Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman and Jake Mintz highlight why the Texas Rangers should be excited about acquiring pitcher MacKenzie Gore from the Washington Nationals in a 5-for-1 trade. Hear the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
…when the off-season began, Mackenzie Gore’s name was subject to an avalanche of rumors.
Seemingly every club in baseball that could use a starting pitcher, it was like, “Oh, maybe they could go get Mackenzie Gore.”
Guess what?
He finally got traded.
The Washington Nationals sending their best pitcher to the Texas Rangers for a quintet of prospects.
Jordan, you will hold my hand and tell me all of these young gentlemen in a second, but let’s talk about Mackenzie Gore.
Who is good?
I, I think so.
For most of these guys that have been traded, particularly the ones with multiple years of control, it is a much more flimsy track record of success.
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And while I understand that teams do not necessarily care about the results as much as the stuff and what can turn into better results, it is interesting for.
In the case of Mackenzie Gore, who’s honestly one of the more extreme versions.
Because unlike with Shane Baz and Edward Cabrera, whose workloads have been limited interrupted several times over the last handful of years.
Mackenzie Gore has pitched.
He has spent the last three years in the Nationals’ rotation.
And while he has had like, six-week stretches where he looks unbelievable.
On the whole, it has been pretty average.
And yet, you can still understand why there would be some excitement about acquiring him.
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Particularly for a team like Texas, who we should mention, had the best team ERA in baseball in 2025, both overall and as a rotation.
ERA.
And yet, when you looked at the names on the roster, you’re still like, “Yeah, they could use a starter.”
And why they make sense to, to make a deal for Gore.
It’s enough here that I, I can understand why they, they made the move.
Clearly, they were not dead set on it.
But when you have new front offices, you can imagine the inclination and the the desire to start to acquire their kinds of players.
And I think that that is, that is what we see here.
But Feen now becomes a very, very important player in this organization.
And I, I think if they didn’t think they were gonna contend with Gore in the next couple of years, which is a very fair assessment, then you gotta think bigger picture.
And that’s what they did.