Rangers’ Shin-Soo Choo felt ‘free’ to go home again after strong finish

Returning home to South Korea in the off-season is always special for Shin-Soo Choo and his family.

But making the trip is a lot more fun after your team wins a division title and you sizzled at the plate the entire second half.

Two weeks back home in November, including his hometown of Busan, was indeed fun for Choo, who visited friends, family and his parents. It was a much more enjoyable trip than a year ago when he was coming off an injury-plagued 2014, his first with the Texas Rangers.

“The last couple of years I felt like I put everything on my shoulders and now I want to do something to pay back the Texas Rangers and my contract,” Choo said from a winter caravan appearance with Sam Dyson at an Academy store in North Fort Worth on Sunday afternoon. “Now I feel like I’m more free.”

Choo hit .343 with a .484 on-base percentage in the second half this past season. For a couple of months, there wasn’t a more consistent hitter in baseball. That made going home much sweeter, he said.

“It’s always good to see my country and see a lot of friends and see my parents,” said Choo, who credited manager Jeff Banister for keeping faith when he was struggling early last season, including a .096 batting average in April.

“He gave me the opportunity. That’s not easy to do because everybody wants to win. The first half was not really me. Not many managers would give you that opportunity,” he said.

Dyson’s role

Reliever Sam Dyson doesn’t care about where he or any other pitcher fits in the bullpen in 2016.

To Dyson, the job remains the same no matter the spot: get outs.

So will spring training involve a battle royal with the bevy of quality bullpen arms?

“I don’t really know about jockeying for position,” Dyson said Sunday from a winter caravan stop in North Fort Worth. “There always is. I mean look at [Shawn] Tolleson. He wasn’t the closer at the beginning of the year and in May he became the closer and kind of solidified himself as the closer.”

Dyson, who shaved his beard a month ago but intends to regrow it for the season, said most of the relievers could be counted on in any bullpen role.

“Everybody in the bullpen is trying to go out there and get three, six, whatever outs they’re supposed to get,” said Dyson, who had a 1.15 ERA in 31  1/3 innings after joining the Rangers in a trade with the Miami Marlins.

“They’re going to help out regardless of the situation. So whether [Keone] Kela is the seventh- or eighth-inning guy, or [Tom] Wilhelmsen is the seventh- or eighth-inning guy it doesn’t really matter, we’re all there trying to win. Everybody down there is capable of being the seventh-eighth-inning guy or the ninth-inning guy. It’s just a matter of who they feel has had the rest, who’s the most capable person at that time to do the job.”

Helping hands

Four Rangers players headlined a Winter Caravan stop in Garland that also served as an equipment drive for youths who were affected by the Dec. 26 tornadoes.

Shortstop Elvis Andrus was joined by catcher Chris Gimenez, center fielder Delino DeShields and left fielder Ryan Rua.

Andrus, who lives in Dallas, was in town the day of the storms, and saw the aftermath the next day. Gimenez, who was at his home in Reno, Nev., watched from afar but felt the impact.

“Us being able to gather as much equipment for these people who lost everything is imperative,” Gimenez said. “Most of us are very fortunate. We’ve never had to go through anything like that. If we can give back anything little to help ease the pain, that’s the best way to go about it.”

This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Rangers’ Shin-Soo Choo felt ‘free’ to go home again after strong finish."