Texas Rangers News: Three stories to keep an eye out for this week

January is about to come to an end and with that comes the last month of the year without live baseball until December. Spring training games will get underway in February after pitchers and catchers report in almost two weeks. The offseason business for the Texas Rangers is still not completed. Three stories will be on the front burner this week as some offseason questions might finally be resolved. Lets take a look at what fans should be watching for these final few days of January and into the month of February.

#1- Adolis Garcia Arbitration hearing?

Arbitration hearings get underway starting today, January 29th. We do not know when Garcia's is scheduled for. The hearings will run from January 29th through February 16th. The Texas Rangers and Garcia's representation have until they step inside the hearing room to agree to a contract for 2024. The two sides are pretty far apart. The offer Texas submitted is $5 million for the ALCS MVP and Garcia is asking for 6.9 million. They have until their hearing to try to find a compromise that will make both sides happy.

Texas Rangers fanfest was this past weekend and that brought all of the players back to Arlington to sign autographs and meet with the fans. Garcia was in attendance Friday night for the awards banquet and Saturday for the Fan Fest. He did answer some questions from the media about the situation and had this to say as reported by the Dallas Morning News,

"It's hard for me because I'm a hard player, everybody knows me, I just go out there and try every time to get the win for the team, you know, try to be a good teammate. Just a little bit disappointed, but it is what it is. I'm here for the club, being the same guy."

Adolis Garcia

The Texas Rangers are potentially facing their first arbitration hearing since 2000 with Lee Stevens. Chris Young was also asked about the situation with Garcia and had this to say,

"I don't think it makes sense to comment. But the dialogue has been very good and we've been very encouraged by the back and forth. "

General Manager Chris Young

This situation could be resolved this week with either an agreement to a contract for 2024 or a hearing where an arbitrator will listen to both sides and decide what Garcia will make. Let's hope that it is the former and not the latter. A hearing could damage the long-term relationship between Garcia and the Texas Rangers.