Will Texas Rangers pursue more trades as Winter Meetings heat the hot stove?

Will Texas Rangers pursue more trades as Winter Meetings heat the hot stove?

The winter meetings start today and so far they haven’t been meeting about much. You are Locked on Rangers, your daily Texas Rangers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. You are Locked on the Texas Rangers, the first and best daily Rangers podcast. I’m Bryce Patrick, a crimly addicted Texas Rangers fan, covering 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. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. If you already can follow me on Twitter at Bryce Patrick, you can follow the show at Locked OnRangers. 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. Now, on today’s show, we’re talking about what’s been going on in these meetings, why they haven’t been very fruitful so far, and some trades and signings already getting started. How hot is that hot stuff? We’re talking about all that and more on this other Log on Range. Before we get into all of that, today’s episode’s brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. Now, the winter meeting started last night, but it really in earnest start today in Orlando, Florida. And I can’t help but when I hear the city of Orlando mentioned, but think of that uh Book of Mormon musical where where a kid wants to go on his Mormon mission to Orlando is thinking of it as this beautiful magical place. And really, it’s it’s it’s not all that beautiful or magical, but maybe the Rangers could make something beautiful and magical happen this winter in Orlando. Because the Rangers have pretty much self- hamstrung themselves on the payroll. They have just cried, “Poor, poor, poor, poor, poor. We cannot do anything that involves money.” I’m not sure if that should make me more on my toes or less on my toes for these winter meetings because the Rangers have already made a huge splashy trade. Doing it even before Thanksgiving, which no huge trades usually happen before Thanksgiving. But swapping Marcus Simeon for Brandon Mo was a very shocking trade to both teams, to both fan bases, and to the baseball world at large. And I don’t think that’s the final trade that the Rangers will make this off season. But there have already been quite a few trades this winter so far. The biggest one being what the Rangers have already done. But there have been a couple more a little smaller ones happening this week, including one within the AL West. Of course, Jerryto getting in on the trade market, acquiring a left-handed reliever who has quite a few years of club control from the Washington Nationals. Maybe he saw the Rangers do it and have a little bit of success with that last year with Robert Garcia. Now, maybe they will learn from the range of mistakes and not put that left-handed reliever into a closer role. But Jose Ferrer is headed to the Mariners for catching prospect Harry, who before the season was thought up as a top 100 prospect, a guy who could be a very good offensive catcher. But there have been some concerns as of late about both his power and his ability to be an actual catcher, which would really take a whole lot of the value out of him. also still feels like a a pretty big trade to to give up for a guy who has three maybe four years of club control left. Coming off of a season where he pitched in 72 games with the Nationals. Did have 11 saves. Most of those, I believe, coming after the break when Kyle Finnean, their longtime closer, was traded to Detroit. But he had a 448 erra in Washington. He does one thing very, very well. Actually, a couple things very well. He is a ground ball maniac. I mean, this guy gets a lot of ground balls, a left-handed reliever who is 25 years old and heading into his age 26 season and throws a left-handed fast ball 97.7 miles per hour on average. That that is a a pretty pretty rare thing, but he does not get a whole lot of swings and misses. Chase doesn’t get a whole lot of that. Doesn’t get a whole lot of strikeouts either. All those kind of around in the middle of the pack or a little bit below the middle of the pack, but he never walks anybody and he does not give up hard contact. And so the Mariners saw that and said, “Yeah, let’s go ahead and add that to our bullpen.” But still, it feels like a hefty price to pay for a reliever with the ERA of four and a half. Now, last year, he had a 338 erra in 31 games for the Washington Nationals that past season. He has never had a season where he’s had a strikeout per inning, but still, he’s fine. And it’s just some little bit of movement. kind of a good way to gauge the kind of radar, the hot stove, the the kind of packages that are being required to go and acquire players like this. Every single additional trade gives us just a little bit extra knowledge of, okay, if the Rangers are going to go try and trade for a player of this caliber, what exactly is it going to cost? It’s much easier to kind of gauge what that market is after there are more trades. Boston also making a big trade trading Johan Oedo of the pits trading for Johan Oedo of the Pittsburgh Pirates a right-handed pitcher reliever starter it depends on who you ask probably going to start as a starter maybe eventually put him in the bullpen missed most of 2024 with Tommy John surgery and they gave up their number three prospect uh I’m not even going to