In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR. Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams. You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.
So far, we’ve covered the Mariners, Athletics, Angels, Astros, Twins, Royals, Tigers, Indians, White Sox, Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Orioles. The Rangers are up next.
We’ll start by removing free agents Jeff Mathis, Shin-Soo Choo, Jesse Chavez, and Mike Minor from consideration. We’ll also remove Todd Frazier and Robinson Chirinos, who have club options for 2021 but probably aren’t worth protected spots.
Corey Kluber has an $18MM club option for 2021, and the Rangers’ decision on that will be dependent on how he performs in a possible 2020 season. I’ve decided to make the guess that the Rangers would use a protected spot on Kluber. We’ll also lock down Elvis Andrus due to his no-trade protection. I’ve decided to lock down starting pitchers Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles as well, who signed with the Rangers as free agents last December. That’s debatable, but some judgment calls are made in this process. Here’s the entire initial protected group of nine players:
Corey Kluber
Elvis Andrus
Lance Lynn
Danny Santana
Joey Gallo
Willie Calhoun
Nick Solak
Kyle Gibson
Jordan Lyles
That leaves six spots for the following 18 players:
Kolby Allard
Brock Burke
Luke Farrell
Nick Goody
Ronald Guzman
Taylor Hearn
Scott Heineman
Jonathan Hernandez
Ariel Jurado
Isiah Kiner-Falefa
Jose Leclerc
Brett Martin
Yohander Mendez
Rafael Montero
Joely Rodriguez
Rougned Odor
Joe Palumbo
Jose Trevino
With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below (direct link here), select exactly six players you think the Rangers should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.
Create your own user feedback survey
surely gotta leave Odor exposed
facts. unproductive
Yes. If for no other reason, just to see if an expansion team will like his name recognition & nab his contract. Thanks Joey Bats
LeClerc is definitely on the list. Not sure how you pick Lyles and not him with the extension terms for LeClerc. As far as anyone else on that list, probably just Hernandez and Kolby Allard. I know that leaves a couple more spots but nothing that can’t be replaced.
Lyles and Gibson should be left off because they were both overpaid and the Rangers will quickly regret those deals.
theres no one else to keep lol. I thought the same thing in regards to leaving Lyles off.
fwiw, I think Allard, Leclerc and Hearn are the top 3 protects. I’d hope for someone to take Odor’s deal
No one else to keep? Allard, Polumbo, Burke, Hearn, IKF, Leclerc, Heinamen
Lyles agree hope he’s worth it but I think Gibson is worth it, but they’re also not like 5 year deals. Short-term at least I’m good with.
I think Lyles is a solid #5, probably a bit overpaid, probably a 150 guy instead of 200, probably only a twice thru the order guy but eevn with all the warts he gives you a solid 5 inns every 5th day……cant really complain other than he should have probably gotten a 2/12 instead of a 2/16
what bothers me is that Lyles’s numbers are horrific outside of Milwaukee for whatever reason. he seems to only play well there.
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe they should hold a press conference so the expansion teams know the Odor is available.
Yeah, no way on Odor or Guzman. Brock Burke getting more love than merited as well.
and an important consideration is IKF doesnt play C anymore, despite what some think
Could you guys post team control/contract info for each player here. It’s such a massive component of god MLB orgs make this kind of decision that to not include it is just weird.
I think it would help the posters a LOT as well
But as I always remind everyone here….Spotrac and Cots are your friends and if you frequent here daily you should probably have 1 bookmarked (Id go spotrac)
I agree and I’m consulting those for my voting, but (and it’s clear we agree on this) it would be easier to compare if it were here.
Like the MLB All-Star Voting. If you have stats right on the ballot it makes your voting far more informed. Even the casual fan can make a better choice and the poll’s value is increased massively.
True on the AS voting but to me I really dont care about fair rep in that game-
Im ok with the “backs of the jerseys” loop. Hate that they ever made the game worth anything
Here though, yea , you def need “all” the info if your going to Keyboard Gm da dam thang
Why do you think they posted the player links?
All of that information is available on the BR player pages.
Leclerc Jurado Montero- sure bets imo
Think they take a shot on Allard since they just traded for him and has untapped potential
Upsdie of Joely Rodriguiz might be worth it
And they really seem to love IKF for whatever reason,,,had a scorching spring doesnt hurt as well if making the pick today for the 6 and final spot
im not as much of a fan of their young SPs besides Allard as most are, but i feal this is a good idea here. im not too happy with leaving even Trevino or Goody exposed, but i picked up Allard, Burke, Hernandez, Hearn, Palumbo, and Leclerc. lots of control here and some can be trade bait or good RPs down the line.
The Rangers wanted to load up on starters in free agency this season so that all of our AAA is pitching depth. I think they’d keep two of the starters they feel most comfortable with like Allard and Hearn, and let Burke and Palumbo go (maybe keep 3, and add Palumbo, but with Burke getting TJ, I think they’d be fine letting him go). I see them sticking with keeping cheap, underrated relievers like Montero and J-Rod instead. I personally think Hernandez is a lock though, and I agree that Odor shouldn’t be picked like he is.
