DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - Rangers president of baseball operations Jon Daniels joined Shan and Pat Doney on 105.3 The Fan as the club gets prepared for Opening Day on Thursday afternoon.
Daniels discussed his expectations for the club this season, his relationship with new general manager Chris Young, the No. 2 pick in the MLB Draft, and much more.
On his expectations and goals for the team in 2021:
"Growth. There's a lot that goes into that. Obviously, there's a lot that we're doing with rebuilding the farm system, trying to add talent. We have a unique opportunity with the No. 2 pick and the No.2 pick in every round (of the 2021 Draft). So we're going to add a ton of talent," Daniels said. "At the major league level, external expectations are what they are. I think that's been a little bit of a driver because there's like an underdog, overachiever-type mentality to this group. When you got guys like Kiner (Isiah Kiner-Falefa) and Joey, and Kyle Gibson, and guys that have been around that believe we can accomplish more than what's expected. I think we need to see growth individually, we need to see it as a club.
"Woody's been pushing these guys hard. I was really encouraged in spring training (with) the attention to detail, the style of play. I think we're going to be a much better defensive club. We're going to run the bases a lot better. I think it's going to be a much more appealing style of baseball for our fans to watch. I think we're going to be more competitive. Where it ends up in the standings ... we understand we didn't build this team with the full expectation to go out and win a world series this year. We're getting back to that. But we gotta play better baseball, and this group has lots of desire, and I expect that we're going to do that."
Watch the video above or listen to the audio below.