Rangers Interested In High-Leverage Reliever, Right-Handed Bat

Things have been looking up in Texas recently. The Rangers have won five straight games, 14 of their last 20, and and 26 of their last 41. According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the club’s front office is “moving closer to adding than subtracting.” For a club that’s just half a game out of a Wild Card spot as things stand, it would be somewhat shocking if they opted to sell at this point. Should the Rangers commit to buying, Rosenthal went on to highlight two areas of need for the roster: a high-leverage reliever and a right-handed bat.

Both are reasonable needs for the club to focus on. The Texas bullpen has actually been quite strong this year overall, but their recent loss of Chris Martin to the injured list created some uncertainty at the back-end. What’s more, the Rangers don’t have a locked in closer at the moment, meaning they could be a strong fit for a number of veteran closing options who could hit the market like Ryan Helsley of the Cardinals, Raisel Iglesias of the Braves, or perhaps even Kenley Jansen of the Angels should Anaheim decide to sell this summer. A longer-term addition like Twins closer Jhoan Duran or Rays closer Pete Fairbanks could also make plenty of sense for a club that is sure to be attempting to compete for years to come, though those names would inherently come with a higher acquisition cost than a player ticketed for free agency this winter.

As for a right-handed bat, the Rangers’ offense has been lackluster all season. Corey Seager has been elite as always, Josh Smith is reliable as ever as a super-utility bat, and the duo of Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford have turned in above average results in the outfield. Everyone else has fallen short of expectations this year, however, and while some veterans like Marcus Semien have managed to turn things around enough over the past two months to bring their season-long numbers up to a respectable level the club still has the sixth-worst offense in baseball on the season. Those struggles have been most pronounced against left-handed pitching, which perhaps isn’t a surprise given that Seager, Carter, and Smith all bat lefty. Against southpaws, the Rangers have produced a wRC+ of just 75. That’s better than only the Pirates and Rockies amongst all MLB clubs.

Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez is the best right-handed hitter available this summer, and given the lackluster performance of Josh Jung (91 wRC+) at the hot corner this year the veteran could make plenty of sense for Texas. The bidding for Suarez figures to be contentious, however, with a number of clubs having been connected to the infielder already. Switch-hitting Twins utility man Willi Castro, Orioles outfielder Ramon Laureano, and Rays first baseman Yandy Diaz would all be strong additions and are rumored to be varying levels of available. Any of those players could fit the Rangers’ roster given the below average production they’ve received from the majority of their lineup, though it would be a surprise to see the club bench someone like Adolis Garcia to make room for a player like Laureano in the lineup.

Of course, any conversation about the Rangers buying must include reference to their precarious position regarding the luxury tax. Club ownership was clearly motivated to keep the club under the tax entering this season, and as things stand the Rangers are just over $6MM below the first threshold of the tax according to RosterResource. That doesn’t include future incentives and escalators in the contracts of existing players, meaning the Rangers have very little room to maneuver at this point. Selling a piece or two to clear more budget space could be an option, though any piece of significance dealt would have to be weighed against the production lost by trading them. Another option could be trading with teams willing to pay down their players’ salary, but that could be complicated by the fact that any deal where the selling club kicks in cash would presumably involve a much higher asking price than if the Rangers took on the player’s salary entirely.