{"id":541948,"date":"2026-01-28T07:19:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/541948\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T07:19:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:19:05","slug":"what-the-texas-rangers-and-mlb-pundits-are-saying-about-their-big-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/541948\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Texas Rangers and MLB pundits are saying about their big trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Texas Rangers added an All-Star pitcher to their rotation Thursday, acquiring MacKenzie Gore<\/a> from the Washington Nationals for five prospects.<\/p>\n

The Rangers are sending third baseman Gavin Fien, shortstop Devin Fitz-Gerald, pitcher Alejandro Rosario, first baseman Abimelec Ortiz, and outfielder Yeremy Cabrera to Washington.<\/p>\n

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Last season, the Rangers had the top ERA in baseball among starters (3.41) and hope the addition of Gore, a 26-year-old left-hander coming off his first All-Star selection, will help them repeat last year\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

However, Gore had an up-and-down 2025 season despite the All-Star appearance. In the first half he was 4-8 with a 3.02 ERA, but he struggled in the second half, going 1-7 with a with an ERA more than double its first-half counterpart (6.75).<\/p>\n

Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said the second-half swoon didn\u2019t concern him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe dealt with a little shoulder fatigue in the second half, but, you know, still had a great season on the whole, and we feel very good about our medical group, our pitching group and our ability to, get him through a full season and help get the best out of him to where he\u2019s finishing strong,\u201d Young said. \u201c… And our goal is to help him put together a complete season. But we anticipate knowing the person, the competitor, the desire to be great, he fits all the criteria of great starting pitchers, and we\u2019re excited to help him realize that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rangers general manger Ross Fenstermaker explained why they saw giving up five prospects as a reasonable price to acquire Gore, who will turn 27 before the season starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly a hit,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you know, anytime you have an opportunity to acquire a 27-year-old All-Star left-handed starter like MacKenzie Gore, you got to go in. You got to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rangers feel that Gore can be a key piece to helping the team get back to the playoffs for the first time since they won the World Series<\/a> in 2023. Texas went 81-81 last season<\/a> and finished third in the AL West.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last two years have been difficult,\u201d Young said. \u201cAnd we haven\u2019t gotten back to the level that we expect from our organization, and this is a move that we feel like really gives us a rotation that can match up with any rotation in baseball.<\/p>\n

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\u201c… We feel very good about this team, and we feel like this team is built to win, and the reality is we\u2019ve got a very tough division. So we\u2019ve got a division that we\u2019ve got to make these moves to keep up, and so our goal is to go compete for the division championship, and then make the playoffs, and then at that point, have a chance to make a run in the playoffs. And we feel like these are the types of moves that allow you to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do pundits think this trade moves the needle for Texas?<\/p>\n

R.J. Anderson, CBS Sports<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/a><\/p>\n

You needn\u2019t work too hard to figure out Chris Young\u2019s thinking. The Rangers should now be able to trot out one of the finer one-two-three punches in the American League, in Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, and Gore. Texas\u2019 lineup ranked 22nd in runs scored and 25th in wRC+ last season, but they almost have to get more from DH Joc Pederson and first baseman Jake Burger than they did in 2025. It\u2019s not out of the question that infielder Sebastian Walcott, one of the best prospects in the sport, finds his way into the majors before the year is out, either, potentially giving them another lift.<\/p>\n

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Ryan Phillips, Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rangers are getting a guy with ace upside and will put him in a rotation that features Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom and Jack Leiter. He\u2019ll need to be a sponge around them to improve. The first order of business will be finding a way to make his four-seamer less hittable. In 2025, opposing batters had an xBA of .290 and an xSLG of .504 against it. The xBA on his curve (.205), slider (.199), changeup (.207) and rarely-used cutter (.185) are all good, he just needs to sort out his fastball. If Gore finds full-season consistency, this could wind up being an incredible deal for Texas. Gore will make $5.6 million in 2026, and is under team control through the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

Daniel Chavkin, Sporting News<\/p>\n

Grade: C+<\/a><\/p>\n

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T.he Rangers\u2019 issues in 2025 were more on offense than on the pitching side, and this deal doesn\u2019t address their offensive needs. Texas finished last year in the bottom third of the league in runs scored, and so far this season have added just Brandon Nimmo and Danny Jansen, while trading away Marcus Semien. Therefore, giving up five players of the Rangers\u2019 top 20 prospects, per MLB Pipeline, is a lot for a team that didn\u2019t need to add pitching.<\/p>\n

Bradford Doolittle and David Schoenfield, ESPN<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rangers gave up a significant prospect package to get him, so I\u2019m hedging a bit on the grade. But you have to like the win-now mentality in a division that looks winnable, and this could certainly be a big addition for the Rangers if Gore puts it all together. Being third wheel behind Eovaldi and deGrom also takes the pressure off Gore, who won\u2019t be the perceived No. 1 like he was in Washington. It wouldn\u2019t be shocking to see Gore return to the All-Star Game \u2014 and then hold that performance for 30 starts this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Rangers added an All-Star pitcher to their rotation Thursday, acquiring MacKenzie Gore from the Washington Nationals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[59343,64064,5,3246,32790,771,4,149,1567,69,3240,3825,71],"class_list":["post-541948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas-rangers","tag-abimelec-ortiz","tag-alejandro-rosario","tag-baseball","tag-chris-young","tag-era-in-baseball","tag-mackenzie-gore","tag-mlb","tag-rangers","tag-texas","tag-texas-rangers","tag-texasrangers","tag-the-rangers","tag-washington-nationals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115971513635908651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}