During the first weekend of Spring Training exhibition games, the Rangers and other MLB teams will wear caps with the logo of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to honor the victims of last week’s shooting at the school.
The league's official cap company, New Era, will provide the special caps for Friday's games in Florida and Arizona for all players, coaches and umpires.
The Rangers and Kansas City Royals will wait until Saturday to wear the hats for their first Spring Training tilts. The rest of the league begins exhibition play Friday and will wear the caps then.
Each team will wear the hat during warmups, and teams were given the option to wear the hat during the game. Rangers manager Jeff Banister commended the league's decision to honor the victims.
“I don’t have all the answers to this, all I know is that there definitely needs to [be] some awareness," Banister said. "As a father of a 15-year-old that’s in high school right now – I know there’s a lot of questions and conversations that he and I have had along the way – listen, there’s gotta be some discussion and talk to find what real answers are so these tragedies stop.”
He didn't confirm whether the Rangers would wear the hats during their game Saturday against the Cubs.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, speaking Tuesday in Glendale, Ariz., said there was a "really strong sentiment of the clubs it was the appropriate thing to do immediately."
Shortly after the shooting, which killed 17 people, the Miami Marlins asked the league for permission to wear the Douglas caps. The Marlins plan to take things a step further by wearing special shirts and caps during batting practice with the inscription #17douglasstrong.
In addition, several clubs have expressed interest in signing the caps and auctioning them to raise money for the Broward Education Foundation, the official victims fund.
Contributing: USA TODAY Sports