After posting their third straight losing season in 2019, the Rangers have been active in upgrading their roster this winter. They don’t appear to be done, as they continue to be connected to free-agent outfielders Marcell Ozuna and Nicholas Castellanos in the rumor mill. Now that third baseman Josh Donaldson has joined the rest of this offseason’s class of elite free agents in coming off the market, Ozuna and Castellanos stand as the top two players on the board.
In Texas’ case, it seems the 27-year-old Castellanos is preferable to Ozuna, 29. At this point, Castellanos is “a strong option” for the Rangers, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets. TR Sullivan of MLB.com corroborates that, reporting that Castellanos is seemingly the Rangers’ No. 1 target, and he adds that it doesn’t look as if Ozuna is near the top of the club’s list. That could be disappointing news to Ozuna, who indicated last week he was deciding between the Rangers and Cardinals for his next team.
If Castellanos dons a Rangers uniform in 2020, it’s unclear where he’d line up. The former third baseman has been an outfielder for the Tigers and Cubs over the past few seasons, but the Rangers would reportedly want to use him at first base – a position he hasn’t played. Nevertheless, at least offensively, Castellanos would give the Rangers a significant upgrade over Ronald Guzman, who played the majority of games at first for the team from 2018-19 and provided little offense along the way.
Across the diamond, the Rangers have been part of trade rumors centering on superstar Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado. However, Sullivan notes that a deal for Arenado “seems unlikely.” The Rangers did just land a viable veteran third baseman in Todd Frazier, though he’s no substitute for Arenado and could end up at first in the improbable event Texas lands the latter in a trade.
Come on already Rangers.Lets do this.
If the Cubs don’t sign Castellanos their fans will (and should) run Epstein and the Rickets family right out of Chicago.
if Castellanos makes or breaks theos career in Chicago, then id say it’s already time to fire him. im not saying he should be fired. I’m saying that it’s ridiculous to use NOT signing castellanos as an excuse to fire theo.
Theo broke two curses. Pump the breaks. He missed on Heyward and Darvish. No need to slam the contention window shut with Castellanos. Nope, the Cubs, as constructed, could sneak into the playoffs next year and squeeze one more flag out of this core. Castellanos would be best in places like Colorado, Texas, Cincinnati, or Baltimore, where pure hitters can shine. Not Wrigley.
Not Wrigley???….did you miss the last two months last season???
His running of the club has caused the owner to take him to the wood shed by taking away his check book!
Epstein is a decent GM, don’t get me wrong and knows how to pick ppl around him who are very good, not to mention a shrewd trader, but picking the right FA has not been Epstein’s fortee.. He forever gets the incorrect one.. Crawford,Renteria, Julio Lugo, It’s pretty tough for him when his 2 best FA signs are JD Drew and John Lackey, 1 whose carrer at Fenway was average at best, the other missed a season and a half with TJ after bombing the 1st year altogether.
If the owners really cared a $10 million penalty is nothing, if they can’t afford to pay for a top team , sell sell sell , Ricketts are like the Bears owners, win 1 and screw the fans , Chicago fans are the best in all major sports despite having he worst owners, that includes Sox owners as well !!
Ejemp Theo misses on a lot more than just heyward and darvish.
Oh my god. Some people.
Exactly didn’t he orchestrate breaking 108 year curse, every GM makes good moves and bad moves but what he’s done in Boston and Chicago makes him a hall of fame gm for sure,whether you like him or hate him you got to give him his props he’s done something that many people before him couldn’t
Not enough pitching nor the resources to acquire it without damging big league team. There is a price to pay for not developing any pitching.
Time to pay up
Yu’s pitching in the second half of 2019 would stand in comparison to most of the top aces in the MLB. He was injured most of 2018 and they couldn’t find the root cause after several rehab stints. His AAV is a steal now so definitely not a miss at this point by Theo.
Lately it’s Kimbrel that gets lumped in with Heyward but it’s hard to write off Kimbrel after the circumstances of his offseason.
Damn it had to happen sooner or latter, even Cubs couldn’t screw up law of averages
Revisiting Theo’s doozies is one of my favorite exercises. Remember Edgar Renteria, Matt Clement, JD Drew, Daisuke Matzusaka, etc.? He will win a ring or two but after 4 or 5 whiffs on the free agent market y’all should probably get rid of him. I laughed out loud when the Heyward signing was announced, and now that I think about it again, it is still hilarious that he got $180 million. His agent should get 30% commission for that.
Cubs had 2nd highest payroll last year…their problem is none of the young core has been willing to sign an extension that would allow them to keep what they have.
Jon Lester ended up being a pretty good signing
Haha, follow the yellow brick road, it doesn’t make sense to trade Bryant away to sign Castellanos, if Theo had any ….. he’d sign Cas and pay the penalty on his own out of his over paid contract , haha
Why are we discussing the perennial losing cubs here?
Agreed, I believe rangers will come in with a stronger offer on NC than the giants… then the cubs will have the opportunity to bid before he ultimately signs.
I believe Ozuna will sign 3/50 ish with the cardinals, especially after they traded Martinez and arozarena.
Rangers have missed on almost every player they’ve been linked to this winter. They may have to outbid themselves in attempting to sign Castellanos and have him change positions.
Now that Donaldson is off the board expect Castellanos, Ozuna, and even Puig to likely finally find homes.
completely disagree on your assessment of their offseason moves. Rangers have upgraded catcher, third and acquired 3 starters that are all big upgrades without any bad contracts and only one prospect gone, Rendon is the only miss so far and the money there was just too high. If they get either Ozuna or Castellanos that will be 6 big improvements and probably leave room for one more bullpen arm.
