Utility-men Ezequiel Duran and Josh Smith are both drawing trade interest from teams, according to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. The pair came across from the Yankees in the Joey Gallo trade last year, and both made their big league debuts this past season.
Duran, 23, was signed out of the Dominican Republic back in 2017, and put up strong numbers coming up through the Yankees’ minor league system. He continued that form with the Rangers, hitting .283/.316/.531 with nine home runs in 155 plate appearances at Triple-A this year. That earned him a big league call-up, but he struggled to a .236/.277/.365 line with five home runs in 220 plate appearances, striking out 24.5% of the time against a 5.5% walk rate.
He appeared in 51 games at third base and nine at second, while he’s also spent a bit of time in the outfield and at shortstop in the minor leagues, and is largely playing left field in the Dominican Winter League at the moment. He was a slightly below average fielder at third, as Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average both pegged him at -1.
With third base likely to be Josh Jung’s for the foreseeable future, and the other infield spots locked up by Nathaniel Lowe, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien there’s not much room for Duran, who was ranked third on the Rangers’ prospect list by Baseball America back in August. A difficult first stint in the big leagues shouldn’t tarnish his trade value much, and with the infield set, he could be used as part of a trade package for another area of need, such as starting pitching.
Smith, 25, is in a similar position. BA had him as their ninth-best prospect going into the season, and he hit .290/.395/.466 at Triple-A to earn a call-up to the big leagues. He struggled as well, but still posted a strong walk rate (11.1%) and strikeout rate (19.8%) on the way to a .197/.307/.249 line in 253 plate appearances.
He largely split time between third base and left field for the Rangers, but also logged time at second base and shortstop. He was worth three Outs Above Average in 287 2/3 innings at the hot corner, worth one OAA in 183 innings in left.
The Rangers could run with Smith as their starting left fielder in 2023 and hope to unlock some of the offensive potential he showed in the minors, but, like Duran, he may have more value to the team as a trade chip.
Josh Smith can go, likeable guy but he’s a pretty prime trade candidate. Duran on the other hand is playing CF in winter ball right now, and if he’s decent out there then I’d much rather have him playing CF than Leody, no question. In the scenario that Duran plays a quality CF and overtakes Leody, trade Leody and keep Bubba as a 4th OF.
So… Smith, toss; Duran, keep… hopefully.
Would you rather have Ramon Laureano in CF in 2023 instead though?
Uh no hard pass on Ramon
I agree that smith is expendable. He has 0 pop in his bat and the league is filled with dudes who can’t hit but can field. I have to disagree on giving up on leody though.
I love Leody in MLB The Show. For some reason I always do really well with him
Hang onto both. Rangers should deal from a rung down on their prospects IMO (the Cole Winn, Spencer Howard, Glenn Otto, Justin Foscue, Trevor Hauver, Thomas Saggesse tier). Smith is a nice fit as a roving utility IF and Duran could solve the LF/CF issue for years to come instead of overpaying on the market for a volatile free agent. Stay the course and don’t put the cart before the horse.
Smith can’t hit his body weight and has absolutely 0 pop in his bat. You can find a defense first player who can’t hit all over the waiver wire every year. No point in keeping him.
Smith had a .244 BABIP, relax
He also has a .556 OPS and a .249% slugging percentage.
Those are the way they are due to the low BABIP, he’s not who he was in 2022, relax.
This year, Smith had an average exit velocity of 87.0 MPH and a maximum exit velocity of 105.4 MPH. Jeff McNeil of the Mets had an average exit velocity of 86.9 MPH and a maximum exit velocity of 110.0 MPH. McNeil hit only 7 HR in 2022, but he also hit 39 doubles and accumulated 5.7 bWAR and 5.9 fWAR. His OPS+ was 140.
A batter doesn’t have to be a home run hitter to be very valuable. I’d love to have McNeil on my team. Not saying Smith will ever match McNeil, but he hit for average in the minors with a higher OBP and SLG than McNeil, so it’s not impossible. If teams are interested in him, they must be thinking it’s too early to give up on a player after 213 AB in his rookie year.
I have to disagree. While Josh smith was fun to watch, the incredible lack of power in his 200+ major league at bats (.249 slugging) was very concerning.
Saggesse debuted in aa at the end of the year, and from what I remember, came up big in the aa post season. He’s 20, showing power and hitting for average, which is very young for his level. The rangers can keep him in the upper minors for 2 more years until they determine what type of major league player jung will become. I think he and Evan carter are the hitters to watch
Duran, to me, looked like a major leaguer. But because of the crazy lengths of semien and seagers deals, I’d rather see a true outfielder in left. I didn’t think he looked comfortable in the outfield (he looked great at third)
I’d like for the rangers to capitalize on the yankee prospect mystique and package up smith, Duran, and possibly Foscue. Even if they cannot get major league talent in return, they have a logjam of infielders. Maybe prospect for prospect deals to fill in the outfield and pitching needed depth
Almond Joy, you may have some good points otherwise, but you read Smith’s stats wrong. His SLG% in the minors is an even .500, it’s in the show (where he’s only had 213 ABs) that he’s at .249. I’d love to see him get a shot on the Giants…
Understood. But with the bizarre decision to lock up two middle infielders for the next 5-7 years, and a handful of really good infield prospects on the way, smith and Duran are good candidates to trade for other areas of weaknesses (pitching and outfield). Chris young has said they are going to spend this off-season (supposedly on pitching and an outfielder), so there really aren’t spots for smith and Duran to have significant playing time. Outfield will go to garcia, probable free agent, and a mix of bubba and leonys. Brad miller will have an occasional start too.
