Thad Levine of the Rangers recently did a Reddit AMA in which he discussed a number of aspects of his job as an assistant GM. Here are a few highlights.
- Levine says the Rangers’ acquisition of Prince Fielder was driven primarily by the departures of other power hitters, including Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli, and Nelson Cruz.
- In addition to the Mark Teixeira trade (a clear win for the Rangers that brought back Elvis Andrus, Matt Harrison, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Neftali Feliz), Levine names the trades of Edinson Volquez for Hamilton, Frank Francisco for Napoli, and Kevin Mench, Francisco Cordero and two others for Nelson Cruz and Carlos Lee as his favorite trades for the Rangers.
- There are pluses and minuses to today’s fast-paced media culture, Levine says. On one hand, he says, tweets often inspire real-life trade talks. On the other, it can be hard to keep news of a trade from breaking before informing the players involved. News of the Rangers’ trade of Ian Kinsler, for example, broke before the team could inform him.
- Levine says he thinks the next CBA will focus on a worldwide draft, as well as raising the lowest team payrolls and limiting the highest ones.
- One unusual clause one player requested in his contract was $250K for his wife’s “equestrian expenses.” Players from Asia will often include clauses in their contracts to pay for interpreters and massage therapists.
Yeah, no, there will never be a salary cap. Don’t even try it, Thad.
There will never be a hard cap but increasing the luxury tax rate to say 200% would significantly limit the highest payroll teams.
Maybe not a cap but hopefully a floor
Levine says the Rangers’ acquisition of Prince Fielder was driven primarily by the departures of other power hitters, including Josh Hamilton, Mike Napoli, and Nelson Cruz. Wait, what? I am not sure if I agree with that. Plus, now they have a rather large contract to deal with and I am not sure what they will get out of it.
Jon Daniels had early success, but it doesn’t look good at least from where I sit.
Large Contracts and average production if that spells trouble, Just ask Ruby of the Phillies.
Which contract will the Rangers get the least from, Fielder, Choo or Andrus? After neck surgery, Fielder may bounce back. I think Choo’s will hurt the most, Andrus will run 2nd and Fielder will likely have a couple of productive seasons before he fades away.
I still have nightmares about that Teixeira trade
Yeah, would have loved to have the depth, but all-in-all, I love who we have at those positions instead. Simmons over Andrus, Kimbrel over Feliz. Harrison has been decent, but his injury problems make his extension look like a reach, while Salty has been on 2 other teams, and wouldn’t have been an upgrade to McCann then, or much of one to Gattis/Bethancourt now. I regret us trading Tex to LAA and giving up the comp draft picks more than trading for him.
I know this is blasphemy, but I’m not so sure I would take Simmons over Andrus. Of course he is legendary in the field but he offers little offensively. Andrus is a very good defender also and a significantly better hitter than Simmons. Definitely Kimbrel over Feliz, but I think Feliz’s best position is in a setup role anyway. I agree with you on the rest, but they would at least give us some (sensible) trade flexibility. The bottom line is we traded a whole roster’s worth of MLB talent for a couple months’ rental of Tex and had nothing to show for it after it was all said in done.