My five favorite Texas Rangers of all-time 

This is a weird time where there’s no live sports going on so everybody has a list.  What better time than now to list my top 5 favorite Texas Rangers of all time. I am going to do this list based off players I actually have seen play during my time following baseball.

Elvis Andrus 

Elvis Andrus made his major league debut April 6th, 2009. Since then, Elvis has been a mainstay at shortstop for the Rangers organization. Andrus was acquired from the Atlanta Braves in 2007, which will go down as one of the best, if not THE best, trades in Rangers history. The trade saw Mark Teixeira go to the Braves and Texas acquire Elvis, Matt Harrison, Neftali Feliz, Jared Saltalamacchia and Beau Jones.

Elvis has made the All-Star team twice and is the franchise leader in stolen bases with 302. 

Adrian Beltre 

Adrian Beltre might be the best free agent pickup this organization has ever seen. When he signed his 5 year, $80 million contract in 2011, many thought that the Rangers overpaid including the commissioner of baseball. As it turned out, it was one of the biggest steals. 

The Rangers retired his number 29 in 2019 and Beltre will no doubt be headed to Cooperstown when he is eligible. 

Michael Young 

Michael Young is who I consider Mr. Ranger.

When I think of the Rangers, it’s hard not to think of “MY.” He did everything he could to lead this franchise to being a winner on a consistent basis and they finally started to contend towards the end. While a lot was made about the position changes, at the end of the day, he did what helped the team. 

Young is the franchise leader in games played,  at bats, runs scored, hits, doubles and triples. Young also went into the Rangers Hall of fame in 2016 and his number 10 was retired in August 2019.

Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez 

The best catcher in major league history was right here in Texas. His name was Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. Pudge spent about half of his Hall of Fame career in Texas and made the All-Star team 9 times and won 9 gold gloves during his initial 12 year stint to start his career with the Rangers. 

In baseball, there really isn’t an unstoppable move per se, but his quick throw down to first base behind the runner was as close as you can get. He went to that move once teams around baseball stopped trying to steal bases on him. 

Josh Hamilton 

Josh Hamilton was acquired in another one of the best trades in the franchises history. His time spent here didn’t last as long as it should based on different challenges he had but when talking about on the field talent, Hamilton is the best player to ever play for this organization. During the Rangers World Series runs, you always felt that if Josh was at the plate, good things were going to happen. 

Josh was a 5x All-Star and won AL AND ALCS MVP during the 2010 season. He also won the AL batting title that year. In 2012, he became one of 18 players in MLB to hit four homeruns in one game.  

In 2019, he entered the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame.