Every Ranger who will be getting a World Series ring, including Jacob deGrom

As you may have heard, the Texas Rangers finally scaled the mountaintop on Wednesday night, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 5 to clinch their first-ever World Series title. It’s the exclamation point on a remarkable story, a team that had lost a combined 196 games over the previous two seasons, nearly collapsed out of the playoffs entirely and then caught fire and rampaged through the playoffs.

But we’re here to talk about something more important than all that: Who will be getting some hardware? One of the best parts of the aftermath of the World Series is finding all the players who are line to receive a championship ring — anyone who made any appearance with a World Series-winning team gets one, which can lead to some awfully fun trivia. With that in mind, here are some notable Rangers.

Rangers who will receive World Series rings

• Of course, they don’t get much more notable than Jacob deGrom, who signed a massive free-agent deal with Texas over the winter but made all of six starts for his new team before being lost for the season with Tommy John surgery. If you’d told the Rangers nine months ago that they’d be hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy, they likely would’ve expected much more out of the righty, but alas, he’ll look to get back on the mound at some point in late 2024.
• Lefty reliever Will Smith, meanwhile, made some history on Wednesday night, becoming the first player to win three rings in three years with three different teams. Smith was on the mound for the final out of the Braves’ win in 2021, then won it all with the Astros last season. He began this year as Texas’ closer but eventually fell out of Bruce Bochy’s high-leverage equation in October.
• If you watched any of Texas’ postseason run, chances are you noticed Austin Hedges, the team’s backup catcher and unofficial dugout mascot. Whenever something good happened for the Rangers this October, Hedges was there with an incredible facial expression — oh, and he got one at-bat, too, coming in extra innings of Game 1 of the World Series.

• As for who got a ring for the least amount of effort: The Rangers don’t have a player who appeared in only one game, but pitchers Alex Speas (three appearances) and Owen White (two) come close. On the position player side, Jonathan Ornelas popped up for seven at-bats in eight games. He notched one hit: a single to left in a September blowout loss to the Guardians.
• Texas also had a couple of pitchers who didn’t appear in a single game this year. Offseason addition Jake Odorizzi and lefty reliever Brett Martin both missed the entire season with shoulder issues, but luckily you don’t need a healthy shoulder to get fitted for a championship ring.