Sunday hops, 12-29-24.
A weekly compendium emptying the bench, with Rangers developments, rumors, and takes — and yes, a little TROT COFFEY.
Here we are. The final Hops of 2024.
I almost typed the final “entry,” but I’m not convinced the Rangers won’t push me back to the keyboard before Wednesday. At the very least, I’m working to get the bullpen entry done on the “Building the 2025 Rangers roster” series out by Tuesday, though no promises when this week it will actually drop.
This is entry number 271 (not counting all the Gameday Chats) since we launched this old-school Newberg Report reboot on Valentine’s Pitchers & Catchers Report Day. That’s 271 posts — exactly the number of stories I was allowed to write at The Athletic in my first five years over there — in 320 days.
I’m not delaying that bullpen piece to give Texas a chance to clarify the relief picture further before I write about it. I’m not!
Maybe.
On to this week’s Hops.