Could Texas Rangers trade for Ketel Marte from DBacks in blockbuster winter meetings move?
The winter meetings are almost here, but what do the Rangers actually need to get done at these winter meetings? Talk about all that more on this episode of Locked On Rangers. Let’s get into it. You are Locked On Rangers, your daily Texas Rangers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. You are locked onto the Texas Rangers. the first and best daily Rangers podcast. I’m Bryce Patrick, a crippingly addicted Texas Rangers fan. Cover this team for 12 seasons, including all seven as the founder and host of this podcast. Thank you all so much for making Lock On Rangers your first listen every single day. If you’re not already, you can follow me on Twitter at Bryce Patrick. You can follow the show at Lockdown Rangers. Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and on YouTube, where the best way you can help grow the show is to comment nearly any single thing below. On today’s show, we’re talking about what the Rangers need to do at these winter meetings. what might actually get done and uh what what is there to even do at the winter meeting. Before we get into all that, today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code lockdown MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Now, the Rangers and uh well, everybody in Major League Baseball is less than 2 days away from the start of the winter meetings. the hub of activity or at least usually the hub of rumors, rumblings, credible rumblings. My favorite thing of any off season that starts on Sunday night. Teams, GMs, people hoping to find a job across baseball, random people heading to the city of Orlando, Florida will be there on Sunday night to do whatever needs to be done at these winter meetings. Now, and now the winter meetings is is the one biggest I guess the biggest. There are also the GM meetings, but not not much usually gets done at the GM meetings. The GM meetings happen a little bit earlier than those winter meetings. They kind of set the table for what’s going to happen in the winter meeting is the only defined time every offseason where I know something big’s going to happen. Something is going to happen or at least credible rumblings of things are going to happen because at this point in the off season there hasn’t been all that much. The Rangers have made a huge huge trade. Maybe there will be some more trades happening there. The main things that happen at the winter meetings are the draft lottery now and the rule fire draft. Those are always certain to happen. We’ll talk about those a little bit later on in this episode. But this is where you get all the GMs, all the pobos, all all the senior baseball front office people together in a room with Scott Boris making some jokes with managers sometimes are there, players sometimes are there, but a lot of agents and a lot of things start to mriculate out. It gives these people a time to meet in a room or in several different rooms to talk shop and you start to get some actual rumblings of things happening because at this point at least free agency wise there have not been a whole lot of big moves made. There are still pretty significant free agents left on the table. the biggest deals being done so far. Josh Naylor very ear early early on in this off seasonason signing that 5-year 92.5 million deal to go right back to Seattle Mariners. Dylan C seeing 7 years $210 million total more like $180ish million in present value with all those deferrals. Saw that on the table said yep I will take that. I will take 200 plus million over the course of seven years from the Toronto Blue Jays. That sounds great to me. Devin Williams took over $50 million from the New York Mets switching teams from the New York Yankees. Also, Cody Pon, the KBO MVP. I talked a little about a little bit about him on yesterday’s show and on Wednesday’s show as well. Outside of that, really just major relievers have been the only players that I think the Rangers have even thought about that have gone anywhere. Phil Mton signed a two-year deal with the Cubs. I thought the Rangers maybe could have matched that. Bryce Alacius, one of the top closers in the market. He is off the market, staying with Atlanta on that one-year $16 million deal. Ryan Helley, someone who I I want the Rangers to not touch with a 39.5T pole or however long the poll was. Make it a little bit longer. Make it 41 and a half foot pole. Longer than that pole they wouldn’t touch the Grinch with. Yeah, I wouldn’t touch Ryan Hley with that either, especially after some of the buzz. Maybe it’s just an agent trying to inflate Ryan Hellley’s value. But some buzz saying, “Oh yeah, you know how some some relievers are are turning into starters? Let’s take the guy with more walks than almost anybody who has basically