You and I see eye to eye. I love what JD has done this offseason. He’s built a competitive roster and kept his flexibility for the future. If he can sign Castellanos and add maybe one more bullpen arm, I’ll give him an A+++ for the winter.
I have said this on other threads, and I hate to be repetitive, but I see eye to eye with both of y’all. The rangers won 78 games last year with a pitching staff of Minor, Lynn, and TBDs. Just adding their 3 starter made this a terrific offseason. Catcher was our weakest position, and we upgraded it to the fan favorite. 3rd base was a weak position, and even though Frazier isn’t sexy, he is an upgrade over what we had. We got Joely for the pen, and I think that will be the most underrated bullpen pickup this off-season.
As for getting Castellanos, we need him. He would be the answer to our lineup that we so desperately need, and he could plug into 1b/dh which we need.
My pre-off-season dream pickups (for position players) were Chirinos, Castellanos, Frazier, and Muncy (one of those was a huge dream), and if I can get 3/4 of those guys, that is perfect.
Right after we missed on Rendon, I said that may have been a godsend, right now it is looking like that may be the case.
Terrific offseason by JD, rangers are a WC team.
Donaldson at that price is an anchor, not a sail.
Lol no they haven’t.
Braves need to be in on Castellanos
Asap
Cards might want to sign Castellanos in a preemptive strike sort of move (as well of his talent of course) just to up their chances of another team signing Ozuna thus securing a comp pick.
That’s a good move
Let Castellanos play third, move Frazier & go with a 3 man platoon w 1B Frazier ,Castellanos & Guzman. All 3 crappy defenders but honestly can’t do much about that
You Tube: Nick Castellanos 3B Defense
This post pissed me off, Castellanos is terrible defensively, Frazier is bad, but Guzman is terrific. He is the most athletic 1b I have ever seen. he has saved many runs when he does the splits reaching for a ball. Astonishing range, and his 6’4 height helps him get to a lot more balls than a normal 1b. If he could have just an average bat, he would be incredibly valuable.
Why be pissed? He is a good RH bat, which we need over a good glove, weak hitting Guzman. That’s just the facts. Please don’t be pissed.
No, i’d much rather have Castellanos over Guzman, because I value a good bat over a good glove, especially at 1b were you don’t need good defense. But what pissed me off was him calling Guzman a “crappy defender”, Guzman is a terrific defender, and he compared his defense to the likes of Castellanos. That’s why I was mad.
what about Luka Doncic at first. He can do everything else
Ok
another triple tonight. 22 points 15 assists 13 rebounds
Garret is gone, Doncic is here, and JD has given us a fun hot stove so far. Fun winter
Hope we get Casty… Man it is nice talking to another rangers fan sometimes, there seem to be less and less of us…
Im out of state now but hope to make it to the new digs this year. I usually go to a game or two in seattle when Rangers are in town.
Ironically enough, I read an article earlier today by a Seattle’s Sbnation. The article was called AL west threat assessment: Texas Rangers, and I swear they make the rangers sound like the orioles. I won’t spoil it in case you want to look it up, but it is terrible just how much they dog us.
I loved the fireworks at the Ballpark, I used to park right next to Mark Holtz Lake when going to a game. I would sit on the bank and catch catfish after the game until the traffic cleared out. Great summer nights.
I have lived here for 10 years. Dumbest baseball fans in the country.
ranger29……you owe me a beer. cant believe you lead me to that article. I am dumber for having read it and want my time back.
Congratulations, now I want to go to bed. Thanks for talking, I’m glad your not one of the hundreds of trolls on this site.
Guzman is an elite defender. Watch more baseball.
Rangers need another bat to compete. Ozuna or NC would do nicely.
I like it. Sign Castellanos to play first, and have the Todd Father start at third this year, and maybe next, until Jung is ready to go. Hopefully he’s still raking at that point.
It’s still baffling that the cubs aren’t making any efforts at all to resign Castellanos. Even if it’s a backloaded deal that gives them flexibility until they sort out Bryant’s situation.
White Sox?
Platoon him around the diamond for his bat.
Could always flip him for prospects before the deadline.
The Cubs are trying to get under the luxury tax and a backloaded contract doesn’t help with that.
White Sox have a strong lineup, I don’t think they NEED him.
A backloaded contract would structurally help.. lower salary up front while they sort out Bryant and wait for Lester to come off before the AAV goes up.
You must have missed it. Cubs window slammed shut last year. They couldn’t even beat the last year version of the reds. If 4 teams from the central make the playoffs I’ll give em a 50/50 chance
Good news is y’all will have plenty of seasons of drafting at the top to restalk the farm
if 4 teams from the central make the playoffs, how would they have a 50/50 chance? wouldn’t they have an 80% chance of making it?
No talk of what dollars Ozuna may be commanding out there. Could be 3/50, could be 5/100 for all we know. Rumors were spot on w Donaldson seeking $110 and having been offered $80m-90m
Ummm…..yeah. He’s most likely going to sign for 1 year and less than 17 mil. He should have took the QO.
He’s prob waiting to see if reds will trade senzel for lindor. If so, that opens up a spot for him in cincy potentially and reds aren’t afraid of loosing pick or paying market value. Maybe 3/45
Cards are not signing Ozuna, they love to collect draft picks That Moz will never let play. I will be shocked if they trade for Arenado or do anything at all.
If the Cards sign Ozuna, he’s likely to get about 4/80, because Mo…Ron loves to overpay mid tier free agents and outbid himself.
The idea behind trading Bryant to sign Castellanos has a bunch of benefits. Bryant will land strong prospects. Also clear out enough money to sign Castellanos and get team under tax. Both are Boras clients. Could there already be a deal in place while awaiting the decision about Bryant’s service time? Bryant believes he has Rendon money coming his way in 2021.