A buyer's market...

With the Rangers floundering, a lot has been said about whether the team needs to sell and/or trade off enough players to compete next year, or get rid of everyone with a big contract and go into full rebuilding mode and look to complete in 2016 or 2017.  I really don't  understand that second argument; Texas has something like 10 - 15 WAR on the disabled list and another 3 - 4 playing hurt (and my own pet peeve that all the rest is being mis-managed).

It's pretty clear, I think, that the Rangers are going to compete in 2015 (unless, according to my own belief, they still have Ron Washington, in which case they'll finish around .500 and Washington will finally be gone.)  And that means that the Rangers are going to be looking to acquire pitching this year.

That's right.  The Texas Rangers are going to be buyers, not sellers.  At least regarding certain positions, mainly pitching.  They have an outfielder that can be replaced internally (maybe two, actually).  Texas also seems to believe firmly in the idea of building bullpens out of leftovers (by which I mean, DFAs and AAAA players) so they'll likely have several bullpen pieces they're willing to dump.  The Rangers also have a buttload of cash that they've saved on salaries this year, and extra revenue starting next year.

Incidentally, Newberg is saying much the same thing:

I would not rule out the idea that Texas jumps into the mix on the"buyer’s” end of a July deal. I would hope, if David Price or Giancarlo Stanton is open for discussion, and you can probably throw another few names of elite impact players with club control beyond 2014 in there too, that Texas gets involved even if that’s a bit unconventional for a club not positioned to win this year.

For one thing, the Rangers are able to part with a core piece at the big league level, something that a contender would obviously be reluctant to do in July and that could appeal to the seller. Which ties back into the first point.

And Texas has plenty of depth in prospects to tack on as well.

I don't see Stanton going anywhere yet, because Miami has made it clear that they want an unprecedented load of prospects for the slugger.  Especially pitching.  Which means Stanton doesn't become a Ranger until Miami decides they can't afford him.  (And honestly, I'm not 100% convinced that Stanton is worth what he's probably going to get.)

But Texas is going to be very much involved in top-level free-agent pitchers, especially the summer rentals that are about to start jumping to playoff-hopeful teams.  This time next year Samardzija may be coming off his tenth win for Texas.

And that's going to piss a lot of people off.

Posted by: Ben at 10:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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