SABR 53: Listen to highlights from Chris Young’s Welcome Remarks
On Thursday, June 26, 2025, Chris Young of the Texas Rangers delivered the Welcome Remarks at SABR 53 at the Westin DFW Airport Hotel in Irving, Texas.
Young is the President of Baseball Operations for the Texas Rangers and in his third full season as the club’s top baseball decision-maker. He joined the organization as Executive Vice President and General Manager in December 2020 and, after luring manager Bruce Bochy out of retirement, the Rangers won the first World Series championship in franchise history in 2023. Young spent 13 seasons as a major-league pitcher, beginning with the Rangers in 2004 and making the American League All-Star team in 2007. He helped the Kansas City Royals win a championship in 2015, picking up wins in the AL Division Series, Championship Series, and the World Series.
The session was moderated by author and podcast host Rob Neyer.
- Audio: Click here to listen to Chris Young’s Welcome Remarks at SABR 53 (1:00:01; MP3)
Here are some highlights:
ON WINNING A WORLD SERIES AS A PLAYER AND EXECUTIVE
- “Those two moments in my career were everything I have strived for, one as a player and now as an executive. The best part of both of those championships, unequivocally, are the civic pride that those moments provide to communities. … The Kansas City championship was special because it was my childhood dream. I had worked my whole career, my lifelong dream, to be a World Series champion. That was the number one thing I wanted to accomplish in my major-league career. … And to contribute in a meaningful way during that World Series was really special on a personal level. … As a general manager, when we won our first World Series, that was the most gratifying professional experience in my life in part because it was about everyone else. It was about a community and an organization that has touched my life in so many ways. I grew up in Texas, I was a Ranger fan my entire life, I got to play for the Rangers, and then I got to come back to be in the front office for the Rangers and help them win their first World Series. To see how much that moment meant to our fans, now it’s motivating for me to give you all that experience again.”
ON MOVING FROM THE FIELD TO THE FRONT OFFICE
- “I had to be real with myself and say, ‘Am I ready for this?’ One of the best pieces of advice I got was from someone I now work with and admire greatly, Bruce Bochy. At the time he was managing the Giants in 2019, we were talking about the future and what I wanted to do. And he said, ‘C-Y, don’t put these jobs on a pedestal. Don’t think you are not qualified and can’t do this job.’ And that always stuck with me. Even though I wasn’t quite sure what the job fully entailed … what I did know is I would approach it with humility, intensity, and the focus that made me a good player. I knew that I knew the game of baseball and if I was open-minded and surrounded myself with great people, together we may make mistakes but we would learn and grow and be better for it.”
ON FINDING DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH
- “I think we have three or four guys who were non-tendered or released or DFA’d last year, who are now performing very well in our bullpen. It is a collective effort by a number of people: our R&D team identifying characteristics or traits, our pitching analysts understanding and synthesizing information, looking at it from a biomechanical standpoint, our strength and conditioning, our medical team. By the way, we do the same for hitters and pitchers, we use this process. It’s scouting, understanding what made a player successful in the past, what does he look like now, how we can get him to the best version of himself, how can we improve. … And then I think the most important component in all of this is understanding the player, and his willingness to change, his motivation to improve, and catching the player at the right moment in his career that he’s willing to listen to that and willing to change. … At the end, betting on hungry, motivated players is often where you look really good, because those guys often perform.”
ON COMPARISONS WITH THE ‘OTHER’ CHRIS YOUNG
- “The other C-Y is a great guy. I think he’s doing a great job broadcasting (with MLB Network) if you haven’t heard him before. … One thing we have a mutual respect for is we’re both good people. You’ve never seen either of our names come across the ticker for a disciplinary issue or something negative and I think we’re both grateful for that. There’s been a couple times where young kids hand me a baseball card and I say, ‘This isn’t me.” And they say, ‘Well, you’re Chris Young.’ Yes, but that’s not me! … There was no extra motivation facing C-Y just because we had the same name. … I think the one person I’ve never been confused with, and I don’t think he has either, is the country music singer Chris Young.”
For more coverage of SABR 53, visit SABR.org/convention.
Originally published: July 3, 2025. Last Updated: July 3, 2025.