try to pronounce his name look up the password Garcia that that is it is a very it is the most unique uh spelling of a name that I have ever seen and uh a pretty decent prospect of a guy who’s blocked at a lot of places. Still a pretty hefty price even though the Boston Red Sox, you know, their their farm system is not quite as good as it was heading into the season because they have graduated so many very talented baseball players that Jay Garcia was a little bit lower on the depth chart. Now it raises him up to the number three prospect probably blocked in a whole bunch of different places. But they’re already some moves being made. The Rangers are almost assuredly at least in trade talks. Every GM, every Pobo, every front office member is engaging in some kind of trade discussion at probably five to seven trade discussions at any given moment. How many of those actually materialize? Probably less than 1% of the the hypothetical trades that are discussed actually come to fruition. heck, maybe even 5% actually get to a point where you’re legitimately talking about it and thinking about it and going back and forth on which prospects cost what. I mean, the Rangers are probably going to at least look at the reliever market. And so, these are important trades for the Rangers to go and look at are these guys who have multiple years of control cuz I think that’s probably where the Rangers go. Now, their farm system isn’t all that great right now. I’ll talk more about that in the third segment of this show, but it just goes to show you that there are some pretty hefty tolls being paid for these relievers. The Rangers look like they got a really good deal in trading for Garcia, Robert Garcia last year. All they had to trade away was Nathaniel Low who had, I believe, two years of club control left at that point and was a little expensive for a first baseman, but they seem to have sold high at the right time. But looking at who the Rangers are meeting with, who who the Rangers are even talking with in trade talks, there’s not a whole lot of good, reliable chatter on the street. There really haven’t been any credible rumblings, as I like to call them this time of year. There’s no kind of a hint of where the Rangers specifically are going. There have not been a whole lot of credible rumblings about just about anything so far. There have only been really some rumblings about I mean, maybe Zack Gowen is going to the Cubs. they are looking to pretty aggressively go and try and sign him. I think that is a a bold bold decision, especially since he is, you know, stuck with the qualifying offer. So, the Cubs would have to give up a first round pick to go and sign him. That feels aggressive, but maybe the Cubs see something in him that they could fix. They need some depth in the rotation. And uh they’ve got some money to spend. Maybe they could use some of that on Kyle Tucker. I I don’t know if if they’re going to do that. Um Kyle Tucker, there’s been really no buzz about any what the top free agent bats are are really looking at that. There haven’t been a whole lot of rumblings about where Kyle Tucker might go, who’s even talking to Kyle Tucker. There have been some, you know, suspensions, some some, you know, guesses, but there really hasn’t been anything credible happening in terms of talks of of where either him or Bregman. There have been some more talks about Kyle Schwarber. A lot of that buzz is really, really heating up. Some honestly bottom tier offensive that could really really use a boost in Kyle Schwarber are talking to him. the Cincinnati Reds, which are, you know, less than 45 minutes away from where Kyle Schwarber grew up, and the Pittsburgh Pirates, have apparently offered a 4-year 100 plus million dollar deal, which would way blow their biggest free agent signing in club history out of the water. They were also pretty aggressive on trying to sign Josh Naylor, which hasn’t happened so far. The Mariners just dinking and dunking into some things already this offseason. in the AL West. It’s getting a little bit heated, but are the Rangers going to be in the mix this winter meetings. We’ll talk about that. And a guy who they just missed out or maybe not just, but they missed out on that I think would have been a perfect fit in their rotation. And what are they going to do about catcher? Talk about all that and more right after this. This show is brought to you by FanDuel. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what making live bets with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you can place live bets as the action unfolds. Every dive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. Let’s look at some of the odds right now for the Super Bowl. Can you guess who the Super Bowl favorite is projected to be according to FanDuel and their betting odds right now? It’s the Los Angeles Rams at plus 430. Seattle Seahawks next favorite tied with the Green Bay Packers. Both of them at plus 800. Then the Buffalo Bills at plus 850. Also tied with the Philadelphia Eagles. All that at plus 850. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com. Place your NFL live bets all season long. FanDuel. The game moves fast and so can you. Shout out to editors for making lock on Rangers. Your first listen every single day. On tomorrow’s show, I’ll be back and hopefully with some more rumblings, credible or uncredible. If they’re uncredible, I will not be talking about them on tomorrow’s show. But more stuff about the winter meetings on tomorrow’s episode of Locked On Rangers. Now, one of the guys who I wanted the Rangers to target coming out of the KBO is Drew Anderson, a a former, very briefly Texas Ranger, a right-handed pitcher who struck out 246 batters last season in around 170 innings in the KBO. a much lower level of competition, but still one of the premier free agents coming over from Asia. Drew Anderson had been in Major League Baseball for several seasons, but just didn’t really have that level of success. And then coming over from the KBO this year, most recently was with the Detroit Tigers in their AAA affiliate farm system team. There there was some better way to say that, but I I couldn’t find it in that short amount of time. But he is back with the Detroit Tigers signing a one-year deal. the financial uh outlook on that has not really come to light. We don’t know exactly how much they’re paying, but for a one-year deal, it can’t be all that expensive. And and Drew Anderson had an incredible season last year in the KBO. Again, it it’s not quite the level of competition that MPB, the Japanese highest level of professional baseball is, but it’s still a competitive league. And someone who showed promise as a starter, wouldn’t cost all that much, would be a good depth back-end rotation piece. And on a one-year deal, that that seemed like something that would be right up the Rangers alley. I don’t know exactly what they’re going to do with their rotation, but they need at least a starter, probably two starters. I don’t think they’re going to go and sign three, but two quality starters would do a lot to shore up the depth of this rotation behind the top three that are very very good in Jacob Deg Grom and Nathan Yvali and Jack Lighter. Those are a really really good top three India rotation. And then your number four is probably going to be Jacob Latz at this point. And then your number five is I don’t know, maybe Kamar Rucker at this point. Maybe the Rangers go ahead and try and see if Jose Cornielle can win a roster spot or a rotation spot out of camp. I really don’t think that’s going to be the case. Eventually, I think he might, but starting the season as with that as your plan A is not exactly the best plan A at this point. I mean, it might be just how the Rangers have to stack it up, but I mean, they they really could use somebody of that kind of ilk, of of that, you know, caliber of player. I mean, I would really, really love to see them get in on Cody Pon, who was the KBO MVP last year. Had a sub2 RA in over 250 strikeouts in around 180 innings last year for the KBO and signed a three-year $30 million deal. 10 year $10 million per year for a three, four, five starter. That is a great deal. That is honestly a really, really great deal. And I’m surprised the Rangers didn’t more aggressively pursue it. Maybe they did and the Blue Jays just beat them out on that kind of a deal. But if those kinds of deals missing out on those missing out on the top end of of the market, that’s fine. The Rangers aren’t going to be players for the Framber Valdez of the world. They are not going to be players for the Ranger Suarezes of the world. Although nominative determinism makes me think that it would be just too perfect to not have Ranger Suarez as a member of the Rangers. Ranger on the Rangers. Maybe it’s too on the nose, but still that would be a guy who had the Rangers not put these big financial, you know, handcuffs on themsel, that’d be a guy who could really really help shore up this rotation, give them some depth, give them some innings, give them some quality left-handed starts because they don’t have right now outside of well maybe Latz break rot breaks the camp within the rotation for the Rangers, but right now they don’t have a left-handed starter for sure penned in there in the rotation in 2026. 6. That that’s just kind of a minor thing. It’s not like a a must-have. It’s not like you have to have a left-handed starter. It’s nice to just shore up a a different look in your rotation. Not everybody going out there looking exactly the same. But even if you have a whole bunch of if even if you have five right-handed starters, it’s not a guarantee that they all pitch the exact same way. Like even the guys who the Rangers have in the rotation right now, Jack Lighter and Nathan Yvaldi, they have pretty different repertoires. Same with Nathan Yavaldi and Jacob Deg Grom. Those repertoires are a little bit different. Same with Kamar Rocker. his breaking balls are very very different and also with how much they’ve messed with the shape of those breaking balls. I don’t know really at all what they’re going to look like next year. And as we saw with Tyler Mi, I mean, he looked very different from what the Rangers were throwing out there in the rest of their rotation. But the Rangers could have used some of those guys in the mid tier. So the Rangers missing out on guys like that. It is frustrating. It is also not something we’re ever going to hear, I don’t think, from this front office of, “Oh, the Rangers were in on this guy. Oh, they were close on this guy. Oh, they finished second on this guy. Which, you know, for the fan base, maybe it helps with morale a little bit, but normally I don’t put that much stock in it. It doesn’t