one good pitch and also throws a hundred.” And let’s put him in a starter troll. I I don’t think the Orioles are doing that with Hell’s. But still, he is going to Baltimore after a really disastrous half season with the Mets after being traded at the deadline. and Alio Pagan, really the only other key headline guy, a guy who I thought the Rangers might at least kick the tires on, signing a two-year 20 million deal to stay with the Cincinnati Reds. Now, those are the guys that are off the board. There have been some other transactions. Obviously, the Rangers paid a pretty big trade. They brought in Brandon Nemo who is going to wear number 24 which who’s not talked about that uh there have been many 24s in the history of the Rangers including two this year Jonathan Orrellis wearing 24 for the Rangers in 2025 and Michael Helman not really any significant 24s in the history of the Texas Rangers. Nobody’s worn it the number for more than four years. He thought his number was going to be retired with the Mets. I I don’t think it’s going to be retired with the Rangers unless he just suddenly becomes the best version of himself, better a better version of himself than he’s been in years past, which I I don’t know is necessarily an option. But let’s look at what the Rangers need to do during these winter meetings. I think the first thing that the Rangers have to do is gauge the trade market for Catel Morte. The Rangers do not have a solidified plan as an everyday second baseman right now with the trade of Marcus Simeon. It opens up second base probably for Josh Smith and Zeke Durant or whoever else is going to get those at bats against left-handed pitching because I don’t think it’s going to be Josh Smith. But right now, the plan a is Josh Smith. And as as good as Josh Smith has been in that super duper utility role, I don’t know that that I don’t I don’t think that’s an upgrade necessarily at second base from what Marcus Simeon has done. Now, you may be saying, look at the OPS. Look at the, you know, offense that that Josh Smith was bringing the last couple years. And also look look at the second half offense that Josh Smith was bringing. As bad as Marcus Simeon was in the second half of of the last couple of seasons and you know in the entirety of the last couple seasons in the second half Josh Smith has been flatout awful. He’s been amazing in the first half but you got to play all 162. And if Josh Smith is fading down the stretch like that and there’s not another option then the Rangers are they’re they’re going to be in a rough spot if your everyday second baseman is just providing you you know that level of offense down the stretch. It is going to be tough. Now, maybe Josh Smith finally breaks out of it and has a complete season and is great and if he’s the everyday option, fine. I’m not super enthralled about it, but I’m happy with it enough. But I think Catel Marte can be had. Not just because I am a hopeless optimist and I love watching Gel Marte play baseball and I think he is the most underrated player in Major League Baseball right now, but this is a guy who can be had because he is heading into his age 32 season because he has missed pretty significant time the last couple of years and really all throughout his career. He hasn’t stayed particularly healthy for the vast majority of his career. He’s only played 150 games twice. He did that in 2018 as a 24 year old and then he did it in 2023 and also played quite a few postseason games and had some success in 2023 until he faced the Texas Rangers in that 2023 World Series. But this is a guy who plays second base. He plays it incredibly well. He is the best second baseman in baseball for basically the last three years outside of Marcus Simeon in 2023. But for the last couple years, Marte has been comfortably the best second baseman in all of baseball. a switch hitter who absolutely obliterates left-handed pitching. Something the Rangers very, very desperately need. A pretty solid player defensively at second base. Not going to be Marcus Simeon levels, but still more than competent there. Offensively, he hits switch hitting. He is a switch hitter. He is much better against left-handed pitching than against right-handed pitching. Hits for power, hits for average, gets on base at a really, really good clip. Doesn’t strike out a crazy amount either. But he’s had all kinds of different injuries the last couple of seasons. In 2024, he dealt with some back issues. That’s always a little scary. He has dealt with hamstring issues for the entirety of his career. We’ve seen how that’s already, no pun intended, a little bit intended, hamstrung Cory Seager throughout his tenure as a Texas Ranger. But he’s also owed quite a bit of money down the stretch. But you look at the player caliber of player that he is, he’s not making any more