San Francisco Giants: Hunter Pence signs with the Rangers

Former San Francisco Giants outfielder, Hunter Pence, has signed with the Texas Rangers. That sentence was really weird to type.

Hunter Pence will head to spring training with a big league squad in a few weeks. But it won’t be with the San Francisco Giants. He and the Rangers have agreed to a one year minor league deal with an invite to spring training.

Last we saw of Hunter Pence, he was making the rounds at AT&T park thanking fans while they thanked him for everything he gave. His good years in San Francisco were really good. From 2012 to 2016 he hit .274 with 93 homers, and 374 RBI.

The two postseason performances will forever cement his legacy amongst the Giant greats. Sadly, the last two years just didn’t reflect that Hunter Pence. Over his final two years he hit .249 with a sub .700 OPS. Sadly, the run together had to come to a close.

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This winter, he made eight appearances in the Dominican Winter League in an attempt to work on his swing and make one last shot at the bigs. The 36 year old outfielder now gets to go home and what is surely the end of a stellar career.

Pence was raised in Arlington, Texas, went to school in Arlington (University of Texas-Arlington), and now will potentially play for the Rangers. Former Giants seem to have a habit of landing there. Matt Moore, Corey Gearrin are just a couple in recent years. Hopefully Pence can have a bit more success there than they did.

Pence will join a Rangers squad that is a shell of the team that the Giants were battling with in the early 2000s. They’re in a position very similar to the Giants, expensive in all the wrong places, and not a whole lot coming in the pipeline.

Despite that, they still will end up with a relatively young roster in 2019. And Rangers GM, Jon Daniels, is counting on Pence to help nurture their young:

Hopefully, if Pence makes the squad, it goes a lot better than the last two years he had in San Francisco. While they were frustrating to watch at teams, he’s still a team legend, and a person that’s easy to root for.