Chris Young joined the Texas Rangers as Executive Vice President & General Manager on December 4, 2020. The 43-year-old Young assumed leadership of the Rangers’ entire baseball operations group on August 17, 2022.
A veteran of 13 Major League seasons as a right-handed pitcher with five clubs, Young is the ninth General Manager in Rangers history and joins Eddie Robinson (1976-82) and Tom Grieve (1984-94) as former MLB players to hold that position. He joins Seattle’s Jerry Dipoto and Kenny Williams of the Chicago White Sox are the only former Major Leaguers to currently oversee baseball operations for a MLB organization.
Prior to joining the Rangers, Young spent three years working for Major League Baseball and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Baseball Operations in February 2020. In that role, he oversaw the On-Field Operations and Umpiring Departments and served as the league’s principal liaison to Major League managers regarding play on the field. He worked on the application of playing rules and regulations, on-field standards and discipline, pace of play and other special projects. That included working with MLB’s Competition Committee on initiatives and strategies for on-field rule changes. Young also had an active role in issues regarding player safety, on-field equipment, wearable technology, and ballpark alterations.
He worked closely with the Rangers on baseball issues related to the construction of Globe Life Field and oversaw the on-field operations for the three rounds of the 2020 MLB playoffs in Arlington. Young originally joined Major League Baseball as Vice President in May 2018.
Young posted a 79-67 record with a 3.95 ERA in 271 games/221 starts with Texas (2004-05), San Diego (2006-10), New York Mets (2011-12), Seattle (2014), and Kansas City (2015-17). Originally selected by Pittsburgh in the third round of the 2000 MLB draft, he was traded to Montreal in December 2002 and then to Texas in April 2004. The right-hander made seven starts in his first Major League action in 2004 and was selected as the Rangers Rookie of the Year in 2005, leading the staff in starts (31) and strikeouts (137) and ranking second in wins (12) and innings (164.2).
He graduated from Princeton in 2002 with a BA in politics after beginning his pro baseball career. Young wrote his senior thesis on the impact of the life of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson on racial stereotypes. He is a native of Dallas and a 1998 graduate of Highland Park High School where he earned All-State honors in both basketball and baseball in his senior year.