than $22 million for anywhere in this deal. He is he is under team control through his age 36 season. That is quite a few years down the road. That is 2030. He is under team control till 2030. And he has a player option for just $1.5 million in his age 37 season in 2031. But next year he’s going to make $16 million, $12 million the year after that. then 20 million, 22 million, 22 million, then that player option or free agency depending on what he chooses at that point. But that is not a huge huge contract for a guy who is one of the most underrated players in all of baseball. This is truly a transcendent superstar talent. And you may be saying, well, why why would the why would the Diamondbacks part ways with him? Well, they’re not in the best spot with their financial. They have signed quite a few rough deals for pitchers the last couple of years. Corbin Burns signed that seven-year deal and immediately Tommy John surgery Eduardo Rodriguez worked out about exactly like I thought it would which was to say very very poorly. The Jordan Montgomery deal blew up in their faces immediately immially. And so they’re in need of some pitching if the Rangers were to swing a deal. We’ll talk a little bit about what that deal might look like and why it might be more doable than you might initially think. Right after this. This show is brought to you by Game Time. The World Cup is coming back to North America for the first time since 1994. 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Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply again. Download the app, make an account, and use code locked on MLB for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Game time. Shout out to the making lock on Ranger first. Listen, every single day on Monday’s show, I’ll be back and talking about the first day of winter meetings. What are the rumblings? What are the rumorings? What things will be happening when I talk to you through this microphone next? I don’t know. I don’t know. It would be I probably probably have a lot more people listening to me if I if I could predict the future like that. But alas, I cannot. But I will be here with you to guide you through what the heck is happening in day one of the winter meetings on Monday’s episode of Locked on Rangers. Now, Catel Marte, I think, can be had for multiple reasons because these superstar contracts whenever they get traded. Now, Catel Marte is still a great player. This is not this would not be a salary dump kind of a trade. There have been trades like that in the past that it really just looks kind of wild. I mean, mainly is done by the Cardinals. I I think if the Rangers could be the Cardinals in 2020 or 2021 and find a way to trade for a guy who for a bunch of prospect that did not work out and get two MVP caliber players that that would be really sick because the trades for Paul Goldmid and for Nolan Areronado at the time felt insane and in retrospect look even more insane by both those teams trading away those guys and getting the kind of value that they did which was not all that much value, but this is a guy who is owed a lot of money. And while the Rangers don’t have a whole lot of financial room, maybe more of a, you know, big league player for big league player type of move could make sense. I don’t think the Rangers are going to add all that much in payroll. So, it if they were going to make a kind of a deal like this, they might have to include maybe it would be a deal around a Jacob Deg Grom kind of a trade because their offense in the desert is fantastic. The Arizona Ninebacks have a lot of very very talented hitters. And while Catel Marte I think is the best of the bunch, they could get away with not having Catel Marte in their lineup and still be a very very good offense. So maybe that kind of a deal is something that makes sense. But they have a modified no trade clause for Catel Marte. So he might have to wave it. He might not. I’m not sure exactly how modified that trade no trade clause is. That’s not really something that’s very readily available. But to go and play for a Texas Rangers team that is the most recent team to win a World Series not named the Los Angeles Dodgers could be an attractive opportunity for him. Maybe the Rangers don’t end up making a deal like that. But there’s also more players on this trademark. Maybe the Rangers would include, you know, maybe the maybe the Diamondbacks really like what the Rangers gave them in Mitch Brat and Cole Drake for that Muriel Kelly deal and they say, “Yeah, I want more of that farm system. Let’s go and make a deal again.” And but there are other plenty of other players on the trade block that maybe the Rangers will go ahead and kick the tires on. I think Jiren Durant honestly could be a similar type of value as Catel Marte in terms of the return, the cost