We’ve all pointed to 2007 as the year when the Rangers’ front office philosophy changed — maybe “took shape” is the better way to put it — when one- and five-year plans were put in place to take what had been a flagging franchise, at least in terms of pennant race absence and regular double-digit numbers in the “Games Back” column, and chart a new course.
Jon Daniels and his crew put a new manager in place, intensified scouting efforts in Latin America, and traded Mark Teixeira and Eric Gagne and Kenny Lofton that summer, all feeding a teardown designed to point everything in one direction, a systematic and concerted effort toward renewed relevance.