Hernandez and Hearn are locks. If they can’t hold up as starters they are easily high 90’s relievers.
Makes more sense to keep young pitchers than position players bc of depth as a whole. Heineman is good example. He seems like pretty good future but with gallo, calhoun, martinez, thompson, and taveras either ahead of him on depth charts or considered higher ceiling guys. Why not protect palumbo, burke, allard, or hearn. If only one of them pans out, itll do them more good than heineman as a 5th or 6th of’er.
okay, again, these poll results are killing me. how on earth is anyone protecting Odor while leaving someone like Hernandez exposed? an expansion team might make him their #1 pick.
I had to talk myself out of keeping Odor because even though he stopped his crazy leg kick in spring training, he still gets in his own head (plus his contract). So no Odor. I chose:
IKF
Leclerc
Allard
Montero
Hernandez
J-Rod
I wanted to keep most of our good bullpen pieces, (I like Goody, and he would’ve been my 7th pick), so I chose Leclerc, Montero, J-Rod. Hernandez is a fireballer, (and lowkey might end up being our closer next year). J-Rod is the lefty I wanted to keep, I’d expose Martin because I don’t think he’d do well with a three batter minimum. Montero is a comeback player, I expect great things from him. Leclerc is affordable, and effective if he doesn’t get to full of himself. IKF can play anywhere, and he changed his swing in spring training, he looks terrific. Allard will take over a starting spot when one of our starter inevitably gets injured (BTW I’d choose Hearn over Goody, that part earlier was a lie).
Tim, Demarcus Evans should be here too, he’s expected to maybe make the team out of spring, much less be on the 40 man.
Was waiting for yours…I had 5 of the same 6 but I think your right Id swap Hernandez out for Jurado (who i Had) and probably copy yours upon further thinking-
Hearns and obv Jurado would be next in my line…. I wouldnt take IKF myself but I know Texas is in love so I slotted him in
Lol yeah, I’ve been on every one of these posts expect for the A’s and M’s because yesterday I was doing yardwork. I wanted to at least do this one before I go back out today lol. I gotta rep Texas.
The best part of this website is learning about other teams prospects from their own fans- Personal perspectives that often times ring the bell louder than just the generic “telephone” speech that gets passed along the front lines of the media-
Yeah, I knew almost nothing about the Royals system except for Singer and Witt jr. until their article.
MLBTR readers have made some picks I don’t agree with, probably starting with protecting Eovaldi. I decided to just let this happen, because then it opens up some more interesting players for our eventual draft.
And now we’re halfway through the teams, so might as well keep letting MLBTR readers decide a lot of it. It’s hard to expect people to be an expert of every team’s roster.
But if we were to do this exercise again in a couple of years (perhaps with an actual expansion draft in the offing) I might go out to bloggers or beat writers, people who are steeped in one team and write about it every day, and let them determine the protected lists.
It’s interesting to see people choose high contract guys like that. Same with people choosing Odor here. Teams would get rid of that bad contract in a heartbeat.
30 beat writers would be amazing-
Let the readers predict first then post the beat writers picks the next day with explanations
i like the idea of splitting it between readers and experts, such as how the all star game got to be too much of a chance for fans to vote early and vote often, so the league turned the process a little bit more towards the experts.
Beat writers is the only way to make this realistic. Casual fans (especially those voting for teams they don’t even follow) just pick the most famous players & throw everything off.
Whoever is choosing Guzman, why? We have tons of infield flexibility if we have Solak, IKF, Frazier, Bird, Andrus, Santana, and maybe even Odor (if you pick him). Yes, either Solak or Santana is center field, but we still have plenty of infielders. There are many others to pick over Guzman.
Top 3-4 players should be traded for Prospects. Gallo strikes out too much. Calhoun hopefully becomes a Star since they didn’t get much for Darvish. Solak I like alot being a former Yankee
Ouch, it hurts to see people saying rebuild right now lol. IDK what the Rangers future plans are though. We went after Rendon (lousy attempt), we built a new stadium to start a new era of Ranger baseball, but what will that era be? IMO I think that if there was no coronavirus, the Rangers would’ve gotten new ownership in 21′. JD is a good gm, but he is never very cooperative with ownership. I see that he wants to win, but I just don’t think he and ownership are clicking very well. We built a decent 85 win team, but now what? Taveras is our closest prospect to being up, and he might come up at the end of the season. Jung and Huff are 21′. Are we still going to be mediocre when they come up, or are we going to go get a Springer or Betts? So many questions, and the virus didn’t help.
They got not paying Darvish 100 mill outta Darvish though so theres that
Best wishes to Willie from a Dodger fan as well
Willie is a fan favorite in Texas (he’s my favorite Rangers as well), he’s clutch, and he seems to always hit homers.
I hope he digs right back in there and does what he does-
Willies place on a ball field is solely in the batters box…..and thats not a diss whatsoever
Why protect Elvis? With his contract he won’t be taken.
Elvis is on there bc he has trade clause. He cant be exposed to expansion draft bc hed have to waive no trade clause, and unless he does that is automatically protected.