that it would take to get him. Jiren Duran is still very cost controlled. I believe it’s three more years that Durant has under club control. He is a fantastic outfielder. It it might be something that does not quite make as much sense with the Rangers, you know, left field, center field, right field being kind of plugged up right now. It wouldn’t give you a spot for Brandon would probably be moved to DH and then Jo Peterson would be shipped off to who who knows where. Maybe maybe the Rangers say, “Hey, do you want Jock Peterson back?” And they include him in the deal. Maybe the deal back to the desert revitalizes his offense. I don’t know exactly what that kind of a deal would look like, but it’s not always going to be, you know, your top three top 10 prospects for a trade like Ital Mart as good as he is. He is still 32. He is still owed 90 plus million for the remainder of that deal. So, it could be not as big of a return as you think, which also might make the Diamondback say, you know what, no thanks. We’ll keep Catel Marte and we will keep trying to win with this core. Jiren Durant is another in outfielder who I think another hitter who I think the Rangers could kick the tires on. I don’t think that the Rangers are going to really ask the Rays about Brandon Laauo. Uh bringing some kind of Lao versus Low. We had a low deficiency last year with no Nathaniel Low on the Texas Rangers. Maybe bringing another former Ray whose last name is spelled LWE. Uh could be the way for the Rangers to get back into the postseason. But I don’t see the Rangers taking on that kind of a money for Brandon Low. also make the Rangers still very left-handed heavy. So, I I don’t know if they’re going to be all in on that. Brandon Donovan could be another trade with the Rangers. Kind of just test that market, see what the kind of prospect capital it would take to go get him is, and if that is something that is worth it. I think the Rangers still need to bolster this offense a little bit. Maybe just bringing in a Rob Snider, who is someone who I would love for the Rangers to go get. He is a guy who can play a few different positions and play him okay. Whether it’s a corner outfield spot, whether that’s first base, whether that’s I believe occasionally he’s played shortstop, not well, but occasionally he’s played it. Maybe he ends up taking some of those at bats at second base or some of the DH at bats against left-handed pitching since we’re probably not going to see Jock Pearson start those games. I’m not sure exactly what that is, but I would I would kick the tires on that. And I think a trade would probably be the best way for the Rangers to bolster this offense just a little bit more. And I don’t think it’s going to be a trade that we see coming. I think it might be if the Rangers do upgrade this offense, it could be a trade that just comes completely out of left field. Uh MLB.com had Josh Young listed as a possible trade candidate for the Rangers. They did the trade candidate from all 30 teams. And uh well with Marcus Simeon just being traded right before they published that article, they’re probably scrambling saying uh I don’t know who who’s still who’s still on that team that was a member of the 2023 World Series team that was a starter. Josh Young was probably the name that came to the list. I I don’t think Josh Young is going to be traded this off seasonason. I think he’s going to be starting opening day at third base. And uh we’ll see how all that goes. The next thing the Rangers need to do is figure out the interest. figure out who their targets are who are being posted from Nip and Professional Baseball in Japan and from the Korean baseball organization in, you guessed it, Korea. If the Rangers are going to get in on this international free agent market, there is a limited time to do so. There is not a time window with the other free agents. There’s not a time window for making trades or things like that, but there is a time window on players that are posted from Japan, from Korea. There is a finite window in which you can sign them. Once they are posted, I believe it is 30 to 45 days you have to negotiate and sign those players and then if they are not signed in that time they go back to their teams respectively in Korea and Japan and they can try again next year and see if the market is there. So those guys there is at least a finite window there. do know when they are going to sign or at least a window, a ballpark window of when they are going to sign. We have not seen all that many players from Korea or Japan sign just yet. There have been a couple, like I said, Cody Pon, Anthony K coming over to the White Socks on a 2-year, $12 million deal, so $6 million per year. He is a left-handed pitcher who has been in the major league before. Uh kind of listed as a relief pitcher. I don’t