Elvis Andrus, who made his major league debut as a 20-year-old shortstop for the Texas Rangers on opening day in 2009, will retire with his original team.
Andrus, 36, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Rangers’ home game against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night, alongside manager Ron Washington, who was Andrus’ skipper for his first five-plus seasons.
Andrus will be joined on the mound by Michael Young, who moved from shortstop to third base to create way for Andrus and is now the Rangers’ special assistant to general manager Chris Young.
Andrus, a two-time All-Star, was a dependable presence in the middle for the Rangers during their back-to-back World Series appearances in 2010-11. He was also a member of the AL West championship squads in 2015-16.
As the team began to rebuild nearly a decade later, Andrus was traded to Oakland before the 2021 season. During his second season with the Athletics, Andrus was traded to the Chicago White Sox.
Andrus spent 2023 in Chicago but is unsigned this season.
The Venezuelan native has a career batting average of.269 with 102 home runs and 775 RBI. Andrus has 305 stolen bases in his Rangers career and is second in games (1,652), at bats (6,366), and triples (48).
We’re now in the stretch run as the 2024 MLB season begins in September and teams make their final bids for the playoffs. In fact, some of the league’s top teams are already on their way to securing a postseason spot as early as next week.
The Astros and Cubs demonstrate how far a team can go if it shifts into high gear to finish the season. Houston has been hot since the All-Star break, allowing it to a comfortable lead over Seattle and all but ensuring another division title despite the team’s less-than-stellar start in 2024. Meanwhile, Chicago has re-entered the wild-card race after winning nine of ten games in a row to conclude August. The Cubs would need to maintain this momentum to make that a reality, but they are in a far better position than they were a few weeks ago.
Division titles and wild-card spots are up for grabs, so don’t expect clubs to calm down anytime soon — especially in a year without a clear No. 1 club, as evidenced by the continuous changes to our top five this week.
Our expert panel has ranked every club based on what we’ve seen thus far and what we already knew coming into the 162-game marathon that is a whole baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB specialists David Schoenfield, Bradford Doolittle, Jesse Rogers, Alden Gonzalez, and Jorge Castillo to provide observations for all 30 teams.