The biggest concern for me as a ranger fan is how almost every upper minor league pitching prospect vastly underperformed (leiter, Winn) and secondary prospects (Bradford, alexy, Howard, John king).
With all this in mind, I’d rather package up smith, Duran, Foscue, and address the bigger ranger needs.
Winn isn’t a step down from Smith. It’s still the other direction.
This is a click bait article
seeing someone, in the year 2022, refer to Spencer Howard as a prospect is hilarious. thank you
Send them to the A’s in a deal that has Kemp and pitching. Cuts cost for them which they would love to do
Ah, got in first – Laureano and Kemp for Smith, Duran and Otto words for both sides.
I’ve been a fan of Kemp for a minute, would love to see him in Arlington, but I wouldn’t trade much for him at all. Just like him cause he’s a pest.
He was so good in 2021, every part of his 3.4 WAR and .800 OPS was legit. So many highlight reel catches too. He needed to be that guy again in 2022 to get serious trade value but he sadly wasn’t, Really interesting player, he’s hit 15 homers over the last 2 years too, those are always so mindlblowing to see, he really is a small, wiry guy you don’t expect anything but slaps from him.
Weirdly enough both those guys seems like bigtime A’s targets.
Duran, Smith and Otto for Ramon Laureano and someone else?
As far as it goes for the A’s. Break your very limited bank to get Duran. Leave smith where he is and keep kemp at all costs. Good player, great team mate and exactly what ya need in a rebuild for the young guys. And by “break the bank” I mean just go get him
Am a bit surprised that no “big” signing has transpired yet…Yes I know Diaz signed and there have been some moves. But what is everyone waiting for???
Waiting for the turkey tryptophan to wear off?
To some degree, I believe Judge is controlling the market for the top hitters. If you’re Correa’s agent, you want Judge to sign so teams will shift attention to Correa. I suspect Judge will sign at the winter meetings, if not right prior, and that may set things in motion.
Gotta agree with RobM – the high end/long term deal elite side of the market is entirely waiting on Judge. Only look for short term deals until Judge signs, then the floodgates will open.
Good point Rob. Makes a ton of sense actually…I can relax a little now haha
It would be great if MLB could somehow turn free agency into a signing event, where there’s a flurry of activity during a set period, similar to what we saw after the lockout ended. That would create fans and media interest. The issue though is players and their agents wouldn’t agree to a set period, and I don’t believe teams would either. So now it drags out over months. Boras, in particular, loves to take his clients well into the off season. I don’t see Judge’s agent doing that because of Judge. He’s going to have at least two big offers and then I see him negotiating final terms and settling within the next week to 10 days.
Solid idea. Never thought of that either..
I like the idea of forcing MLB teams to set the 40 man on January 1 so the teams have more time to market the players more. All FAs gotta sign by then or else they can’t until Opening Day type conditions, which would push players to sign so they can get more marketing. MLBPA might actually be into this idea for that specific reason.
We gotta market the players way more, go back to 80s-90s again. It’s stupid as hell non-MLB fans don’t know who Mike Trout is or what he looks like, when back in the 90s they all knew who Jose Canseco and Mike Piazza were because every kid of that era had posters of them on their walls and they were all over non-MLB tv.
A’s Fan. I hear you. Every moderate baseball fan should know who ALL the superstars are. Maybe 2 dozen or so in the sport. And if you know them, you sure as heck better know who the top few are. Trout just isn’t flamboyant and loud. That’s why they don’t put him out there more. But everyone sure as heck knows who he is.
Oh, I’m not even talking about baseball fans, I’m talking non-baseball fans. When Jose Canseco was at his peak fame, everyone in America knew who he was, that was due to marketing and focusing on players. After (it feels like) 9/11 it seems that teams/MLB almost immediately dropped promoting players in favor of team-based narratives. Derek Jeter was about as big as anyone has gotten, but even in his prime, why wasn’t he on tv all the time? Why was Adam Dunn’s cameo in Dallas Buyers Club barely even mentioned? It seems that the individual player promo and marketing gave way to the team/club (Moneyball or the “curse breaking”)-based narratives.
A’s Fan, like I have heard people saying since I was just a sprat, “Baseball is BORING!” And remember, only a non-baseball fan would utter such words…And as you said, you are talking about non-fans…They don’t want to waste their money on people that think baseball is “boring.”
Both should be MLB players, but secondary pieces. Bench players for contending teams, but more playing time for second-division teams. Both are cheap and have years of control, but the return will be limited. There’s an argument the Rangers should keep one or both for their own depth.
Hang onto those two.
Hail to the Victors! Buckeyes folding like a wet paper towel.
The A”s need to get these guy’s, it just sounds like an A’s move.
I think smith will be a fine utility guy but not a starter on a good team. He has solid plate discipline but doesn’t impact the ball enough. In his peak years I see him as a 0.265 hitter who hits like 10-12 homers a year which means he is about a 90-95 wrc+ hitter.
That’s a competent mlb hitter but not one you want to start every day.
It’s not “but, like Duran,” it’s “but like Duran,”
I was honestly shocked by how poor Smith was last year. He could certainly be a great buy-low candidate for a team though.