed I am.”
Mitch Marner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights — with an eight-year extension in place, sources told ESPN on Monday. Forward Nicolas Roy will go to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return.
Marner’s new deal has a $12 million average annual value, according to sources. Marner, 28, was the biggest name entering Tuesday’s NHL free agency, and multiple teams were hoping to make pitches. Marner was the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer last season with 102 points — 36 more than the next-closest free agent. The winger was drafted by his hometown Maple Leafs with the No. 4 pick in 2015.
The Maple Leafs knew that Marner was looking to test free agency at the end of the season. Over the past few days, Toronto worked with Vegas, which was Marner’s preferred destination, on a trade. The Maple Leafs held Marner’s rights until just before midnight Tuesday.
Had Marner become an unrestricted free agent, he couldn’t have signed a deal for more than seven years.
Marner finished a six-year deal that paid him $10.9 million annually. Marner, who played for Team Canada at Four Nations and likely will make their Olympic team, has 221 goals and 741 points in nine NHL seasons.
Toronto general manager Brad Treliving has stayed busy this week, re-signing John Tavares and Matthew Knies while trading for Utah forward Matias Maccelli earlier Monday.
Roy, 28, is a center who is entering Year 4 of a five-year deal that pays him $3 million annually.
Ahead of the Marner trade, the Golden Knights created cap space by sending defenseman Nicolas Hague to the Nashville Predators on Monday.
The deal makes Marner the highest-paid player on Vegas, however, center Jack Eichel ($10 million AAV) is entering the final year of his contract and is eligible to sign an extension this summer. The Golden Knights might not be done this offseason. According to sources, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is expected to go on long-term injured reserve, which could create more flexibility.
Sign-and-trades ahead of free agency are becoming a trend for NHL teams that know they will not sign their coveted player; last season, the Carolina Hurricanes dealt Jake Guentzel‘s rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning before he signed a seven-year deal.
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Ryan S. Clark
Hours after re-signing Aaron Ekblad, the Florida Panthers kept another integral piece of their Stanley Cup team by re-signing Brad Marchand to a six-year contract extension, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.
Marchand’s deal has an average annual value of $5.25 million, sources told Kaplan.
Coming to terms with Ekblad on an eight-year extension worth $6.1 million annually left the Panthers with what PuckPedia projected to be $4.9 million in salary cap space.
There was the possibility that Marchand, 37, could have left the Panthers for a more lucrative offer elsewhere considering there were teams that had more than enough cap space to sign him.
Instead? Marchand, who arrived ahead of the NHL trade deadline from the Boston Bruins, appears as if he will remain in South Florida for the rest of his career.
Acquiring defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks and then adding Marchand were two decisions made by Panthers general manager Bill Zito with the intent of seeing the Panthers win a second consecutive Stanley Cup as part of a run that now has included three straight Cup Final appearances.
Marchand, who was a pending UFA entering the final day before free agency begins Tuesday, used the 2025 postseason to further cement why the Panthers and other teams throughout the NHL would still seek his services. He scored 10 goals and finished with 20 points in 23 playoff games.
For all the contributions he made, his greatest came during the Cup Final series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Marchand, who previously won a Cup with the Bruins back in 2011, opened the series with a goal in the first three games. That includes the two goals he scored in the Panthers’ 5-4 double-overtime win to tie the series with his second being the game-winning salvo.
He scored two more goals in a 5-2 win in Game 5 that allowed the Panthers to take a 3-1 series lead before returning to Sunrise, Florida, where they closed out the series with an emphatic 5-1 win.
Capturing a consecutive title created questions about whether the Panthers can win a third in a row. But there was the understanding that it might be difficult given there was only so much salary cap space to re-sign Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett, Ekblad and Marchand.
Knowing there was a chance they could lose one, or more, of them, Zito laid the foundation to retain the trio. He began by signing Bennett to an eight-year contract worth $8 million annually on June 27 before using Monday to sign Ekblad and Marchand.
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Ryan S. Clark
Ivan Provorov decided to forgo free agency, with the veteran defenseman finalizing a seven-year extension Monday worth $8.5 million annually to remain with the Columbus Blue Jackets, sources told ESPN, confirming earlier reports.
With free agency slated to start Tuesday, the 28-year-old was one of the most notable defenseman who had a chance to hit the open market.
Provorov’s decision to stay with the Blue Jackets comes shortly after it was reported that Aaron Ekblad also avoided free agency by agreeing to an eight-year extension to remain with the Florida Panthers. That now leaves players such as Vladislav Gavrikov, Ryan Lindgren, and Dmitry Orlov among the more prominent pending UFAs who could be available should they fail to strike a deal with their current teams.
Retaining Provorov comes months after a season that witnessed the Blue Jackets shed the title of being a rebuilding franchise to one that could challenge for the playoffs in 2025-26.
Four consecutive seasons without the playoffs created the idea that the 2024-25 campaign could be another challenging one. But a six-game winning streak in January saw Columbus post a 22-17-6 record to create the belief that a turnaround could be in order.
The Jackets closed the season with another six-game winning streak but fell short of the final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot, which went to the Montreal Canadiens by two points.
Provorov would finish with seven goals and 33 points in 82 games while his 23 minutes, 21 seconds in average ice time was second behind Norris Trophy finalist Zach Werenski.
Re-signing Provorov comes in an offseason that saw the Blue Jackets also strengthen their bottom-six forward corps by adding Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche.
PuckPedia projects that the Blue Jackets now have $20.957 million in cap space ahead of free agency.
TSN was first to report news of Provorov’s decision.
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