really, you know, get me excited like, oh, wow, they were close. It it the only thing that it really helps is reporters and fans to kind of get an idea of the guys who your team is targeting of, okay, they were at least after this guy. This is the kind of player that they are looking for. It’s not necessarily that encouraging to hear, oh yeah, we almost got this guy. Oh, yeah, we we were almost in on this guy. which is what the Rangers kind of had with Max Freed. That was kind of felt like a one-off situation of the Rangers getting into a little bit of a bidding war with the Yankees and then missing out on Max Freed because the Rangers were not going to be willing to go six years and 200 plus million dollars for for Freed. And I I think that’s fine that they didn’t last year because, you know, the guy who they fell back on fell back on which I don’t know if the Rangers were higher on Max Freed than they were on Nathan Evaldi. Maybe they were because obviously they were willing to go in the five plus year range. They didn’t do that for Nathan Evaldi last year, but Nathan Evaldi, if he is your, you know, runner-up prize, that that is a heck of a prize with the incredible season that he just had last year. But the Rangers, they did make a few signings last year in terms of trying to bolster their off their offense. Kyle Gashoka was one of those signings. Not the most disappointing, but he was he was fine last year, honestly, of their free agent back their their offensive acquisitions last year. I’m going to include the trade for Jake Burgerer in there. Maybe Kyle Hagashi was the the one who lived up to what he was expected to do the most. And you know, he was just barely above league average. A 693 OPS and a 102 OPS plus. Just just barely, but he was above average with the bat. Jake Burgerer, not quite. He was a little bit below league average with the bat. But overall offensively, I think their their the amount of offense they added was maybe similar. I mean, the kind of hot streaks that both these guys were on, they had some pretty prolonged hot streaks and some pretty prolonged cold streaks as well. And then Jock Peterson, um, an 81 OPS plus, not not really at all what the Rangers were hoping for there, but the Rangers are going to need some at bats at catcher right now. They they don’t have a whole lot there. They really just kind of have Kyle Hagosoka, and they also made a a trade. They they they made some kind of a a a wires move to to get some kind of of catching depth on their roster, which I I don’t think we’re going to see a whole lot of of the guy who they ended up signing at catcher in Willie McGyver. I I just I don’t see him making a big old impact this season. I mean, he’s been a big leager in the past for about five minutes last year. He was with the A’s 33 games last year, three home runs, a 576 OPS, which is worse than what Jonah was running last year. Although Willie McCyver still has some minor league options. So maybe that’s going to kind of help him be just kind of that that depth piece. But there are always a few catchers on the market that that maybe you can go get. Maybe you can go get a fine backup catcher. They’re still going to cost a decent amount of money, especially with how few of them there are this year, but there are some options for the Rangers to go and get at catcher. I want to start with some of the guys who are on the free agent market. There’s not a whole lot of them. Don’t expect JT Rialamuto to walk in that door for a multitude of reason. The main of which he is projected to sign at least $13 million per year. That’s what Spotra is projecting him for. I think he might get a little bit more in the range of 15 to maybe 20 is a bit excessive because he was making about $23 million per year. He’s heading into his age 35 season, so he is a little bit on the older side, but there’s just not a whole lot of great catching options out there on the free agent market. Mitch Garver is now a free agent. He was making $12 million a year with the Seattle Mariners. He did do some catching last year, but offensively he has been nowhere near what he was in either Minnesota or with the Rangers in 2023. Christian Vasquez is just is just a non-factor offensively. He is significantly worse than what Jonah was running last year offensively. Uh if you’re looking for just a a you know league minimum kind of player, maybe that’s an option. It’s really comes down to the likes of Danny Jansen, Victor Keratini. Those th those are the only real legitimate, you know, everyday kind of guys that you could go out and get. And Keratini is probably going to make somewhere in the range of5 to $6 million like he made with his last deal with Houston. And again, that’s a decent chunk to sign to spend on a backup catcher, but they’re going to be getting a lot of bets. Whoever this backup catcher is, whether it’s Danny Jansen, whether it’s Victor Keritini, whether it’s trading for somebody else, there are some trade candidates I’ll talk about in just a second. But that’s just kind of what the market dictates right now. You look at the other options that guys who have played catcher that are free agents in the big leagues right now. It’s Jonah, no. Tom Murphy, no. Elias Diaz, maybe. Gary Sanchez is not really a catcher anymore. MJ Melendez is really just an outfielder now for Magguire. Sebastian Rivero, Austin Barnes, like