Texas Rangers sign Tyler Wade to minor league contract, Skip Schumaker speaks at winter meetings

Texas Rangers sign Tyler Wade to minor league contract, Skip Schumaker speaks at winter meetings

The Rangers made a sighting on day one of the winter meetings. Was it a consequential one? 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 covering this team for 12 seasons, including all seven as the founder and host of this podcast. Thank you all so much for making Lockdown Rangers your first listen every single day. If 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. Now, on today’s show, I’m talking about the Rangers signing Tyler Wade to a minor league deal. Why nothing is happening yet at the winter meetings, some coaching news, and some interest in bringing back one of the DFA Texas Rangers. We talk about that and more on this episode. Before we get into all that, this episode is brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. Now, there’s not a whole lot happening during these winter rings. I know I said that the Rangers did make a signing. Is it a consequence of one? I think the answer will probably be no to that, but what kind of best paints the picture of if the Rangers are doing anything, if the Rangers are making any kind of noise at this point in the offseason is really a tweet by Evan Grant coming from yesterday’s big press conference with Skip Schumacher. Evan Grant said yesterday that the biggest news out of Skip Schumacher’s media scrum at the winter meetings is this. The Rangers are open to the possibility of Wyatt Langford center fielder. That that’s it. That’s the biggest news. They are open to Wyatt Langford playing center field. I’ll probably do an entire episode out of this later on in this off season because uh there there have not been a whole lot of newsworthy things coming out. But this this is not really newsworthy. Wyatt Langford played 45 games last year in centerfield. I would hope that they were open to the possibility of doing that again. He was very good defensively in centerfield. He was exceptional defensively in left field. Played 104 games there, 45 games in center field. He even played 15 games in center field his rookie year when there were legitimate questions heading into that season of can this guy play any defensive position at all. He’s incredibly athletic. He’s incredibly talented. he is getting better and better and better defensively in the outfield. Of course, a guy with that elite level of athleticism, they’re open to the possibility of him playing in center field. That’s not really all that particularly noteworthy, but it is noteworthy when the Rangers do make any kind of transaction. And so far, that has happened now twi I guess technically several times if you’re counting designated for assignment as a transaction. There there have been some of those. The Rangers may made a trade. You might have heard about it. Marcus Simeon is a member of the Mets. Brandon Emmo is a member of the Texas Rangers. But the Rangers have not yet made a signing until yesterday. And still, if you’re looking at big league signings, they still have not. They signed Tyler Wade to a minor league deal with an invite to big league spring training. Now, who is Tyler Wade? Tyler Wade is a super utility player who has played for three different major league teams. Now, if he makes camp with the Rangers or makes the Rangers roster at any point, this will be his fourth big league team. came up with the New York Yankees. Made his debut back in 2017. Played with New York for five years. Spent time, excuse me, there there was a team in there that I was missing. He did spend 2022 with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Spent 2023 with the Oakland A’s back when they were still in Oakland. And for the last two years, he’s been with the Padres’s. He is very much a super utility player. Has played basically every position on the diamond. He pitched even for a little bit last year. Has not played catcher, has not played first base. But outside of that, he has played literally everywhere. And for the last really four seasons, he has not been a particularly valuable player. Really since he left New York, he has not had a positive baseball reference war. Last year, a negative.6 baseball reference war. The year before that, negative.7. He has not hit a home run, a home run since 2022. And before that, he didn’t hit one in 2021. He hit three in 2020. But seven career home runs a career. 578 OPS. This is a guy who is there for defense. And even his defense has not been particularly great the last couple years. I don’t really particularly understand this signing. The only thing he did really well last year, his sprint speed was a little bit above average in the 68th percentile. The walk rate was really, really good. And outside of that, you look at his baseball reference page, there’s a whole lot of blue. And not just blue, but very blue. The bottom kind of rung of the ladder of of expected batting average, expected velocity, expected exit or expected slugging percentage, exit velocity, barrel rate, launch angle, swing spot, bat speed. Like none none of those things offensively was he doing well. And the numbers kind of showed it. A 206 batting average, a one stolen base, 22 hits in 107 at bats. not not exactly an offensive powerhouse. I I don’t really understand this signing because the Rangers already have many guys of his ilk that are better. I mean, Josh Smith is probably going to be the Rangers everyday second baseman. We’ll talk a little bit about that later on in the show. But