The 12-21 Rangers shipped off a few pieces today, but they didn’t find an offer to their liking on Lance Lynn or Joey Gallo. Given comments made by general manager Jon Daniels, though, it seems probable they’ll revisit talks on those players this offseason.
“We were open to the idea of acquiring younger players that fit more long-term,” said Daniels, who admitted that 2022 and beyond is “probably the more likely window for us” (via Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram). Adding to the challenge of competing in 2021, it seems, are forthcoming payroll cuts.
“I’m not certain what the overall budget will be. It will be down from where it was this year, but I’m not sure exactly where,” Daniels said, per Wilson. As the GM pointed out, that’ll likely be true of a lot of teams in the wake of massive revenue losses arising out of the pandemic. Patching all the team’s holes this offseason while navigating budget cuts may be an impossible task.
Lynn is due $8MM in 2021, his final year of team control. Gallo, who’ll command an arbitration raise on this year’s $4.4MM salary, is controlled through 2022. Texas obviously wasn’t willing to give either player away for underwhelming returns merely to cut costs. Still, Daniels’ acknowledgement the team doesn’t seem to be a piece or two away from contention figures to lead to future speculation on those shorter-term assets.
Elsewhere on the roster, Shin-Soo Choo’s $21MM contract comes off the books at the end of the year, and they seem likely to decline Corey Kluber’s $18MM option. Texas’ other high-priced players, though, figure to be difficult to move. Elvis Andrus and Rougned Odor haven’t performed well recently and are ticketed for lofty salaries ($14.25MM and $12.33MM, respectively). Likewise, Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles have underwhelmed in their first seasons in Arlington.
The Rangers entered this season with an anticipated payroll of around $153MM, per Cot’s Contracts. They have only $63MM on the books for 2021 before arbitration, although beyond Gallo and José Leclerc, there don’t figure to be huge raises. That leaves room for some additions, but not to Texas’ established levels of spending.
So the rangers are going full Marlin? In the first year of a new ballpark? (First year with fans, assuming life returns to normal in 21)
Ballsy move texas
Saying you’re going to cut payroll of a 153 million dollar team when you’re only at about 80 after arbitration isn’t a death sentence. That could leave them 30 million dollars to spend. Though they may not spend much at all. The team just has way too many holes.
Yea. Seems they should have used this trade deadline to rebuild and shed as much salary as possible, then go crazy in the off-season using any prospects gained and extra cash in free agency to build a new team. This team is brutal at the moment
From 1 “bravesfan” to another, you do realize that it takes 2 (& sometimes 3) teams to make a trade. Why would Tex trade guys for an undervalued trade just to do the trade? The guys they held on to are still tradeable during the offseason.
From 2 Braves fans to a reds fan. I have always agreed w prospectnvstr. Too many times fans complain about a team not trading when there were no partners. Problem here is there were plenty of partners and they still didn’t make a move. Those 3 prospects the Indians got back weren’t top 50 guys but they all had great resumes. Go get a couple great resume guys for Lynn and possibly Gallo- especially if your goal is to tear down and rebuild. Surely there was atleast 2/3 teams willing to pay that price for Lynn.
And more importantly….never, ever tip your hand ! Why in the hell would the gm make these comments anyway ?!? He mental or something ? First class organizations don’t make comments like that- come holla at me in the offseason and I’ll trade ya one of our best players through the media. That’s what the pirates do….
I’m not sure anyone would be lining up to go to a stadium that looks like the result of a Home Depot Tuff Shed and barbecue grill having sex together.
But hey … at least we can be air conditioned while watching depressing AAA quality Rangers baseball.
afsooner02. Why does ballsy make you post better? Complainers complain.
Profit taking!
Thougjt this was a typo.
Expect the lowly Cubbies to trim player payroll. They have cut everywhere else.
Remember Tye Braves were bad in the 1st season In truist park in 2017. That team
Lead to the run they are on now, 1 bad year with anticipation of improvement the next will grow attendance and revenue.
