ANAHEIM, Calif. – Rangers general manager Chris Young maintains that “being a good teammate” is one of the pillars of the organization.

On Saturday, the Rangers also followed their word with action.

By letting Andrew Heaney pitch four innings against the Los Angeles Angels on a night where he was clearly lacking his best skills, the Rangers essentially paid a $1.5 million bonus for the pitcher’s unselfishness during the run to the playoffs in 2023. Heaney’s four innings of work in a seemingly one-sided loss brought him to exactly 160 innings for the year, unlocking the last of his performance bonuses for the season. And although Heaney allowed seven runs in his four innings, the Rangers celebrated their biggest comeback of the season with a 9-8 win.

“Chris Young convinced me of the vision that they would be competitive on and off the field,” said Heaney, who signed a one-year deal that included a player option ahead of the 2023 season. “He said we will do the right thing by the people, by the players and by the fans. As a player you can sometimes look at these things cynically, but this felt like a nod to the way I handled the year and how I persevered through it. This felt like a nod to that.

“It’s really not about the money for me. It was just confirmation that they gave me another chance and that they valued me. Chris and Bruce Bochy live baseball and understand what it means. I believed everything Chris told me when I signed here. It was everything he presented and more.”

It also showed that Rangers remembered not only what Heaney had done for them recently, but also what he did last season.

Heaney was moved to the bullpen for much of last September and finished 2023 with 147 ⅓ innings. That left him eight outs short of unlocking an escalator in his player option that would have increased his salary in 2024 from $12 million in 2023 to $20 million in 2024. However, had he reached this threshold, he would have significantly lost the ability to perform bonuses.

The way the contract was written, Heaney could still exercise the $13 million player option if he pitched fewer than 150 innings and still receive performance bonuses. In 2023, he earned $750,000 for reaching 100 innings, $1.25 million for reaching 120 innings, and $1.5 million for 140 innings. His final bonus threshold was 160 innings and was worth $1.5 million. In 2023, he achieved three of these bonuses, totaling $3.5 million in additional earnings. His total compensation for 2024 will be $18 million. And since the Rangers have already exceeded the CBT threshold, that additional $1.5 million will cost them another $450,000 in luxury tax dollars. Heaney could be a free agent after this season.

He entered Saturday with 156 innings in 31 appearances (30 starts), second only to Nathan Eovaldi in the number of innings pitched. Although he only needed four innings to reach the final bonus level on Saturday, it looked like Heaney would come up short. He allowed three runs in the second inning and then allowed two consecutive home runs in the third inning to No. 7 hitter Gustavo Campero and No. 8 hitter Niko Kavadas. The seven runs allowed were the most he has allowed this season in a year marked by poor run support.

Despite throwing 74 pitches in the first three innings of work, Heaney walked out again in the fourth inning and then retired with 14 pitches to unlock the final bonus. He was shut out for the fifth time and finished the year with exactly 160 innings pitched and a 4.28 ERA.

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