if you’re looking for super utility guys who can’t really swing a bat, the Rangers have some super utility guys who can swing a bat. I mean, I think this is a worse version of Ezekiel Duran. Defensively, at least Zeke Duran was good defensively at the places where he played last year at first base, second, shortstop, outfield, third base. Even as a pitcher, he had a zero erra. And offensively, he still had a better season, pretty sure, than Tyler Wade. Hit exactly as many home runs as Tyler Wade. Yeah, a little bit a little bit better of a season. No, two points worse in his OPS than Tyler Wade. But still, I I don’t really get this move. They also have guys like Cody Freeman. They have, you know, if they wanted to bring back Dylan Moore on this similar kind of a deal to this, that would make some sense. Sam Hagerty is a super utility player. Can’t really play shortstop like Tyler Wade can. But, I mean, they have other guys that are around that can do this kind of a thing. So, I don’t I don’t really understand this move by the Rangers besides just getting some other veteran depth presence in case you have, you know, multiple multiple injuries. I mean, Cody Freeman is a better option there. Michael Elman can play every single infield position and every single outfield position. Um, I just I don’t really get it. The only other fun fact I really had to share about Tyler Wade is that he’s still very close with Aaron Judge. Both of them came up through the Yankee system and played together for several seasons. He was in New York for five years. I believe that Judge was on the big league team for at least most of those five seasons and Tyler Wade spending some times with him in the offseason and also was at Aaron Judge’s house hanging out with him and his family when Aaron Judge received his most recent AL MVP after a an incredible season with the Yankees this year. I still I still would have leaned toward giving it to the catcher who hit 60 home runs, but hey, still an incredible season there. Not a whole lot else to say about Kyle Wade, but hey, at least the Rangers did something because there’s just not a lot happening during these winter meetings. There are some perceptions around the game. This was from Buster only yesterday saying the perception around in some corners of the industry is that Kyle Schwarber might be the first superstar position player to make his choice. Uh, actually no, that was not what I was trying to read you about what Buster Only was saying. Must only was saying that the trade market is percolating, but a lot of agents in exact believe the bulk of the winter free agent market is going to move very very slowly this off season. And you know what? I don’t I don’t particularly love that. I wish that we had some kind of a pitcher clock on the free agent market of a time where free agency very clearly opens, which we do, but a shorter window to where these guys aren’t signing into the start of spring training, which I think we might get a lot of this year. Maybe not the, you know, mid-tier guys. Maybe those guys are going to be more reluctant to wait out the market, wait out ownership because there is possibly probably a lockout coming in the 2027 season and this is going to be the last full season without any kind of interruptions. May maybe 2027 comes and goes and we do end up getting a resolution and we don’t have to miss portions or the entirety of the 2027 season because it it is going to be that. Just prepare yourselves, prepare your hearts, prepare your minds, prepare your baseball souls to miss some of, if not most of, if not all of the 2027 season because of the labor dispute that is going to be coming ahead of this, not this season, but the season after that. But it is just not great news for someone who is trying to make content there. is not great news for baseball fans who want their teams to be doing stuff to be at least, you know, have rumblings, rumors, credible rumblings of what the heck is going on because these winter meetings, this is the one time all off season that we are guaranteed to get at least everybody in a room and well, we’ll have the draft lottery happening. We’ll have the rule five draft happening. But if those are the two most consequential things that happened for the Rangers this offseason, I think they’re both more consequential than signing a Tyler Wade. But this is just not exactly what I had envisioned for these winter meetings. But there are still some more news and notes to get into, including a developing trade market for Catel Marte and the Rangers making yet another addition to their Koshi staff. 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 is so exciting. You’re not just watching the game. You’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you can place bets as the action unfolds. Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. I mean, you you could never know what’s going to happen in an NFL game. If you’re watching last night’s Monday Night Football and you see one player have two different turnovers in one game. Jaylen Herz, my my former Bama boy. What what a what a wild wild play. But let’s look at some of the World Series odds for 2026. As we stand right now, the Dodgers favorite at plus 360 to win the whole dang thing. Go back to backto back. The New York Yankees the next favorites to dethrone them. plus 700 Phillies + 1,000 Mets plus,00 Meriders at + 1,200. And then right there behind them, Houston Astros at plus,400. I don’t know if I agree with the Astros at plus,400 with the 1 2 3 4 5 six best odds to win this World Series. But if you want to get in the middle of the action this season for the FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long, FanDuel, the game moves fast and so can you. Shout out to making locked on range your first every single day. On tomorrow’s show, I’ll be back and I I promise surely something will have happened by now. And next episode of the Locked On Rangers podcast. Uh hopefully maybe some rumblings, credible rumblings about what the Rangers might be doing. I’m going to be checking I’m still actively checking Twitter throughout this episode and throughout all these winter readings because there have been times including just right before right before Thanksgiving when I was recording an episode where the Marcus Simeon trade news dropped and I was not actively checking Twitter like I should be doing during offseason recordings so I can get you live reactions to any kind of big moves that are happening. But the Rangers had another little bit of news happening this week. They promoted minor league hitting coordinator Eric Dorton to their big league staff as the assistant hitting coach. So Justin Beely is going to be the number one and Jordan is coming to the Texas Rangers big league squad. Now this is not exactly the most exciting news but what was exciting news happening coming from the athletic coming from Ken Rosenthal about what he is hearing this off seasonason. Thank you, Ken Rosenthal, for these columns of just tweeting out what is he hearing? What are these credible rumblings and rumorings happening around the world of baseball? This was updated at 500 a.m. today, Central Standard Time, and he’s talking about the Catel Marte trade market. Marte is 32 years old. He is owed $102.5 million over the course of the next six seasons. A lot of that money is going to be deferred. $41 million of it. And those payments, they don’t start until a decade after that money is all earned. So, any team that’s that’s going in on Marte is not only going to have to be excited about the player, but they’re also going to have to be excited about the fit in the clubhouse. And there have been some concerns about Catel Marte and his fit in the clubhouse. And Ken Rosenthal talks about him missing some time this season right after the All-Star break. He missed the first three games of the break. uh back in the Dominican Republic. His house was broken into during the All-Star break, he was very distraught about this. This is a a concerning trend that has happened around sports. It’s not just his house, but during the All-Star break during times where people know these allstars are going to be out. Um this is not just happened to him. It’s happened to Luca Donuch when he was here as a member of the Mavericks. It’s happened to several other players across sports. a very upsetting trend and it’s a little understandable for him to be upset about it, but his teammates apparently were not, at least privately, were not super enthralled about him missing three games in a row coming out of the All-Star break. His availability has been a little bit of a question for the last couple years. He’s only broken the 140 plus game mark once in the last five seasons. He’s an incredibly talented player, but you know, there just been some things that has maybe rubbed players the wrong way. I’m not sure how much of a fit the clubhouse fit would be with this squad. He has a very different kind of a personality than what most of the Rangers clubhouse is kind of made of and I don’t think that’s a reason to not pursue it. Catel Marte is just too talented of a player. He is not, you know, a gradea superstar diva. It’s not like a, you know, I I don’t know, Antonio Brown kind of a situation. There aren’t really that many, you know, MLB superstars who are just total divas, but just the personality personalities might not exactly mesh with this Texas Rangers squad. But there are some rumors about which teams are at least testing the waters of this Arizona Diamondback’s potential superstar trade. They are looking to acquire heavy on the pitching talent. They have a lot of very, very good hitters. They are hoping to acquire somebody in on a pitching staff that is at least close to big league caliber if not already in the big leagues. I don’t think that this means that the Rangers would be willing to part ways with Jack Lighter. I think that would honestly, as good as I think Catel Marte is, trading a young controllable pitcher coming off of a really great rookie season that is still not even ARB eligible for another two seasons and has superstar potential and is heading into his age 26 season. That that is the most valuable thing in sports. And I don’t think the Rangers would trade away Jack Lighter for basically any deal. and and Catel Marte is right up there in terms of deals where you have to consider just about giving up anything. But if the Rangers could sway the Dimebacks on a Kamar Rocker package as well as some of the other arms they have in the upper miners, I’ll talk more about the minor league prospects that they have to deal with in the third segment of this show, but just something to definitely keep an eye on. The Rangers will I I would think at least be checking in on Kel Marte right now. It seems like Josh Smith is the overwhelming favorite to land that second base job as the everyday second baseman with probably a little bit of platooning there from whether it’s Sam Hagerty, whether it’s from Zeke Duran, whether it’s from Michael Helman, somebody to hit against left-handed pitching because Josh Smith really did not do that particularly