This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry's Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Angels manager Ron Washington walked along the third-base line at Surprise Stadium, shaking hands with every member of the DFW media contingent before posting up in front of the visitors' dugout to field questions from the group.

Before anyone got a question out, Washington cut in.

“Before we get started, I just want to congratulate these Texas Rangers on being World Series champs," Washington said. "The city and the people there, they deserve it. They’re great fans, and it was time they got what they deserve for the support that they gave to the Texas Rangers. They brought it home. They brought it home and they did a tremendous job.”

Before the Rangers finally won the first World Series in franchise history in 2023, Washington was the manager that brought the club to its absolute best, leading Texas to back-to-back American League pennants in 2010 and 2011.

Texas fell to Bruce Bochy’s Giants in 2010. Then it was one win away -- one pitch away -- from a World Series title on two occasions in 2011.

Washington said for years that his only regret was not winning a World Series with the Rangers.

“I'm always going back to that,” he said. “But the fact is that I was very happy for the organization. I know the people, the preparation and just the quality of care that they have in this organization for the players.

“The best move they made was Bruce Bochy. He's everything as far as a leader goes. If you can't follow Bruce, there's nobody on Earth you can follow the game of baseball. And those guys will follow his lead.”

There’s one special Texas Rangers player who Washington is especially proud of: second baseman Marcus Semien.

Semien’s rise to becoming one of baseball's best begins with Washington, who spent two seasons with Oakland as a coach between his time as the Rangers’ manager and Atlanta’s third-base coach. Those two seasons might have been the most important of Semien’s career.

“Marcus did the sort of thing a Major League player today would never do -- he stripped himself down and gave himself up in order to build himself back up,” Washington said. “He did that. He deserves every part of what he has accomplished in his career. He became a world champion."

Semien -- then a shortstop with the A’s -- has often credited Washington with completely turning around his career, especially on the defensive end. Washington jokingly said that Semien “had no idea what he was doing out there,” but followed up by emphasizing that it wasn't a knock. Semien just didn’t have all the tools to succeed behind pure athleticism and instincts.

“Oakland had him at shortstop, with no direction and no one teaching just beyond his athletic ability,” Washington said. “When I came in, we broke everything down from the top to the bottom and worked it back up. We would come on the field every day. It was all the way down to the basics."

Semien is no longer playing shortstop -- he joined the Blue Jays on a one-year deal in 2021 and slid over second base to make room for up-and-coming Toronto star Bo Bichette at shortstop -- but the things Washington taught him all those years ago still resonate.

Semien didn't just succeed in the position change, he won an AL Gold Glove Award at second base with the Blue Jays in 2021, and he was a finalist for another two in his two seasons with the Rangers.

“It was 2:30 every day,” Semien recalled of his work with Washington. “We worked on the same glove work every day. Whatever we needed to work on, we were working on it, but the main thing was the consistency and the work ethic from him and I together. I'm still playing middle infield, and I thank him for that for sure.”

Now the two are division rivals. Semien plays for and won a World Series with the club Washington once managed. Despite that, there’s nothing but love between the two.

“First of all, congrats to Wash one being a manager,” Semien said. “I think he's been working towards that again since he was with me in Oakland. He's one of the most famous Rangers managers, [and] he did some great work here. It never gets old, just talking baseball with him. And he hasn't changed a bit.”

“He deserves to be a champion, and the Texas Rangers deserve to be champions, too,” Washington said.