know if he is going to be a reliever. He has been a reliever in the past, but he started over there in Japan. Maybe kind of a sixman in the rotation kind of a role, maybe a long reliever type role. Didn’t have a whole lot of success over in Japan, but was fine and but is better than he was in the major leagues. So, that’s why he is getting another shot at the big leagues. But NPO and KBO free agents are are players who I think are are probably going to be, you know, near the top of the market, at least some of the fastest movers recently. I talked about them on yesterday’s show. Yes, yesterday’s show going indepth on the likes of Munitaka, Murakami, and Immayi and all the big players coming over from Japan and from Korea. So, go check out yesterday’s episode if you want some more inside-depth information on those guys. But the next thing the Rangers need to do, we’ll talk about right after this. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel NFL Sundays. move fast and one play you could suddenly everything feels different. That’s why making live bets with FanDuel is so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. 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Now, let’s talk about what the Rangers need to do next at these winter meetings. There’s not always the most moves being made at the winter meetings. Usually, big trades, that’s where things like this come about. start to see the kind of bigger picture form around some of these top free agents like this season it’ll be Kyle Tucker, Farmer Valdez, Cody Bellinger, Pete Alonzo, Alex Bregman, and I think Bobette, Kyle Schwarber as well. Those are kind of the the biggest names and we’ll kind of start to figure out who’s actually serious about those guys, who’s actually, you know, going to make a run at those guys. But the next thing the Rangers need to do during these winter meetings is figure out what the market is for Tyler Mali. We’re talking about those big names and and usually some of the smaller moves, the big names happen first because once those big names are off the board, it kind of raised the price of the guys in that next tier. That’s why I’m a little surprised that, you know, someone like a Josh Naylor has already signed. He is not one of the top bats in this free agent market. But I guess the Seattle Mariners were pretty aggressive in trying to bring him back. and I don’t think anybody else was going to give him a $92 million contract offer. So, if you get a big number you feel comfortable with, you’ll go ahead and take it. But usually those start those kind of mid-range guys, the you know next tier, the B tier, not not to diminish these guys, but if you’re in the kind of second tier of free agent, you usually wait for the big fish to go because then the teams that swung and missed on getting that big fish are a little bit more aggressive with their offers for the next guy on that list. And Tyler Mali, I have no idea what kind of a contract this guy is going to get. Is he going to get a kind of one-year prove it deal? Because last year was great, but it was also not all that much pitching. He missed basically half the season with a shoulder injury. And had he pitched the entirety of that season, maybe his numbers aren’t quite as sterling as they were at this point. I mean, he had a 218 RA in 16 starts. If he makes 32 starts, a fully healthy season, does he have an RA maybe around three or three and a half? I don’t know. Is that more valuable? Would that be more valuable than this half a season of excellent Tyler Mali? I I actually don’t know what I would rather have. Maybe maybe at this point with how the Rangers rotation is stacking up for next year, having somebody who can provide that depth, that shorefire thing might be a little bit more attractive. But if you can get Tyler Mi on a one-year kind of a prove it deal or if you sign him to a similar contract that you signed him to before the 2024 season of a kind of 2-year prove it deal. Maybe you have a player option for 2027 and a little bit less money in 2026. Maybe that’s kind of how the Rangers structure it. He was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. So the Rangers knew he was going to miss most of 2024 and he did miss most of 24. made three starts and then went right back on the IIL with some shoulder issues. Then comes up this year and is fantastic for the first two months of the season. Then on June 10th, he hits the IIL for what feels like the rest of the season or at least the rest of the season where the Rangers were, you know, competitive. He came back at some point in August and then just just was not quite anywhere near what he was in those first two and a half months of the season. I I don’t know exactly what the kind of range of outcomes is for Tyler Mi. Maybe someone feels really confident and gives