well at all last year. He did it really well in 2024. So maybe maybe that ends up being the case that he just gets every day at bats and gets a little bit better. Um, but the Boston Red Sox are one of the teams checking in on Kel Marte. They are also there are also three different mystery teams. Love to hear a good mystery team giving that plausible deniability that maybe it could be my team, maybe it could be my team, maybe it’s not, maybe it’s not anywhere close to my team, but the fact that there are three different mystery teams kicking the tires on a Catel Marte trade makes me very excited. The Rangers need to improve their offense and as good as Josh Smith has been the last couple of years, Catel Marte is a massive, massive offensive upgrade. Something this team desperately needs and would not be. Although he is owed a whole whole lot of money, it is mostly deferred. It is not that much on the front end, which it seems like the Rangers are more willing to take money on the back end of contracts and just kind of try to shed a little bit of salary on the front end. They’re still going to be over the $200 million mark for their payroll. And so this could be a creative way to go about improving this team while still keeping that window open for now. And Ray Davis saying, “Eh, what’s 10 years down the line of how much somebody’s going to be paying for it? I’m probably not going to be the one footing the bill for that.” So that I am more willing to take on salary for. We just we literally just saw that in the Brandon NMO deal. The Rangers trading away more salary in the short term to take on more salary in the long term. Marcus Simeon making about 20 22 $25 million or was it $26 million per year for the next three years versus Brandon Nemo who is going to make I believe 20ish million for the next five seasons. So overall taking on more money in the long term to kind of shed that short-term payroll. Just something to keep an eye on for sure. The next little bit of notes that doesn’t really concern the Ranger, but I think also concerns literally everybody is that Kyle Schwarber, according to some experts, including Buster only, which I just referenced earlier. Kyle Schwarber could be that big bet that starts to get this market going. Usually, there is one big guy. Now, in this case, it is literally a big guy who gets off the board and then everybody else starts falling like dominoes because everybody is putting bl C D E squar F minus into effect trying to recover from missing out on their top guy on the market. And it seems like this year it’s Kyle Schwarber, which I don’t think Kyle Schwarber is the he’s the best hitter I’d say on this market, but I don’t think he is the best offensive player. The biggest fish on the pitching market has already been taken off the board in Dylan CE. That didn’t necessarily start a ripple effect of everybody signing all the pitchers right after that. There are still some guys who who some might consider better than Dylan CE. I don’t think there will be a better bargain than getting Dylan CE. If I was going to spend $1 150 plus million dollars on any pitcher on this market, I think Dylan CE is probably the guy I go to because he’s so young, because he’s so durable, because he gets a bunch of swings and misses. And at worst, he’s still pretty solid and he’s still going to go out there every fifth day. And he’s someone who’s got the stuff to miss bats in a postseason series. But that hasn’t really been the case for the pitching side because we still have Valdez on this market. We still have Ranger Suarez on this market. There are still plenty of guys on this free agent market that have not really even started to begin rumbling. But once Kyle Schwber gets going, I think a lot of these other bats will start to come off the market. Maybe maybe we’ll start to see bigger moves like it will start to affect the pitching market. teams will, you know, pivot and say, “Okay, well, if we can’t get Kyle Schwarber, let’s go ahead and and spend that money that we were going to spend on a bat now on a starting pitcher, or we’re going to go and upgrade the bullpen because there are still plenty of really, really, really good options out there on the bullpen market.” Whether that’s it’s not Ryan Hley anymore, he has gone to the Baltimore Orioles, it is no longer David Williams, he has gone to the New York Mets, but still the top guy on this market, Edwin Diaz, is still very much out there. Robert Suarez is a guy who I’d say is probably the number two option on this market. Maybe some people view Devin Williams a little bit better, but I think Williams with the deal that he signed, I thought Williams would get four or five years even with a down year with New York. I still think that you know if you look at the expected numbers and you know the type of results that he was getting, how he was getting those results still makes him look like he is very much primed for a bounceback year. and he had had so many successful seasons that I was a little surprised that someone didn’t take a wasn’t willing to take a bigger gamble on Devin Williams after just one down year. But hey, that’s kind of what the market is looking like right now. But the Rangers in terms of guys who they are trying to sign to their Bullpin, they have some interest in a guy who they designated for assignment not even a month ago. Talk about who that is and why the Rangers want him back 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. 