If the 2022 Rangers Player and Pitcher of the Year both find the type of success they enjoyed in 2022 next year, there is a good chance they could be playing in the 2024 MLB All-Star game in Arlington.
Texas handed out their teams awards last week before MLB announced on Thursday the Rangers will host the Mid-Summer Classic in 2024 at Globe Life Field. Arlington will be the host city for the exhibition contest for the second time in the team’s 51-year history in the DFW (1995).
The Rangers announced the recipients of the 2022 team awards on November 9, as chosen by the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Team Player of the Year was awarded to first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who also earned a 2022 Silver Slugger Award.
Nathaniel Lowe hit a .302 average last season with 27 homers and 76 RBI. His 179 hits were the fourth most in the American League (AL) last year, and he led the team in hits, total bases, batting average, slugging, and OPS, the team reported.
Between the Rangers awards and the MLB All-Star Game announcement, Martin Pérez, lefty-starter and the team’s 2022 Pitcher of the Year, accepted a qualifying offer to return to Texas for the 2023 season.
Pérez, 31, had a career year in his return to the Rangers in 2022, posting a 12–8 season in which he pitched in 196.1 innings — a career-high — with an ERA of 2.89.
In the 32 Pérez started, he had 169 strikeouts and finished the season ranked among the AL leaders in groundball percentage (2nd, 51.6%), home runs allowed per nine innings (2nd, 0.50), starts (T3rd, 23), innings (5th), and ERA (8th).
His ERA was the eighth-lowest qualifying figure in Texas history (1972–2022) and the second lowest by a Ranger in the previous 39 seasons (starting in 1984), trailing only Yu Darvish’s 2.83 ERA in 2013, the team reported.
Pérez is the first player to accept the Rangers’ qualifying offer since the process began in 2012, as the previous four players to receive the offer from Texas chose to decline (outfielder Josh Hamilton, 2012; Nelson Cruz, 2013; Yovani Gallardo, 2015; and Ian Desmond, 2016).
Venezuela native Pérez was named to the 2022 AL All-Star team at the halfway point of last season. Should he duplicate the feat in 2023, he would suit up for the game in his home locker room, as the game will be played at Globe Life Field on Tuesday, July 16.
“Major League Baseball is pleased to award the 2024 All-Star Game to the Rangers and the Cities of Arlington and Fort Worth, which presented a robust bid for All-Star Week,” said commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr.
“The Rangers stepped up under difficult circumstances, and Globe Life Field served as a terrific host for the 2020 Postseason, including the World Series. We are excited to once again feature baseball’s newest ballpark on a global stage.”
First-year skipper Bruce Bochy would likely love to see Lowe, Perez, Rangers Rookie of the Year Brock Burke, and as many Texas players as possible make the All-Star Roster in 2023.