The Rangers don’t have near the farm system the Braves had in 2017. At the time the Braves had the #1 farm.
That’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for them.
Not a Rangers fan, but I’ve always had some issues with the optics of that strategy, too. Isn’t the entire purpose of building a new park to generate more revenue? I’d understand, given the pandemic, if they choose to hold steady for a season or two. Ultimately we’ll have to see what they do. I think it’s going to be a real bad look though if they slash the payroll in half.
Why should the owners care if the team is competitive in the new stadium when the tax payers flipped the bill?
or just dont overpay terrible SP like Gibson and Lyles
Did anybody understand those signings when they occurred? Didn’t think so .. any now they look even worse
go back to those articles on this site. i was called crazy for thinking that Gibson was a subpar pitcher and that Lyles has only ever played well in MIL. Gibson is a 5.00 ERA pitcher and Lyles – well, as i said, has only ever played well in MIL.
Yes, but people said the same thing about Lynn and Minor’s deal at the time. The difference between Lynn and Minor is that they had much better resumes than Gibson and Lyles. Lynn has always been an underrated pitcher. He did very well for the Cardinals but then got injured, signed late and didn’t have a spring training and pitched poorly the year before the Rangers signed him. And Minor always produced but he had several injuries when he was younger. He just finally stayed healthy for a couple seasons.
Common sense!
Barf… keeping Lynn at 8 million is not going to magically make us competitive. Maybe a better deal shows up in the offseason. Too many holes to fill. I guess 2022 it is boys.
Lynn won’t be any more attractive to teams in the offseason.
That’s not necessarily true. Especially as next spring training approaches and a team find themselves short on a number 3 starter. I feel a lot of them don’t want the extra salary for the remainder of this year.
As he looks like a 1-2 in a season that he could help a team an extra shot at a ring. There are some teams that would rather the short-term risk to prevent them from a long-term deal (i.e. Zack Wheeler $125M…smh).
2022 is a pipe dream. This team is 4-5 years away from being competitive. Should they go full blown rebuild in their first year at a new ballpark with fans? Yes. But if they didn’t tip toe around it for years and years it wouldn’t be at this point. And JD had the nerve to say they’d look at an extension over the winter for Lynn, ha! Unless Lance figures to keep up this pace at age 38, they’re dreaming. I can’t imagine the offers for Lynn were downright awful for them not to pull the trigger. Waiting till the off-season just adds more risk of him imploding ROS, or worse, getting injured. Both if which plummet his stock, a la Mike Minor. Go through with the rebuild, for real this time. I’m talking to you Ray Davis/Bob Simpson! That includes letting JD go.
Cynical!
haha I don’t think its that bad, we have lots of very young guys that I like. 5 years is a very long time, I’ll stick to hoping for 2022 I think.
Saw this one coming from a mile away. This ownership group has been cheap cheap cheap since taking over. They had a ton of new revenue coming in from a TV deal with Fox SW. Fans were promised a dramatically increased payroll and it never happened. They have a top 5 market in the country in DFW. Those defending the tight purses will point to the occasional big sign like Yu Darvish or Choo… but the Rangers team budget has always been closer to 10th-20th in mlb. They’ve let quality baseball ops personnel walk for bigger paydays elsewhere and try to save pennies everywhere possible – manager, coaches, scouts, etc.
Contrast that with the approach by the Dodgers and its easy to see why one is on top of the baseball world and the other is on the bottom with the Pirates.
The Rangers can’t draft and they can’t develop. They managed to put together a World Series run off of some savvy trades, but that approach will no longer work, as GMs value prospects and draft capital to a much larger extent than they used to.
Reality
check!
What we need is to just tear out our FO, and Kip Fagg and JD are my two targets.
