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Old Friends Reunite as Cole Ragans Reconcile with Rangers Teammates

Old Friends Reunite as Cole Ragans Reconcile with Rangers Teammates

During All-Star week, Major League Baseball treated fans with the best of the best during the first portion of the 2024 MLB regular season. Rangers fans saw four of their own over the two days (Adolis Garcia, Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, and Kirby Yates), some acquainted foes who did damage against the Rangers, and one familiar face, Cole Ragans.

The Rangers drafted Ragans in 2016 as a first-round pick (30th overall). He climbed through the minor leagues, battling adversity and injuries, and made his Major League Debut on August 4th, 2022, against the Chicago White Sox. On Tuesday, July 16th, 2024, he threw an inning of relief in the All-Star game. Both of these occurrences happened on the same mound, at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

Last season, the Rangers traded Ragans to the Kansas City Royals to acquire Aroldis Chapman. While this trade paved the way for a Texas World Series, it did come at a price. The next season after the trade, Cole Ragans was an All-Star for the Royals and their Opening Day starter.

“A lot of firsts [at Globe Life Field], it’s exciting. [I] got to see the staff. I know them pretty well. It’s good to see those guys. It’s pretty cool. A lot of firsts on this field,” Ragans said. Cole said it’s pretty cool to make your first All-Star team and have the manager and pitching staff the same group of people he worked with in the past.

“It’s good to have him back, that’s for sure,” Corey Seager smiled when I asked about having Ragans back as a teammate. “That’s a good way to put it. I’m happy for him. He’s pitched really well, and he’s done extremely well in his career. So it’s happy to see him here.”

As for Marcus Semien, I asked him about Ragan’s success, and he doesn’t seem surprised at all, considering what he saw at the start of 2023.” He came into Spring Training last year throwing 98, and everybody was looking like, who is this guy?” Semien said.

“[Ragans] put on some muscle, he worked extremely hard to get his velocity up, and we had to make a move, and we were all pretty bummed that it was him but happy that he’s got the opportunity to be their ace over there and he’s definitely taken advantage of it.”

In his season and a half with the Royals, Ragans has thrown 188.1 innings (32 starts) and has only allowed 65 runs (2.96 ERA). His strikeout per nine-inning ratio increased by nearly four more strikeouts, his walk rate decreased by one walk per nine innings, and he is allowing two fewer hits per nine innings as a Royals pitcher than during his time with the Rangers. Ragans received his first career complete game on April 25th against the Blue Jays (all be it a rained-shortened game). Ragans has gone five or more innings in 18 of his 20 starts in 2024. It is a trade that, one can argue, benefited both sides, considering the Rangers’ outcome in 2023 and what the Royals received in an ace starter.

I asked Corey and Marcus if they stayed in touch with Cole. They shared the same clubhouse during the All-Star Game, but they both told me they talk to Ragans when ends meet.

“We talked to [Ragans] in Kansas City, [and] they got their rings, and I talked to him in the clubhouse [Home Run Derby Day]. [I] told him we missed him and we’re happy for him. We got Aroldis in the trade, and he was a big part of what we did last year, but we don’t have Aroldis now,” Semien said.

“You always stay in touch with teammates,” Seager said. “I liked Cole when he was here, so I’m sad to see him go but happy to see him succeed.”

As for Cole Ragans, he’s embracing everything about Kansas City and loves the area around him. “I love every second of it. I love the team, the city, the fans, everything has been great. It’s been nothing short of awesome.”

Of course, Ragans’s move from Texas to Kansas City begs the million-dollar question: Which area has the best BBQ?

“Kansas City,” Ragans said with a smirk and a broader smile. “When I was with Texas last year, we played in Kansas City, and we had BBQ at the field, I think on a getaway day. That was the first time I had it, and it was last year.”

Ragans did tell me he’ll have it just once in a while away from the field, but most of his Kansas City BBQ intake will come from the field.

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Credentialed Media Staff Writer covering the Texas Rangers for Dallas Sports Fanatic | 2014 University of North Texas graduate with a Bachelor's in Radio, Television, and Film. I talk about things. Find me on the tweeter @aplinckTX

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