The Rangers are next in our arbitration eligibles series.
- First time: Andres Blanco, Elvis Andrus, Matt Harrison
- Second time: Nelson Cruz, David Murphy, Darren O'Day
- Third time: Colby Lewis, Mike Adams, Mark Lowe
- Fourth time: Mike Napoli
The Rangers face one of the more sizeable arbitration classes we've encountered so far in the American League. Blanco could be cut if the Rangers don't want to guarantee him a roster spot, though we're estimating only about $500K for his salary. Lewis' $3.25MM club option is a slam dunk, as we're estimating a $6MM salary if he goes to arbitration.
Napoli's fantastic offensive year should push his salary to the $8.5MM range. Cruz has again battled injuries, but he's in line for a healthy $6MM salary. Deadline acquisition Mike Adams is looking at about $4.3MM in his last year before free agency. Andrus, Harrison, and Murphy fall within the $2.6-3.2MM range, while relievers Lowe and O'Day project for $1.3-1.4MM.
All told the Rangers have a pretty expensive group, at an estimated $30MM not including Lewis and Blanco. They have about $101MM in commitments for next year once you add Lewis and Yoshinori Tateyama but before minimum salary players are included. That'd mark the Rangers' first foray past the $100MM mark since the Alex Rodriguez days, so you can see that simply squeezing in C.J. Wilson might require GM Jon Daniels to move some pieces around. On the other hand, attendance is up over 5,000 tickets per game this year and payroll figures to be on the rise.
Last year the Rangers reaped the benefits of receiving money from MLB and were smart to infuse it into the club and went to the WS. Now it’s time to pay the piper. They’re going to have to make some tough decisions that will have bearings on the future.The difference is that this time it will be their own money that’s spent. Will they look to spend to retain important pieces or will they look to grow the bottom line instead.
You don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re a Yankee fan so of course you would think you do.
The Rangers traded for Cliff Lee. They were able to pay his salary and the ownership situation was resolved before the WS.
Just because y’all lost doesn’t mean you have to hold a grudge and be bitter toward them.
You have very little reading comprehension skills, but you’re a Rangers fan, so it’s not really surprising. My point, which went WAY over your head is that they used the money that they received from MLB to help pay salaries and acquire additional players,including Cliff Lee. Now with more revenue coming in, but with higher cost in salaries as well,are they going to invest it in the team and better players or make money for the owners and pocket the profits? No one remembers one hit wonders for very long. Are the owners going to be content with a trip to the WS, or are they in for the long haul?
An aside to you, I’m not bitter about y’all getting to the WS for the first time in your franchise’s history and knocking us out. We’ve been beaten before and understand the joy that winning gives to a wannnabe Champ after years of suffering and very little to show for it. The hard part is putting your money where your mouth is and repeating.
I do apologize for my friend but do support his passion.
We have paid back the MLB for the money we borrowed and everything that was spent last year was within the budget that the MLB approved as part of giving us that money. Nolan put together a great ownership group which he leads. the top two investors are native to the area and sports fans and most importantly, both billionaires. We also signed a very lucrative TV contract that will keep us competitve as it is for $150 million a year. This realistically means that we can spend in that range and then everything else is gravy for the owners. And if we can’t afford somebody, we have a stocked farm as we have spent a lot of money in Latin America and in assembling the best group of scouts we can. I don’t think we are a flash in the pan but we will never spend money like the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies.
last time i checked that rangers were in back to back world series.
Congratulations- You win the the crown for the biggest Troll on this site. You reply to a post with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and a favorable outcome that is a 2 whole months old.
“Last time I checked the Rangers were in back to back World Series”… and lost!
Pathetically,I might add. First losing to lesser team and the second time blowing a certain victory twice- again to a lesser team.
I will thank you though, for illustrating my point about wannabe’s vs real winners. Many Rangers fans like yourself, thump their chests and toot their horns because their team gets to the WS and loses. Yankees fans, like myself consider it a failure if we don’t win the WS. Not because we’re arrogant, but because we’re accustomed to winning.
And we don’t wait for two months to pass and favorable results to reply to someones post!
Napoli could easily be flipped–his extra offense is a luxury at this point. Clear out some money for CJ!
Could flip him for starting pitching, especially if CJ leaves. It would be nice to see him get 600 ABs next year, Cleveland would be a great fit for his current C-1B-DH roll.
As an Angel fan… I must say F U ARTE MORENO FOR LETTING TEXAS BIT__ SLAP YOU!! Thanks for nothing Arte, go buy a soccer team with all your little slap hitters
As an Angel fan you have to be disapointed in your GM for letting Jon Daniels and the Rangers play you like a fiddle. They knew the Rangers wanted Nap and were just waiting for the right oppurtunity. JD is one of the smartest GM’s in baseball. He looks at moves multiple steps before everyone else. He was just waiting for the Angels to do something with Nap.
But hey, yall got who yall wanted in Wells and were very excited back in the spring. Looks like that worked out.
I don’t see any real problems here, except with Wilson and Hamilton. Wilson is a borderline ace–the only thing keeping him back is his own spirals when he starts making mistakes. He lets them get to him and goes on slides til he snaps out of it. Personally, I could see the Rangers letting Wilson go to pursue Yu Darvish or somebody else instead. That would free up money to make a run at signing Josh or Fielder or Pujols.
And if signing Josh falters, then I expect to see him dealt for a big package of talent at the next trade deadline.
I wonder if they will try and move both Young and Napoli and have Hamilton DH more often. I know it seems a little far fetched, but they have talented outfield prospects and plenty of offense to recover from those moves and it would free up enough payroll to resign Wilson and Hamilton or sign a replacement (Darvish,CC?).
Darvish? C’mon. We would not lose CJ to go after an unproven Japanese pitcher who will end up costing us more than CJ.
The Rangers will make a push to re-sign CJ, they will extend Josh, and that may be it.
I Replaced Angel with Red Sox, Arte Moreno with Theo Epstein/ownership, Texas with Tampa and slap hitter for crap pitchers.
Blanco gets non tendered, theres no way they let Napoli leave town. The intriguing name on that list is David Murphy. He makes 2.4m this year and is in line for a raise. That’s a lot of money for a 4th outfielder who could be a starter on almost every other team. I could see him getting traded
yup
I know i am an odd Ranger fan, but i would love to see Nelson go like A-Rod. I hate his bat being so inconsistent and would personally prefer the Rangers get some one better, like if the Red Sox do not offer him arbitration, like Jacoby Ellsbury. And yes he got injured (like any player will), but he came back from it just as good as before if not even better (very much unlike Cruz who took nearly two months to find his stroke back.) It will be sad to see that Murphy is probably going to go, but i would rather see him go and be able to play everyday and show off his true talent. Oh, and please get rid of Torrealba (no idea how to spell his name and don’t care enough to want to figure out) and try and see about getting some good pitching in a trade with say Moreland, or someone else. Heck, i can maybe even dream about Pujols being a Ranger (a really far fetched dream, but dream none the less) and i think we can set the Rangers up for a nice run in the playoffs again in 2012.
Josh Beckett for Colby Lewis, Andres Blanco and David Murphy.