Wow and I was called idiotic for critizing jd and ownership in a different post. They keep promising that we are saving money and we were finally supposed to spend to get good players to open the new stadium and we end up with Todd Frazier. I’m so sick of this team. Can you imagine what would have Happend if Mark Cuban bought this team the last time it was sold when was bidding against Nolan Ryan and Co. I’m not saying it would be a contender every year, but at least there might be a reason for fans to pay to see this team.
What is the point of having a shiny new stadium, of you’re going to put a pile of dogshit team on the field. If I’m wrong then I’ll admit it, but give me one reason any fans should want to pay their hard earned money to go see this team next year. Especially with the hardships people will be feeling from lack of jobs – its going to be harder for people to justify spending ticket prices next year unless you give them a reason.
Jd and ownership need gone. And until then I’m done with this team.
Idiotic? You’re preaching to literally a giant choir. I don’t think any Rangers fans are dying to keep JD. From what I have seen you just seem alot more angry about it than most…
Yea in another post I said about what I said there and someone replied “it’s comments like this that remind me that talking baseball with fans is the same reason we dont talk to 5th graders about girls” or something like that.
Gallo is gone
Lynn is gone
Choo is gone
Andrus is gone
Rugged Odor is gone.
Assuming anyone wants them.
Rugged Odor? Is that a new Old Spice scent?
It’s a pun on Rougned Odor’s name
I feel bad for Gallo, because he gets pitched around every at bat. Simply has no lineup protection in front or behind him.
Lynn will be enjoyed for at least half a season and Texas will either attempt to nab 2 top prospects for him at next years deadline, or take the compensatory draft pick when he leaves.
Choo definitely gone. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Ranger OF with less defensive range, Pete Incaviglia included. Good riddance. At least Calhoun can DH now.
Andrus is stuck here with the contract.
Too bad Texas couldn’t swap Odor for Eovaldi or Upton. He will be remembered for 2,000,000 swing and misses at pitches over his head and 1 time he made contact … with Bautista.
Nelson Cruz
Odor actually missed a clean punch on Joey Bats and Odor had very good reason to throw a punch at him. Dirty slide.
Yeah me too, he walks so much because people don’t need to challenge him. That Dodgers series was hard to watch.
ATL wants them, not sure if they want to give up Waters for him though. TEX knows our prospects better than we do, as history tells us.
Unfortunately, Mr. Odor is still around stinking up the place…..
The Rangers are making a push for the worst run team in baseball. So they acknowledge they have to cut payroll and are entering a rebuild yet somehow don’t trade Lynn at peak value. This is worse than the O’s refusing to trade Machado until the lastest possible moment since even Texas knows it will be a miracle if they lose less than 90 games in 2021. Pure incompetence from Daniels today.
I agree. Perhaps the offers weren’t there, but that’s hard to believe, based on the number of contenders who would be in on an ace controllable for the rest of this year and next. Lynns value will never be higher. As much as I want to see him be the #1 in Texas next year, theres no way this team can be competitive. So the strategy to hold is asinine.
GoLandCrabs. We hear the same thing every year. Fire the GM. The Rangers will be the worst team in baseball for the nest 20 years. I am not going to games.
Their roster flat out stinks. Zero elite hitters. Rotation is Lynn and a bunch of 5 starters who Daniels paid like #3 starters. They absolutely need a new GM.
To add on to that, per a report earlier, another gm said that JD was asking for two MLB ready guys, and two highly ranked prospects for Gallo. I could see why a deal didn’t get done, that is a huge asking price (but maybe not too huge). And to not trade Lynn is asinine. JD should be fired tomorrow. Team should be sold. Players should be traded.
Let me ask. Should the Rangers reach out to Luhnow next off-season, and see if he wants this mess?
no, Luhnow is a scummy guy and should never be hired by a MLB team again. unlike Hinch and the players there is no reason to give him the benefit of the doubt that he did anything in the past in a correct manner, nor any evidence he did a good job. Astros had 3 #1 picks and managed to get half the #1 guys in history to never make it to the Majors. no way, there are mamy better and more deserving candidates out there.