they’re they’re really that’s it. Those are the only guys who are listed as catchers that are free agents that have been to the big leagues before. There are not a whole lot of options out there right now. There may be a few more options via the trade market that I don’t think will cost as much as some are projecting. Talk about who they are and more 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. And with 48 teams for the first time ever, it’s going to be massive. But let’s be honest, getting tickets is usually the hardest part. That’s why the Game Time app is so clutch. It’s finally giving fans a real advantage when it comes to snagging seats. With Game Time, you can track price drops in real time, get alerts when great seats open, and buy tickets the moment they hit the app. It puts power back in your hands and makes going to the World Cup a realistic thing instead of impossible. You pull up the app and the layout makes it so simple to scroll through these matchups and compare seat use. 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Maybe we’ll have a little bit of an emergency podcast or emergency podcast feels like such a silly term because no podcast has ever been an emergency. But to the level that podcasts are emergencies, I will be on hand to jump on and talk about whatever the Rangers are doing should they end up doing much of anything, which at this point has not really been the case. But the Rangers could get aggressive in terms of the trade market for catcher. Right now, it is the biggest hole on the Rangers roster outside of the entire bullpen. That is still a pretty big hole. But one, I think the Rangers have some pretty good plans to fix. But catcher, it’s it’s a little bit harder to go and and get a catcher. I mean, honestly, offensively, maybe the Rangers just go with, you know, bottom tier of the barrel because there are not that many great offensive catchers. I mean, there not that many even good offensive catchers. the amount of catchers that had a wrc plus a kind of catch-all metric to measure offense above 110. So at least 10% better of a hitter than the league average guy. There’s Cal Raleigh, duh. There’s Will Smith, duh. Not getting either of those. Shay Langalers, duh. Ben Rice, who’s not really a catcher. He is kind of a catcher in name only for the Yankees. Drake Baldwin, no way you’re getting him. Kyle Teal of the White Socks is 125 Wrc. That that’s really darn good. Hunter Goodman of the Rockies. Maybe you can trick them into into giving you giving you Hunter Goodman for pennies on the dollar. That’d be nice. Francisco Alvarez. There’s 12 guys, excuse me, 13 guys. Ryan Jeffers is the last of which that was at least 10% better of a hitter than league average. There just aren’t that many. Even Yiner Diaz last year who had been a really good offensive catcher for the Astros the last couple of seasons. He had a WRC plus below Kyle Hagasha. Higgy was at 93 where 100 his league average and Diaz was at 92. And you look all the way down there at the 28th best offensive catcher by WRC Plus. And that’s Adley Rutman, a guy who had been an elite elite offensive and defensive catcher. Maybe the Rangers go and get aggressive trying to get a deal done for him at the Richmond. don’t know exactly what kind of a cost it would it would take to go and get him. I don’t The Rangers don’t really have anybody in their system that I think is going to be an everyday catcher. Malcolm Moore is in this system. He had a really awful year this past year. I’m I’m really reluctant to write off a guy who could eventually be a decent defensive catcher and a good offensive player, but this year was tough. This year was really tough on Malcolm Moore. Injuries really just wrecked his season. I mean, breaking his pinky about a month into the season where he’s actually hitting very, very well. And then once he came back, he was just not good. He was not good offensively. And you look at the pipeline and their top 30 prospect. There’s not a catcher anywhere near the rest of that top 30 outside of Malcolm Moore. Now, maybe the Rangers go ahead and try and get creative with their catching situation. Maybe they say, “Hey, Cody Freeman, we know you’ve been really good defensively as an infield the last couple years. Why don’t we stick you back at catcher because that’s where he was drafted as a catcher. he hasn’t really caught since 2023. He did work on being an emergency catcher when the Rangers were down a catcher at at a point last season he was on the roster. Just getting that catching gear back up. Maybe that becomes an option. Maybe that’s a way for Cody Freeman to stick on this roster because there are not a whole lot of roster spots for a guy who offensively had his moments last year, but overall is not that much of an impact bat and where there were just a little bit more better options for the Rangers to have at the very end of their bench at the big league level. Um, maybe that’s how the Rangers go about it. Maybe they try and bring back Tucker Barnhart. Maybe they go and make a trade elsewhere. Maybe the Rangers want to go and take a swing at at acquiring Edgar Caro of the White Socks. The the White Socks have two different very good young catchers in Kyle Teal. I don’t think Kyle Teal is available. I don’t think the Rangers will be able to go swing him. But Edric Carol is a good defensive catcher. He’s about