The Rangers will enter the offseason with their eyes set at the very top prizes of free agency, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. Whether they’ll come away with any major targets remains to be seen, but the club has now made clear it’ll pursue the biggest names available.
GM Jon Daniels has been circumspect in prior comments, but today he was ready to announce the reemergence of the Rangers as a major open-market player.
“This year, we are going to look at everything,” he said. “Our goal is to get better, period. There are a couple of spots more [available] than others. We have signed [top free agents] before and at some point I have to suspect we will again.”
It certainly stands to reason that now’s the time to jump back in with both feet. As we explored in previewing the Rangers’ offseason, there’s obvious need in the rotation and at third base — the two loaded areas on which this year’s free-agent class. And the club seems to have the payroll space needed to make something big happen, particularly with a shiny new ballpark coming online.
In our ranking of the top fifty free agents, we predicted the Rangers would land a notable third baseman and starting pitcher — while factoring in the market for quite a few of the top free agents. It’s tough to say whether the Texas org will ultimately be a significant player for expected nine-figure free agents such as Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rendon, but all are plausible targets. Indeed, Grant reports that the club has already chatted with agent Scott Boras about both of those players, which certainly suggests the Rangers want to throw their hat in the ring.
Sign Rendon and Cole and just deal with the consequences! It’s not like Jon can lose his job under any circumstances!
JD won’t make the call when it comes to spending $140-300 million on free agents for the next decade. That’s ownership who will have the final say.
They will get josh Donaldson and maybe wheeler. Not Cole, Rendon or Stras.
I can live with that.
Me too
dont forget mookie, if they wanna make a ‘splash’ sign the best all around player who will light a fire under the entire team and clubhouse, just i hope they have TOP guys ready to go to boston, we arent gonna loose our best player for a pitcher that might be good in 2023
They have nothing to trade for a player of that caliber.
Do you know what you’re talking about?
Lose
Moustakas and a SP that’s isn’t Cole. I could see Hamels, Keuchel, Gibson, or Bumgarner as that pitcher.
Like Moose but they are already too left handed in the lineup.
The Rangers are an interesting team this offseason
Give them Rendon, Alex Wood, and Dellin Betances and they’ll be an interesting team to watch. Could see all 3 signings happening.
Interesting but questionable relevancy.
Whatever he does Daniels won’t do the right thing. Don’t understand how he keeps his job.
They really seem like a team that needs to commit to a rebuild.
They kind of already have… they are starting to have a young core of guys – at least offensively ML or near-ML ready. Pitching wise they’re a little more suspect.
There are some mid rotation and back SPs starting to make their way to the majors. The higher ceiling guys are still at least another full year away. maybe start seeing them in 2021.
Josh Donaldson and Ryu if I’m a betting man! Go get’em Jon. Losts of JD haters around here sheesh, he is the most successful GM in franchise history.
really isn’t saying much
Rangers are in kind of a tough spot. They aren’t a bad team by any means but they certainly aren’t a title contender. They don’t have a great system but there’s some ML ready guys we’ve seen who can contribute. (Allard, Solak, Calhoun etc.)
The Angels, Reds and Rangers will be the most interesting to watch for me this offseason.i believe All 3 want to win right now but have their deficiencies.
Texas system is actually pretty good, but everyone is 20. We are still feeling the effects of trying to win it all for much of the last decade. Even Daniels admits that he pushed too much and traded a lot of the farm to extend the Rangers window. In the end, aside from Jorge Alfaro, I am not unhappy about the talent we got rid of. Most of the guys people freaked out about losing aren’t even in the bigs.
Well the Rangers system is somewhere in the average range but it really comes down to player development. Allard, Solak, and Calhoun were all highly considered guys at one point in time who have had success There in a limited sample. There’s really no extremely high impact guys coming up soon though and that hurts a lot. Especially when you play w the A’s and Stros. The A’s are going to be real tough especially if Luzardo and Puk live up to the hype. Then of course you have the Angels who are neck and neck w the Rangers as it stands today. They’re going to make some sort of FA splash and they have Jo Adell debuting this year.
It’s an uphill climb in Arlington.
Thank you for your point Chris44, outside of Alfaro, can anyone name any impact players the Rangers have traded away in their
effort to win now that have become superstars or even legitimate long term pieces to the franchises we traded them too. Most of them have not become substantial and a majority of them have not even made it at all.
Could see TEX signing Donaldson and a SP like Bumgarner or Wheeler. Then supplement the rotation further with additions of Gibson or Porcello. They should also upgrade at catcher (Wilson Ramos is likely available from the NYM) and add set up men to back closer LeClerc.
I’m not understanding the seemingly wide-spread interest in Porcello. As a Sox fan he was terrible last year – and at times looked like a BP pitcher out there. Not sure why he’s being predicted at a 1/$11M salary range as he’s a decent starter in name only at this point if you ask me – at least until he proves otherwise (and I think he can… I just didn’t see much of anything to prove it last season)
Porcello is strange…..one good season and the next, he gets hammered. But he eats up innings.
Potential. If you’re a pitcher that had had success or has good stuff, that isn’t too old, you get paid.
And they won’t get any. End of story.
They may not actually get any of the top free agents, but at least it’s a more promising stance than the last few preseasons.
My guess they will go all-in for Rendon to be their future Beltre. Would like to see them acquire pitcher Porcello without having to give up a draft choice. My first choice would have been Odorizzi but that will require giving up a second or third round draft pick.
My guess is Rangers prioritize Donaldson over Rendon. Cheaper and not looking for 5-7 years.
I’m guessing 3 years and $72m.
Josh Jung is going to be a stud and the Rangers FO knows it. Three years down the line, he’ll be producing at the ML level. No need for Rendon.
So I say Donaldson, Ryu, and Wheeler.
Josh Donaldson will be booed in Texas. Personality not a fit for this team.
How different is he than Odor? Except that Donaldson can actually play baseball.
Why does everyone continually blame JD for everything. He laid the foundation for back to back World Series and the most successful run of years we have had in Texas Ranger history. Yes, he has made some bad moves, just like every other GM in the sport has. Take a look at the Ranger’s records since 2007 when the Teixeira trade happened (which was JD’s move)
2008 – 2nd place in the AL West
2009 – 2nd
2010 – 1st (World Series birth)
2011 – 1st (World Series birth)
2012 – 2nd (Wild Card birth)
2013 – 2nd
2014 – 5th
2015 – 1st
2016 – 1st (best record in the AL)
Yes, the last 3 seasons have been bad record wise, but they were also dealing with an un-admitted rebuild and an ownership group who were not willing to have a budget of any kind. All you guys that hate in JD & Co. need to take a look at the numbers for other GM’s the past 10 years and see what you can come up with. Oh wait, you can’t because not many of them were successful enough to stay around that long!!!