He would be perfect if he wasnt such a bad person. Not even the sign stealing just all the other nonsense from him.
Dude not a chance! I will immediately think less of any team that hires that fool.
Goes to show who built the rangers roster of 2011/2012 it certainly wasnt jd more like Preller. Horrible gm
I mean, they are cutting the Choo, Fielder, Minor, and Kluber contracts at the end of the season (at least). I’d like to see Kluber sign back on a cheaper deal, since that is negotiable. And heck, they could go sign Bauer to 20 mil a year, and STILL be under what they are right now under the Choo and Fielder salaries. How much lower do we need to go?
Bauer has stated he is only going to contender something that rangers aren’t. My guess dodgers or padres
Sadly, I think it’s L.A too.
Bauer’s gonna sign for well over 20 million per year as well. If he truly wants to do short term contracts it’s going to be costly
imindless. The Dodgers don’t sign every top free agent or trade their top prospects all the time. The Media says they will to get people to read their story.
Bauer says he wants to play for the Dodgers too. And they could easily outbid anybody else for him. Plus, not having to trade for him at the deadline next season, giving up prospects.
Rangers29, Who said the Dodgers are going over the CBT?
They could easily go over the tax for one year, and go back below it for one season to reset it. They have tons of money, and a lot of their great players are cheap right now.
Great players? Lol do tell
Unfortunately Kluber is done for awhile. Why are they still paying Fielder he retired. He shouldn’t be owed anything because he retired well before tbe Contract was up.
I wanna say because he left due to injury, he gets his pay, but if he just up and quit he wouldn’t get paid. All I know is that we are still paying him 20 mil.
I thought it was covered by insurance in case of injury?
may have been a buyout to free up a roster spot. he would have had to have been rostered during the offseasons, meaning that was one less to work with to use on a project guy.
Insurance settlement allowed for the retirement. He still gets paid.
They should start the payroll cut by cutting Daniels. Absolutely horrible GM
Strange to come out and say this after the Rangers felt they weren’t getting fair offers for pieces like Lynn and Gallo. I don’t think announcing that you’re not going to be adding salary is going to help with those offers, now teams know you have to trade players like Lynn.
A lot of teams are gonna try to fight for last place last year and follow the Astros 5 year tanking rebuilding plan. Good luck to them all.
What we need to do is hire a life-long Rangers fan straight out of high school to be the GM. And get new ownership. That’s a show I would watch.
I agree. This is starting to get painful
Wild trade idea next offseason –
Andrus and Odor for Jup –
Tex gets away a year earlier off payments, Angels can sub Andrus for Simmons, potentially seek a buyout if Odor cant be productive 2021 with them
Leclerc isn’t going to go through arbitration this off-season… he’s already signed for the next 3/4 years (options) … so my guess is that his salary is already counted in the $63M on the books for 2021 so Gallo is their only real arbitration case/raise upcoming.
JD has underwhelmed the last decade. Dumpster fire. Only bright note is AC when and if there are any fans to show up
4th biggest market in the US and huge TV deal and NEW ballpark…..in JD’s head-let’s alienate the fans and make the worst offense in the american league even weaker
It’s bc the owners companies have lost a ton of money recently.. not a good time to be in big oil and natural gas
TV deal is actually not that big. They were one of the first to sign a big deal and everybody else has passed them up. They are 12th on the list and WAY behind the top teams.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/lets-update-the-estimated-local-tv-revenue-for-mlb-teams/
Not trading Lynn is going to hurt.
They need to quit trying to use revenue as reason to cut payroll. I’m sure theres enough revenue to field a competitive team. Should be a surplus of money using that argument, theyve cut payroll 4/5 years and there was revenue. I think ray davis and Bob Simpson just dont give a damn, and poor JD gets blame for it and probably gonna get fired soon
They all need to get fired. Maybe it’s not all JD fault but he doesn’t help