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Now, the Rangers apparently have some interest in bringing back a World Series hero. Not just regular interest, but extreme interest. According to Chris Young, the Rangers have extreme interest in bringing back Josh Bors. Now, you may be sitting there thinking, why? Why would the Rangers bring back Josh Bors? They just designated him for assignment not even a month ago. Doesn’t that mean you hate the guy? You don’t want the guy on your team? You think that guy stinks? Well, I I don’t think that it necessarily means that you hate the guy. I don’t think that it means you necessarily think that guy stinks. It does mean that you don’t do not want him on your 40man roster or you do not want him at the contract value he was projected to get. That was the case with an oil Garcia. He was projected to get around 12ish maybe 12.5 million in arbitration. The Raiders said that’s a bit much. No thank you. And I do not think there is going to be a reunion there. There’s not been any kind of rumblings rumorings about the Rangers getting back in to the Adoulles Garcia game. I I think that bridge has been burned. And if you’re Garcia, I would feel very personally slighted by being designated for assignment not even two years, just barely two years after being a World Series hero for the only championship in franchise history. I I think he would justifiably feel pretty sighted. Jonah projected to make $6 million. Rangers said, “Eh, that’s a bit much. That is not what we think you are worth at this point.” And I have not heard any rumblings, rumorings about him coming back. Jacob Webb, it felt like a bit of a a a cheap move to say $2 million is too much for a an okay reliever. Now, with how how frugally they built their bullpen last year, it makes a little bit of sense to say we think we can get someone a little bit better for a little bit less because they did that several times last year. Still felt like a bit of a wild move. I haven’t heard any rumblings or rumorings about whether the Rangers want Jacob Webb back or not, but Josh Bors, this was more of a 40man roster spot allocation. Now, Josh Bors was projected to make about a million dollar in arbitration, which the league minimum is around $800,000. So, you wouldn’t really be saving all that much money. It’s not a contract situation by just saying, “Yeah, oh yeah, $2 million, $200,000 over what the bare minimum you could pay a player is is too much for us to to go take a chance on Josh Spores.” But Spores had not pitched in the big leagues in a year. He had been rehabbing. He was technically healthy at the end of the year, te technically, I say, but he had never really regained the velocity on that fast ball. And so spending a 40man roster spot on a guy who you’re not sure is going to be big league caliber this year. He never got back up to the 95 97 that he was sitting when he was absolutely obliterating guys in the World Series in the ALCS in the entirety of that October run in 2023. Just a magical magical run from a guy who had had a lot of ups and a lot of downs in his big league career. and he was sitting more 90 to 92. And when you’re Josh Bors and the kind of repertoire that you have, it is a lot predicated on having that not the most elite velocity, but at least pretty darn good velocity. Now, his breaking balls were always a lot better than his fast balls, but if your fast ball is 90 to 92 as opposed to 95 to 97, it it doesn’t do as good of a job of keeping those hitters off of those really good breaking balls a as it would when it the velocity is a little bit higher on that fast ball. The breaking balls weren’t quite as sharp either. He was just not having a whole lot of success in his rehab outings or just in regular outings in the minor leagues. So that’s why the Rangers say, “Hey, we think this guy can get back to some version of the guy that he was in October of 2023, or we at least think there’s a chance there.” I don’t know how many other teams are going to be, you know, racing to go and sign Josh Bors after having shoulder surgery after the 2024 season, then basically missing the entirety of 2025 and all those reports that are would be coming out about how Josh Bors was actually doing when he was pitching in 2025 and allegedly back to full strength. Shoulder injuries are some scary stuff. They are they are career ruiners. So, the Rangers taking a minor league chance on Josh Bores to not take up a 40 roster spot and just see if they can get any kind of magic back out of Josh Bors makes a lot of sense. I would expect that at least there would be a little bit of uh interest back on Josh Bors’ spot. But if somebody wants to go and sign Josh Bors to a big league contract, I I don’t think the Rangers will go and try and match them uh by any means. But it would be really fun to see Josh Bors back in a Texas Rangers uniform. That’s why there is some extreme interest there. A lot of low risk. Not really a lot of possible reward if they get anything close to the approximation of October 2023 Josh Bors. That was such a fun reliever to watch after a very very up and down season. So that’s why the Raiders are still in on Josh Bors. But I I don’t think there are going to be any reunions from anybody else at the Rangers designated for assignment. Now right now Josh Smith is the favorite to win the second base job. And there was some reporting about that uh just talking about Josh Smith being the everyday guy. Skip Schoeacher saying, “Yeah, he’s a favorite right now.” I I thought, you know, if that’s the news that’s coming out from day one of these winter meetings, it is going to be a slow slow winter meeting. I