I don’t know anything about the Rangers farm system. They may not have 15 legitimate players to protect. So they have to protect Elvis and others
We do, but I guess they protected Elvis because of his longevity, and since he’s gonna be a lifetime Ranger. They won’t let him go even if they still have a pretty good chance of keeping him.
Elvis is on there bc he has a no trade clause. He has to either waive no trade or is automatically protected
It would be nice if an expansion team would pick Odor…..
I understand this is a for the heck of it exercise, but some of the voting results are so clearly based on name recognition over any kind of actual thought investment the results are ultimately going to end up pointless.
Odor is such a strong example of this. Even if the Rangers may want to keep him even a little bit, his contract makes him unlikely to be claimed in the first place which increases the chances the Rangers take the risk and expose him, which allows them to keep a high ceiling, low cost player in his stead.
Exactly! Same goes for my rant that I had about Guzman above.
Can we package odor and guzman as 1 pick and give them away? Prolly 350k a season between the 2
To be fair I dont think many voters are fully informed of the whole exercise at hand so you shouldnt take the results as glaring
Furthermore I really dont think people are adjusting the fact that free agents will cost even less next year making locked in contracts like Piscotty Odor Rosario Eovaldi even worse relative to the open market-
This would be a GRAND time in these owners minds to get rid of over-paid mid tier players like this via a new expansion owner with a little coin and a 0 on the balance sheet to start
The players that will be affected most next year (and yrs beyond) from the Covid impact are going to be the Mid tier players…… Moookie will still get close to his, Lindor yr after,…… and so on and so worth …………But
The guys like Rosario and Piscotty will no longer draw close to 8-10 mill per yr…… You will see a TON more Non-tenders moving forward for guys in high arb years who are failing to improve on the field while still rising in cost….this is going to be the new normal….Our friend Eddie will be a nice case study for 2021 to begin if he sticks along the same course over the next year
You don’t seem to be very well informed yourself.
You can’t lump players like Odor and Eovaldi in the same camp as players like Piscotty and Rosario. Odor and Eovaldi make a lot more and offer nothing (in Eovaldi’s case, due to injury).
In the case of Rosario and Piscotty, their contracts aren’t hindering and both are moveable if there is a season and they play anywhere near their career averages. They may not net much of a return, but they’re not underwater contracts.
Free agents might struggle to land significant contracts next season, but you shouldn’t assume good players will allow themselves to get low-balled. Most of the free agent outfielders that are as good or better than Rosario and Piscotty, and not old or injury-prone, are highly unlikely to take deals in 7-8m range AAV. Need comparatives? Look at the deals Calhoun, Dickerson, and Garcia got this past offseason. Have you even looked at next offseason’s free agent class? I would guess that you haven’t. There isn’t much of a (or any) mid-tier and obviously the upper-tier players aren’t taking 7-8m dollar deals.
Teams could gamble with older players with worse defense or other limitations, but that wouldn’t be ideal for contenders. Atlanta re-signed Joyce, but he’s obviously a stop-gap for Waters.
It’s entirely possible a player like Rosario will get non-tendered if he has a bad 2020. But there’s no reason to assume at this point. Worth noting the projections for both Rosario and Piscotti are favorable.
To be clear, I was referring to the free agent outfielders next offseason.
This is all above your pay grade Stevil
Sorry bud, I just can’t waste any more time with you, its not worth it-
We left you a seat at the kids table though with some plastic cutlery and a paper plate
Classic response. You can’t handle a rebuttal, so you turn to insults.
Lose the arrogance and do some research without preconceived assumptions and you might learn something here.
You just dont have anything in the tank worthy to digest and you seem to be a very angry troll……… the worst type of poster imo for all message boards
I can handle the angry troll part but bring something to the table at least please…..for all of us! Other than your love for middle age 2 War corner Of obv 😉
*Joyce signed with the Marlins as well, not the Braves
Quite amazing Hernandez only had a 4.32 era while with a 1.62 whip. That BB/9 is ridiculous. Small sample size though.
I’m taking
Allard
Leclerc
Palumbo
Martin
Hernandez
#6 I’m not sure. IKF or Montero. Not sure.
I just can’t see a team taking Rodriquez so I won’t pick him.
This might sound weird, but it was just refreshing for me to read the comments in this thread and see real baseball talk and friendly conversation rather that the argumentative, immature, and/or outright hateful comments that find their way into many of the threads. I wish it was always like this, but I know that’s not realistic lol. Anyways…Thanks everyone!
Glad we’ve got professionals running the franchise & not fans. Only reason Guzman & Odor made this list is name recognition. Now Taylor Hearn & Joe Palumbo will definitely get swiped
Correct list: Leclerc, Brock Burke, Kolby Allard, Hearn, Palumbo, Kiner-Falefa. Gotta protect the arms of the future
I might swap Hernandez for KinerFalefa but it’d be a tough call. An electric arm for a multi tool with the right attitude and hustle.
the ones I protect are LeClerc Allard Burke Trevino Rodriguez and Montero
All these people protecting Odor is even sillier than all the people protecting Mazara for CHW a week or 2 ago
Quite disturbing how many people are protecting Guzman