a league average bat, a little bit below league average. Also, just expecting any catcher to maintain offensive value. It is a dicey dicey thing right now because you look at some of the guys who are at the top there. I mean, Will Smith and Cal Raleigh, those are the only really consistent guys offensively who can count on to be good year in year out. Gabri Moreno has been pretty darn good for the Diamondbacks the last couple years. Carson Kelly, who was somehow the 11th best hitting catcher in baseball last year after or this year, I guess after in 2024 being just flatout abysmal for the Rangers once they traded for me. I mean, what what a disaster of a trade for the Rangers. Thankfully, they didn’t give up all that much to go and get him last year. But predicting catcher offense, all that to say, it is wildly difficult to do. And William Contrus, who I thought was the best catcher in baseball in 2024, was just the 12th best hitting catcher in baseball behind Alejandro Kirk, behind Hunter Goodman, behind Carson Kelly. Not something I ever really expected to happen. Maybe the Rangers go and try and make a trade for Ryan Jeffs. He’s projected to make about 8 million next year. He had nine home runs last season with the Twins, 119 games, a 113 WRC plus. He’s a fine hitting catcher and a fine defensive catcher. Maybe Randers say, “Hey, last time we made a trade for a Twins catcher. A year afterwards, we ended up lifting a World Series trophy.” Maybe that’s not the case this year, but it could be in a similar line of thinking. There are some other catchers out there on the market that there maybe the Rangers go and try and make a trade for. Maybe the Rangers, you know, kind of go and try and go get uh Jensen. Maybe that’s kind of the move that the Rangers go and make an aggressive push at. Maybe they make a move for Dalton Rushing, who is backing up Will Smith, who has been the most consistent offensive catcher for the last half decade to last seven years or so. I mean, Will Smith has been a very boring person, but a very, very impressive player. And Daltton Rushing is not going to see the majority of his at bad set catcher. Could the Rangers go and get him? Is he going to live up to that kind of prospect type? I don’t think it would take any kind of miraculous trade package to go get a guy who has not proven himself consistently at the big league level yet. Um, but there are certain people who who think that it would take a a Rangers top prospect to go get Dalton rushing. I don’t I don’t think that’s going to be the case um by any means, but they’re going to have to be some aggressive moves for the Rangers to go and shore up their catching situation. There are some other options out there, some other possible trade candidates. Carter Jensen was the player that I was talking about. Maybe um Blake Mitchell could be an aggressive trade candidate that the Rangers go and try and pursue. Maybe they go a little bit off the beaten path. Maybe they go and try and make a move for Joey Bart, who was one of the very few good offensive catchers last year. Not great, but good. Just barely above league average. 93 games with the Pittsburgh Pirates last year. He had four home runs, 21 RBI’s, and a 101 wrc plus on base in the 350s. Not a whole lot of slug there, but offensively a decent piece. And if the Rangers want to go and say, “Hey, Pittsburgh, you want this guy? You you do you really really need this guy? Are you actually going to go for it this year?” That could be a move that the Rangers go in pursuit. But there there’s just not all that many options and there’s a whole lot of unicorns out there. But they are not up for sale. They are not up for grabs. The Rangers are not going to just acquire Shay Langers. They don’t have the prospect capital to go and make a trade for Drake Baldwin. And even if they did, there’s no way Atlanta would say, “Oh yeah, let’s go ahead and give up our rookie of the year for whatever amount of prospects that anybody really has at this point.” Cal Raleigh is staying in Seattle until he dies. He is going to be there for forever and there’s no way in heck they would give him up. These offensive c hitting these hitting catching these catchers who can hit they are unicorns. They are rare. Why for that one special year, I guess really the whole the first half of 2023, it was so special how good Jonah was because you don’t have all that many of those guys. And why the Rangers held on to Jonah for so long when he struggled so badly offensively is because well, if he’s done it once, maybe he can do it again. And it seems like he is not doing it again. Where he actually ends up, I’m sure he’ll end up on a big league team at some point this year at some point this off seasonason. He is just too talented of a player, at least defensively, to not be on a big league roster. And there’s a lot of other teams that have uh worst hitting catching situations somehow than what the Rangers do. At the very least, as a backup, I’m not exactly sure where he lands. I don’t think it’s going to be on the Rangers. And I don’t think that the Rangers will make it through this offseason without making some kind of a move for an additional catcher. That’s going to do 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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FanDuel
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