The latest from Arlington…
- In his end-of-season meeting with the media, Rangers GM Jon Daniels told MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan and other reporters that “starting pitching is still a priority” for the offseason in the wake of the team’s lackluster rotation performance in 2018. That said, Daniels also expressed an openness to explore pitching upgrades in all forms, such as how other teams have more heavily utilized a deep bullpen. Texas seems to have a virtual blank slate to work from with its pitching, in terms of internal promotions or offseason acquisitions, as Sullivan figures that Mike Minor and Jose Leclerc are the only current arms who are locks for the 2019 roster.
- Despite coming off a 95-loss season, Daniels hinted at something of a rebuild on the fly, as he thinks it possible that the Rangers could contend next year if things break right. “Our belief is we can take steps forward next year. I don’t believe in the thought of tanking. That’s not in our mindset,” Daniels said. A big signing splash doesn’t appear to be in the cards, as Daniels also doesn’t “think this is the winter we are going all in on the top free agents necessarily.”
- Daniels also mentioned the possibility of trading a left-handed hitting outfielder to acquire pitching, noting that “They potentially fit us very well; they potentially fit other teams really well. As we look to address our pitching situation, we’re gonna have to talk about our areas of depth, and that’s one of them.” Of the four lefty bats in the outfield, Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News opines that Nomar Mazara could be the best fit as a trade chip — Willie Calhoun is too good a prospect, Shin-Soo Choo’s contract is too large, and Joey Gallo has delivered more results in his brief career. While Mazara has only been okay over his first three MLB seasons, he doesn’t turn 24 until April, and is still controllable for three more seasons via arbitration. It would be a risk to trade (and possibly be selling low on) a former top prospect like Mazara, though Sherrington feels such “a bold move” is necessary to help a rotation that is so thin on Major League-ready arms.
- Robinson Chirinos is likely to have his club option exercised by the Rangers, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News predicts, and the original $2.375MM cost of that 2019 option is now closer to $4MM based on plate appearance-related escalators in the catcher’s contract. It’s a reasonable price to retain Chirinos, even if his numbers took a step back after a strong 2017 season, and his pitch-framing statistics took a nosedive (as per StatCorner and Baseball Prospectus). Grant doesn’t figure Texas will exercise their other club options, on Martin Perez, Matt Moore, and Doug Fister. A case could be made for retaining Perez ($7.5MM) or Fister ($4.5MM) just because the Rangers are so short on pitching, though neither showed much in 2018 — Perez lost his rotation spot, while Fister spent much of the year on the DL with a knee injury. Of course, the Rangers could decline either option and then look to re-sign either pitcher to a less-expensive contract.
Get rid of Choo, I don’t care how much of the contract we have to eat, he just takes up space on this roster. Chirinos is such an underrated part of this team, we need him back.
agree, but DH/impassable COF is such a roster screwer-over. i don’t know who signs up for that at this point. and ya, cheerios has always been underrrated. sign me up for 2 of him
I wouldn’t mind seeing Choo in Detroit as a DH. Give you Zimmermann… they have about the same contracts. We’d also take Gallo for CF too… for Boyd, or Norris, or Verhagen…. Our offense was beyond terrible.
Choo had a good year. His trade value is terrible. Might as well keep him until he proves he can’t hit. When you lose 95 games, I would submit that no one should be an untouchable but I would have more patience with Mazara unless someone were to knock me over with a trade offer. Remember, he’s only 23 years old! Nelson Cruz was 28 before he finally “got it”. It took several years for Raffy Palmiero to become a star.
If Choo were anywhere near a good fielder, he’d be great. Most disciplined player they have at the plate, but without that’s he’s far too expensive with not near enough SLG to be a full time DH.
I wouldn’t mind seeing the Brewers trading a couple low end pitching prospects and maybe Broxton for Profar. Think Moore should sign a minor league deal with the Pirates
Profar likely becomes the third baseman unless the Rangers move Gallo there. But if that’s the case, the Cardinals might be interested in Profar…..they need a good fielding SS.
Well Profar is not even an average-fielding ss
Absolutely no interest at all in trading Profar for your garbage. Thanks though.
Good on JD to disdain the tanking to rebuild programs used by Chicago and Houston. It’s an insult to fans to offer a crap team for 5 years while the team pursues the number one pick each year.
I agree, there should be some kind of penalty for teams putting such garbage on the field. I’m a Tiger fan and the past two seasons have been brutal.
i’m not going to put down CHC or HOU. they were both incredible, hit on like 90% (helps to be in the high % draft picks) and they were a couple years, not half a decade. Assuming an average front office, ya it probably takes 5 years. and it sucks. i have a lot of faith in JD, but HOU and CHC are huge outliers as far as i’m concerned. so i agree with not signing up for 5 years of crap, especially when opening a new park.
As a Cubs fan, I was pissed off by the rebuild at the time. But when it was done, it was well worth the wait.
Baseball as a whole is getting younger. It’s one thing to rebuild, but that rebuild has to be a long term thought process. It seems like the successful teams have a replacement for their superstar when they start the arbitration process and the team that ponies up for their veteran stars are the ones that struggle long term.
I’m not sure if you know what a decade is, but I’ll hive you a hint. Half a decade is in fact 5 years.
Both the Cubs and Astros sucked for half a decade, Astros were even longer then half a decade.
That’s the whole JD argument in a nutshell: trying to compete on the fly. Some trades worked, others did not. Leave it to Houston to have 4 straight 100+ loss seasons. They’re still crapping golden prospect eggs.
Willie Calhoun too good of a prospect? What?
Willie can hit but I rather he be our DH then Choo. I think choo needs to traded but we would have to take most of his contract to get anyone interested
I was trying to figure that observation out as well. Calhoun is a bum, and basically a poor man’s imitation Kirby Puckett. In two september call-ups, he has shown nothing that warrants being considered a high-end prospect.
Willy is about the size of the bat boy. No clue what position they think he’s supposed to play unless they trade Gallo, Maz, or Choo.
The Pirates and Rangers match up pretty well for a deal. The Bucs need players like Mazara and Profar to upgrade their offense and they can part with Nova and some minor league pitchers not named Keller.
If The Rangers are going to trade Mazara, they wouldn’t want Nova.
Lol you want Mazara and Profar and the first name you offer up is Ivan Nova. JD would, and should, hang up before you even finished saying Nova’s name.
Weaver + Gyorko vs Mazara + Profar
Cardinals wouldn’t want Mazara, and they already have a utility guy in Munoz
So a bad starting pitcher and a 30 yo 3B with numbers that aren’t really even better than Profar’s? Sweet offer bro.
Weaver has upside and many years of control. Let’s include J. Martinez or Kelly to convince you.
Cards might be interested in Profar but not Mazara.
They need a lefthanded outfielder who can bring some power and a better defense than J. Martinez though…