The Texas Rangers won 95 games last season, and the rest of the baseball world said they were lucky.
Something about run differential. The stats experts wouldn't take Tom Wilhelmsen and Kyle Lohse as an excuse.
And now here come this year's preseason baseball magazines, washing their hands of a team that led the American League in victories.
Key personnel losses, they're calling it.
The Rangers, they point out, lost Mitch Moreland, Ian Desmond and Carlos Beltran.
Yeah. So?
Free agency happens in baseball. Sometimes you tell them to deal you in, sometimes you don't.
General Manager Jon Daniels elected to stay with a mostly pat hand, and the preseason magazines have given him a low grade for that. Big spenders get the high grades.
Beltran signed a one-year deal with the Astros for $16 million, which is about $4 million more than most teams would have spent on a former All-Star who will turn 40 in the season's first month.
Plus, he received a full no-trade clause from Houston -- a not-insignificant perk.
Don't get me wrong. Having Beltran in the Rangers clubhouse was like welcoming old-school royalty. The man can still hit, and he may easily hit 30-plus home runs playing at friendly Minute Maid Park.
But the Rangers already have Nomar Mazara and Shin-Soo Choo to play the corner outfield positions. And they weren't enticed by the idea of paying $16 million for a designated hitter, which is Beltran's likely role now that his decline as an outfielder is a matter of record.
Desmond was a different case. The Colorado Rockies gifted him with a five-year, $70-million free agent contract to play ... uh ... not sure where exactly. Latest rumors mention first base.
Like Beltran, Desmond enhanced the Rangers clubhouse. I've never met a classier ballplayer. And he worked hard for his stunning $70 million. In 2018 alone, the Rockies will be paying Desmond $22 million.
He had an All-Star first half in Texas, literally. But after July 27, Desmond hit just two home runs. He batted .237 in the second half and his OPS dropped 269 points.
When a free agent has a second half like that, you give him a contract like Mike Napoli's -- $8.5 million this season -- not $70 million.
His presence will be missed, but Carlos Gomez will attempt to replace him in center field. Gomez signed a showcase one-year deal, just as Desmond did last spring, and will earn $11.5 million.
In his one month in Arlington last season, Gomez batted .284 with eight home runs and an OPS-plus of 134.
So there's your starting outfield -- Mazara, Gomez and Choo -- with Napoli and an assorted mix of Jurickson Profar, Ryan Rua and a spring phenom to be determined later to share first base and DH.
Joey Gallo can hit his way into that group with a solid spring, but the likelihood is that he begins the year at Class AAA and is called up sometime in the first two months.
Josh Hamilton has been invited to Arizona, but unless you believe in unicorns, don't count on seeing him in the lineup.
Throughout the winter, Daniels has talked about employing patience and utilizing the team's assembled cast.
It could work. Or it may not be enough firepower to win 36 one-run games again.
What the magazines miss is that the 2017 Rangers will begin spring training this week with a better lineup than they had 12 months ago, when Hamilton was on crutches and Prince Fielder couldn't swing.
Jonathan Lucroy is the catcher. Rougned Odor and Elvis Andrus both had outstanding seasons. Mazara is a big leaguer at the age of 21.
And note: Not a Wilhelmsen or Lohse in sight.
Sports on 02/15/2017