him a three-year deal. I I don’t know. I I just don’t know what to expect from Tyler Mali. But he is the Rangers, I’d say, most important free agent right now, at least amongst starters, that that is pretty by far and away the most important guy to go ahead and bring back if the Rangers can go bring him back. If someone wants to blow Tyler Mali out of the water and give him a three-year deal, they say, “We saw what we needed to in those 16 starts. We think this guy’s awesome. We’re going to make a big offer on him.” I don’t think the Rangers will match it. I don’t think the Rangers are going to be too aggressive in trying to bring back Mel Kelly. I think that feels like more of a fallback option. But of of their internal free agents, I think the two guys that are the biggest for me for the Rangers to go ahead and bring back, it’s Tyler Mali and Shawn Armstrong. I would have been really happy to bring back a film Eatton, but at 7 and a4 million dollars for a reliever who is heading into his age 33 season, I am more okay with letting that guy go. But I think figuring out what exactly Tyler Mali is going to command, who which teams are actually in on Tyler Mi, and what kind of deals are they offering, I think they need to figure out that kind of a market. And if Tyler Mali is quickly becoming out of their price range, go and pivot early and go get somebody cuz this rotation needs at least one additional starter. Probably two. I don’t think three, but you need at least one and a half starters this off seasonason. Mi for the workload he might provide next year might be that half starter. He would be a really good halfarter half season as we saw last year probably. or maybe if the Rangers internal metrics say actually Mali kind of overperformed. We don’t think he can sustain anywhere near that level of success and so we’re going to go ahead and pivot elsewhere. But they need to figure that out soon. I think they also need to sign a reliever. Just just sign a reliever. A one reliever will need to add probably four relievers this off seasonason. Their bullpen is filled with guys who are hitting the free agent market. Hobie Milner, Sean Armstrong, Jacob Webb, who they put on the free agent market and didn’t have to. Uh, also Chris Martin. I think he is probably going to retire. I don’t think he’s going to pitch in his age 40 season, but maybe last year only pitching 49 games and just if he is if he was healthy, maybe the Rangers season goes a little bit differently. if he did not hit the IIL on that stretch where literally everybody hit the IIL at the end of what was it August or the end of July to the early part of August. Maybe the Rangers season goes a little bit differently if they slot him into that closer role and stop blowing so many saves. Maybe this season goes differently. I I don’t know. But I think the Rangers need to get at least one reliever. Maybe that’s their big swing on a closer. Maybe they don’t make a big swing on a closer and they just kind of try to piece meal their bullpin together like they did this past year. I think they learned some lessons that actually bringing in a legitimate bonafide closer is hopeful. It would have been nice if Ameliano Toyota didn’t have a very very derailed season and you could just throw a guy out there who runs it up to 102 miles an hour and he you know took the closer job by storm or any of the other top Rangers pitching prospects who I thought might be knocking on the door of this bullpen and maybe a closer role in Mark Church did not have a great season. Winston Santos had a okay season but was derailed for months with back injuries. Maybe Luis Carvello um takes a step forward this year. He was he was fine, but I’m not trusting him in a ninth inning role next year. That that’s not something that I think is going to happen. Um, but I mean, who knows? I think they need to sign a reliever. The last couple things the Rangers need to do, these these are more more nothing that they can actually do about them. But if they can find some way to um borrow some of that magic that the Seattle Mariners had with that Etsy witch, this would be a valuable use of that kind of a magic and using the Etsy wedge to rig lottery balls to move up in the draft. That would be incredibly helpful for these Texas Rangers. Now, the one time the Rangers have been in the lottery, they moved up the first year of the lottery. The Rangers moved up in that draft. And uh we we’ll see if the Rangers can actually do that again. They do have a 1.34% chance to get the top pick in this lottery. They are one of I believe it is 15 teams that actually has a chance at winning the lottery. There’s some other teams that are uh in the mix but are or you know would be in the mix had they not been ineligible by different rules. The Rockies have received picks in the lottery for