Texas Rangers, Round Rock reuniting, but don’t expect Nolan Ryan to seek new role
In the strange and ever-changing world of minor-league baseball, Round Rock was finally allowed to announce that it would be the Texas Rangers’ Triple A team even though it had been extended an invitation two months ago.
So, as of Tuesday, and not Dec. 9 on invitation day, Round Rock and the Rangers have been reunited on a 10-year player development agreement. The Rangers’ three other full-season affiliates, led by Double A Frisco, also announced 10-year PDAs.
Nolan Ryan will continue to be a Rangers legend no matter how long Round Rock and the Rangers are partnered. His family, along with Houston financier Don Sanders, have owned the Express since their first season in 2000.
But it appears Ryan has no plans to do anything more to enjoy retirement.
His oldest son Reid, the CEO of Ryan Sanders Sports & Entertainment, said his dad has made no mention of diving back into a baseball front office. He served as Rangers president, president and CEO, or CEO from 2008 to 2013 and was part of the ownership group that purchased the Rangers out of bankruptcy court in 2010.
“We have never discussed that, but we are selling hot dogs at the new stadium,” Reid Ryan said, pointing to the Rangers’ agreement with Nolan Ryan Beef. “Everything has a season, and I don’t know if that season of his life he ever wants to get back into it in any other level than being a fan and being around.
“I would not be surprised to see him around more, but he has never expressed to me that he has a desire at this point in his life to do more than what he’s doing right now.”
Rangers owners Ray Davis and Neil Leibman invited Ryan to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in December, when he posed next to the statue of him that used to be inside Globe Life Park.
Ryan also threw out the final ceremonial first pitch at Globe Life Park to end the 2019 season.
But Ryan has otherwise been absent from the Rangers organization since walking away following a tumultuous 2013 in which he felt he was stripped many of his duties. He joined the Houston Astros, where Reid had been hired as team president, in an advisory role.
Nolan Ryan left the Astros after the 2019 season after Reid was replaced as president.
With both Ryans in Houston, Round Rock chose to become the Astros’ Triple A affiliate beginning in 2019. That ended a six-season run with the Rangers, who replaced the Astros while Nolan Ryan was overseeing the Rangers.
Amid all the changes in the minor leagues, orchestrated this offseason by MLB, and the Astros purchasing the independent Sugar Land Skeeters to be their Triple A club, Reid Ryan said there are no regrets from ending the relationship with the Rangers.
“Everything happens for a reason, and I’ve never been a person to look back,” he said. “Every time we’ve made ever an affiliate switch, it was really to put the best product on the field for the fans here in Round Rock and to have the best relationship with the parent club we could have.
“That doesn’t mean that we weren’t in a good situation before, because we were. It’s always just been how could we make it better, how could we win more games, how could we have access to better players and make our fans happy in Central Texas?”
Round Rock president Chris Almendarez said that Dell Diamond is equipped to accommodate 3,600 fans for baseball under the governor’s current guidelines for outdoor sports venues.
He also said that Dell Diamond has hosted some 30 events during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hope, Almendarez said, is for the Triple A season season to begin around April 8.