mean, the fact that the newsworthy stuff is the Raiders have a new assistant hitting coach. They signed a guy to a minor league deal who has a career ops below 600. Has not been a positive war player in several seasons. Um, and they’re open to Wyatt Langford being the everyday being a center fielder. And Josh Smith, who was already the most obvious candidate to be the second baseman every day, is the most obvious candidate to be the second base every day. There’s just not a whole lot going on. And so I don’t really have much more to say than I’ve already said in the last couple weeks about Josh Smith being the everyday second baseman. I think that makes sense. I’m still concerned about it. I would rather have an upgrade, but there’s not a whole lot of upgrades out there. And so maybe that ends up being just fine. So I do want to talk a little bit about some of the prospects that the Rangers have to deal with if the Rangers go and make some trades. I feel like trades are the most exciting part of the winter meetings because, you know, transactions, the signings are are boring. They happen. They’re exciting. If your team is making a big sighting, okay, that’s exciting. But like all these free agents, they’re going to sign somewhere eventually. They’re going to be on a team. Whether it’s the same team, they just left or it’s a different team. It it doesn’t really matter. We know that they’re going to sign somewhere. They’re going to do something. But the trades often come out of nowhere. Like a Marcus Simeon for Brandon NMOS swap that came completely out of nowhere. some of these trades a little bit little bit smaller but a a a Garrett Crochet trade last year at the winter meetings that was huge huge news. There have been other kinds of big big trades in the offseason whether the Rangers are going to get in on that. You know Ian Kinsler for Prince Fielder swap that literally came out of absolutely nowhere all those years ago. And so those are the things that I think get me most excited about this winter. But I just want to give a general kind of update on the farm. I’ll have my top 30 Rangers prospects probably at some point in January because usually that’s when things slow down and and so gota got to get the content calendar going somewhere in there. But the Rangers farm system right now it is not particularly strong. I don’t think it’s as weak as a lot of people are making it out to be. I think that the Rangers did a really really good job with their 2025 draft clash. I really like a lot of the prospects that they got. Gavin Fiend. We haven’t seen all that much of him, but if he’s a legit shortstop and the bat is anywhere close to what is projected to be, that is a really darn good player. AJ Russell has a lot of upside. The Rangers second round pick, a right-handed pitcher, very big, tall righty who missed a lot of this past season with elbow surgery. He is 6 foot6 and can absolutely gas it up. whether he sticks as a rotation pitcher or he is a guy who is stuck in the bullpen. I mean the upside the the you know low tier for AJ Russell should he make it to the big leagues is really freaking nasty forever. The Rangers haven’t had a whole lot of those. So if that’s the bottom tier of your upside, I think that is a good good place to be. Guys who are untouchable at this point I don’t think there’s a whole lot. Sebastian Walcott. Unless you’re getting, you know, something insanely somebody insanely talented, you’re not going to give up Sebastian Walcott, a consensus top 100 prospect. I’d say a top 10 prospect in the game who is 19 years old and just had a really good season at DoubleA. You’re just not really, it’s too much value to give up on just about anybody that is even considering being traded. I think the Raiders would be reluctant to give up Gavin Fiend in any kind of a deal, but they would definitely listen. I think Eloki Rodriguez, who is right now listed the Rangers number 10 prospect. He’s just too low in the system to be, you know, valued properly. He is a lottery ticket and I think the Rangers are really excited about what he can possibly do. I’m really excited about what he can possibly do. I would be reluctant to include him on any deals because he’s worth more to you to just hang on to and see what he is than to give up on him at this point because guys who are that far away for the majors just don’t have that much trade value. And the last guy who I think is maybe not untouchable but but pretty close to it is Kaden Scar Bro. Now you may be saying why why is that guy who you know is not even a Rangers top five prospect why is he untouchable? Because I I think Kaden Scar Bro right now is the Rangers best best pitching prospect. Some different publications have him as a top 100 prospect already. The projectability, a guy who is 6 foot five and, you know, 20 years old is very, very exciting guy who can, you know, run it up there into the upper 90s and didn’t really even start being a full-time pitcher until, you know, he was drafted. This is a guy with a lot of upside, a lot of success in his first pro year. And I would just be really reluctant to give him up in any kind of a deal that isn’t for an absolute superstar. Now, 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 signed veteran utility player Tyler Wade to a minor league deal as their first signing of the winter meetings. Rangers manager Skip Schumaker addressed the media, saying Texas is open to Wyatt Langford playing more center field and Josh Smith is the likely everyday 2B at this point.

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