Friday BP: Return of the Boch

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants are set to have a reunion with their former manager, Bruce Bochy, today as they take on Bochy’s new team, the Texas Rangers.

Bochy managed the Giants from 2007 to 2019, during which time the team won three World Series championships. Bochy retired at the end of the 2019 season, or so it was said. I kind of got the impression that Bochy wasn’t done, but that the organization would rather celebrate his retirement than announce that they were not going to renew his contract.

And it turns out, I was kind of right, as Bochy came out of retirement this offseason to take on the manager role for the Rangers. The Rangers ended up being a bit of an unexpected landing spot for Jacob deGrom this offseason as well, one of the leading free agent starting pitchers on the market.

Which was always a little interesting to me, as his former team, the New York Mets, haven’t exactly been shy about throwing money at free agents. So it’ll be interesting to see what Bochy and the Rangers are cooking up this season and the Giants get their first taste today.