Just a few minutes ago the news started cascading that the Texas Rangers have signed Shin-soo Choo to a contract for 7 years, $130 million.  Unless Texas works a magic deal for a high-risk undervalued hitter, the Choo signing probably ends big deals for Texas this year.  The value of this deal is also fascinating in light of recent stories that New York offered Choo 7/$140m, which was taken off the table when Choo's agent Scott Boras asked for $143 million for vanity reasons.  I will be interested to see how much of the contract is dependent on quotas.


Also of interest:  Is Choo a starting outfielder?  Or is Choo the everyday DH and part-time outfielder?  The Rangers have Michael Choice in the pipeline now, who seems to be in the same place as Jurickson Profar.  I.e. maybe he's ready for a full-time role; maybe he needs a half or whole season in Round Rock with the Rangers coaches.

I like this deal, for the most part.  I think Choo holds value better than Fielder, for example, and the Rangers will be able to trade him without eating too much of the contract in a few years.  Texas now has three major bats that conceivably are all entering their decline years:  Fielder (largely because of his build; if he were lean and muscular you would expect several more years of productivity), Beltre, who's hamstrings may go at any minute, and Choo, who is aging gracefully but is aging, none-the-less.  Almost half the Rangers' budget is tied up in these three guys, and you would expect that Texas is going to have to pay for at least two of these.  ONE of these guys could be the Rangers' designated hitter for several more years.  The other two may not have a position to field only a few years from now.

UPDATE 12/21:  A few links about the Choo deal that cover the story; I don't have much unique insight into this story.  Well, I do have one angle I'm working on...

Jake Dal Porto discusses Texas' return to the realm of scary lineups.

Richard Justice claims Texas just "won the offseason", meaning the Rangers have put themselves into the best position to win the World Series.

Athletics fans stumbled and flailed a bit when the Rangers traded for Fielder, and they're starting to exhibit nervous ticks and paranoid behavior since the Choo signing.

Mariners fans are sighing disconsolately, partly because Fielder+Choo>Cano, and partly because they know Jack Z. is going to sign Nelson Cruz now.

The Astros fans don't care; they're still rebuilding and being pretty smart about it.  The 'stros are going to win >65 games next year, and maybe even >70.  If they don't, someone get's fired, because they should.

The Angels have their own problems too, but I'm not posting links to Angels' stories about the signing because most of them are unprintable.

Posted by: Ben at 12:13 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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