the last couple years so they are ineligible. The Nationals and the Angels do not make money for the league and so for that reason they cannot receive uh a lottery pick in consecutive years. The top odds for the pick this for the number one pick this year are the White Socks at 27.73% chance to win the number one overall pick. But it’s not just the number one overall pick that is in the lottery. It is the top six picks last year or I guess the last time that the Rangers were in the lottery was in that 2023 draft. They moved up from the eighth pick to the fourth pick. They got Wyatt Langford. They won the World Series that year. What a consequential move up for the Rangers that ended up being. And this draft class looks honestly pretty impressive. There are quite a few guys from the DFW area that if you want to go out if if you are a super draft fan and you want to go out and scout those guys, there are several to go and take an eye on, including the top prep prospect in this class, Grady Emerson, a shortstop who used to play for Argyle, now plays for Fort Worth Christian. Right now, according to MLB pipeline, the top prospect in this class is Ro Chalow Cholowski. Chalowski, the shortstop of the UCLA Bruins. Justin LeBron, roll tide, the shortstop of the Alabama Crimson Tide. But there’s a lot of guys that are going to be on Texas Texas A&M on TCU. There are a few guys who are projected to be first round picks. TCU has Sawyer Straw Snider, who is an outfielder, a left-handed hitting outfielder for the TCU. Horn Frogs. Another top prep guy uh lower on down in this uh in this draft is going to be Trin No, not Trinity Christian. Where’d we go? Where’d we go? He just had somebody another another Texas A&M guy. Um Gabe uh Gravich Gravo. There there there’s I’m just completely butchering all of these names after doing I think a pretty decent job on some of these Japanese and Korean players in yesterday’s show. today is just all all bets are off. Kayen Sorell, another outfielder projected as the 20th pick or at least the 20th best prospect in this class. Also, Chris Hakopian, the shortstop of the Texas A&M Aggies. A&M has like three or four guys that are projected to go in the first couple of rounds. So, keep an eye out for those guys. The Rangers could make a big splash in this draft. Drafting a local kid, that would be a whole lot of fun to see. There’s also a left-handed pitcher, Shane, uh, SD AAO, I’m not even trying to pronounce that name. The left-handed Texas A&M pitcher, Trey Brousard of Houston. Um, Gravine, Texas native, uh, Gorvorski Lane Jr., the right-handed hitting outfielder. Yeah, there are some incredible names in this draft. So, if the Rangers could use an Etsy witch to jump up in that draft lottery, that would be fantastic because there are quite a few good guys from the local area who might be pretty good Texas Rangers somewhere down the line. And the last thing they Rangers need to do in this rule in in this winter meeting is protect Cam Collie in the rule five draft or from the rule five draft. They should have just straight up protected him on their 40-man roster. I don’t know why they didn’t. I think that there’s a possibility that he gets drafted. And if Cam Collie, who I had somewhere in my top 10 recently in my top 30 Rangers prospects, Pipeline has him at 17. I think that’s way too low. I think this guy is on the verge of being a Rangers top 10 prospect, or at least he was last year before the draft in my head at the mid-season. I think he was in that top 10 class. If the Rangers could have a little bit leftover Etsy Witch Magic, just don’t let anybody draft Cam Collie. I’m not sure the bat is quite up to snuff to stick on a big league roster for the entirety of the season. I think that’s why the Rangers did not protect him. But just a little leftover Etsy witch magic to do that. Maybe some uh primary Etsy witch magic on the jumping up in the draft lottery and uh tricking the Dimebacks into giving away Catel Marte for pennies on the dollar. That would also be nice. But that’s what the Raiders need to do ahead of in these winter meetings that are coming up starting on Sunday night through I believe Wednesday of next week. They are happening. Things are happening this off season. And that’s going to do it for today’s show. Thank you all so much for listening and subscribing. And until next time, don’t forget to enjoy baseball.
The Texas Rangers traded multi-time all-star and World Series winner Marcus Semien just four years into his seven year contract. The New York Mets sent outfielder Brandon Nimmo to Texas in exchange for Semien. Josh Smith is the obvious internal candidate to fill Semien’s vacancy at second base, but the Rangers could get creative and make a trade for a star at 2B like Ketel Marte.
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