The Rangers moved a significant contributor in left-hander Mike Minor before Monday’s trade deadline, but a couple of other big names will stay put. Righty Lance Lynn and outfielder Joey Gallo aren’t going anywhere, TR Sullivan of MLB.com reports.
The 33-year-old Lynn has been one of baseball’s top starters dating back to his debut season with the Rangers in 2019, and as someone who’s only under control through the 2021 campaign, he looked like a prime trade chip. Lynn surely drew interest from an array of teams, including the Dodgers, but the Rangers never found an offer to their liking. However, that doesn’t mean Lynn will don their uniform again next season. He’ll likely pop up in trade rumors again during the winter, as the Rangers figure to be coming off another non-playoff effort and Lynn will be set to earn a team-friendly $8MM in the last season of a three-year, $30MM contract that has worked out wonderfully for Texas.
Meanwhile, it always seemed like a long shot that the Rangers would part with Gallo, who’s just 26, one of the faces of their franchise and controllable via arbitration through 2022. Gallo hasn’t gotten off to a strong start this year, during which he has slashed .183/.336/.423 with seven home runs in 128 plate appearances, but he was one of the AL’s premier hitters in an injury-limited 2019 showing. It wouldn’t have made sense for the Rangers to sell low on him.
Lol. Yikes. Rangers can’t even trade players well.
You’d think they’d take advantage of the market after missing the peak on Minor last year.
I’ve defended JD through a lot, but this is the last straw. I could GM better than this. Fire JD.
I totally agree !!!
Chill, Elvis. You have no idea what the circumstances are, what offers he may have received, what restrictions limit the range of choices he has. And for all of those who say Lynn will never have greater value, you’ve just admitted that he is or soon will be in decline. You think other GMs don’t see that, too, as they prepare and make offers for him?
I mean how much value does he lose by waiting two months to trade the guy? He’s 33 with one year left not 38, you can still trade him. The loss is just the prospect capital you would have received for the pennant race teams this year, in a really weird year. If I’m the Dodgers, I find it hard to push my chips all in during a year that will always have an asterisk next to that world series flag.
No, a championship is a championship. You may put an asterisk next to it, but that doesn’t mean anything to the teams playing for it. Lynn will lose considerable value by not being able to be involved in two playoff pushes for a team. Plus, he could implode like Minor did this year and be traded for two PTBNL instead of a blue chip prospect.
Nonsense, chris 44. The only asterisk will forever belong to the Astros and, of course, the 1919 Black Sox.
It’s not so much that the value is referred to as a decline. What Rangers fans mean when they say that “he will never have more value” is because he is signed for next year as well. Sure, JD could trade him next year at the deadline, but he won’t have as much value next year as he will then be a rental.
Oh I agree if we were in a pennant race I would want to win. I’m just saying, the Dodgers are young and look like contenders next year too. I can see them not wanting to mortgage their chances in a post COVID, normal baseball world. As for JD, I was not talking about the deadline, I am talking about the offseason. I am of the opinion that the Rangers need to trade him too, but we don’t know what the offers were and the fire JD crazies would be howling even more if they felt like he sold low.
Funny bc I said that when they traded for kluber. Dudes a 2 time cy young winner, Indians were willing to trade him for deshields and clase, and no other team in baseball so fit to beat that offer, and nobody else saw the red flags in that?
Look what Clevinger got for the Indians and he came with 2 years of control. The market wasn’t there. If he would have traded Lynn to the Braves for Camargo, Touki, and a bag of baseballs you would have been even more upset.
Take a bow, Jon Daniels
Watch him get hurt or just stop caring because he’s on the Rangers. Stupid mistake from a stupid president and general manager.
Rangers are complelty inept. Lance Lynn will never have more value. This was the time.
While it may have been the time. They aren’t gonna trade,him just because. Especially when they can trade him in the off season.
His value won’t be higher in the off-season, guy.
Stats do not define a players value. His value is defined by what they are being offered for him and you don’t know what they have been offered. If they are being offered only non prospects, it makes sense to hope that they will get more in the offseason before a (hopefully) normal non-shortened season
I predict they fail to trade him this winter as well.
I agree that they should have traded Lynn if they received a decent offer. But if it is for retreads and such, you might as well hold on and hope you get more later or his value improves.
Fans saying “they should have pulled the trigger!” Without even knowing what is on the table is idiocy. It’s like me pointing to a group of 29 people and saying you’re an idiot for not selling your house to one of them. Maybe all of those people were offering you a bag of balls for your house, what the hell do I know
Thats 1 less postseason for the acquiring team. He can’t be given a QO either. There was not a single reason to keep him espically with Daniels saying the team will have budget restraints. Rangers are one of the worst ran teams in the sport. This is worse than the Orioles taking forever to trade Machado.
Should have sold high
Maybe they tried to sell high and the teams offered low.
I can see them trying to unload Lynn his value may never be higher. Why trade Gallo unless they are in full blown rebuild
They are in a full blown rebuild. This team has minimal talent in the majors, and very little help on the horizon from the farm system. I can understand holding Gallo to see if he rebuilds some value, but no reason to hold onto Lynn.
Newsflash: the Rangers need to have a full blown rebuild. Look at that roster and farm system…why would you think they can contend next year?
Lol
Guess AA would rather have another first round exit than trade for a #4 and lose in the first round again.
There are going to be a bunch of upset Ranger fans as well as teams that wanted to move these guys. Oh well. Sorry, Texas!
Time to sweep the yankees……… again.
GO RAYS!!!
You are right. Could accept an acknowledgement of a complete tear down/ rebuild, but that’s not nor has it ever been in the Rangers DNA. If not for the new stadium, and have already paid for season tickets….will have to seriously evaluate renewing season tickets after 2021 season. Can think of other ways to spend $20K.
Yes I am very very sorry also that Mr. Lynn is staying in Texas. Lol! Hey good you guys kept him he has really excelled as.a Ranger. I was watching him pitch against the Dodgers the other night. I hope Texas gets a wild card. Seriously
I have to wonder what the Rangers were asking for. I mean, they didn’t really expect the Dodgers to part with May, Gonsolin, or Lux, right?
May? Probably not. Lux? They might’ve asked but doubt they expected it. Gonsolin? Maybe. Ruiz probably also came up.
Ruiz plus a low level guy for Lynn as a baseline just doesnt seem that wild
Will Smith is a lock at catcher, its a position of need for TX. Even if they over asked and did Ruiz and Busch for Lynn plus something I cant see a massive battle considering Lynn is locked up next year and Ruiz and Busch are blocked.
Its weird they didnt figure it out.
The Rangers did not get an offer they liked for Lynn. You can’t force a team to make a trade.
The sad part is we’ll probably never know what teams were offering, and maybe we’re better off
I completely disagree with this, while a trade shouldn’t have been FORCED, there should definitely have been enough interest in the market to attain a likable package. Lynn was arguably the first or second best arm available and a better GM would have been able to maneuver a good deal for the team. This should have been a slam dunk trad and instead they held just waiting for an injury or something to completely diminish his value.
Well the 1st best arm traded was Clevinger and the Indians got no top prospects for him.
Yeah I’m kind of in the middle on what the Indians got for Clevinger and you have to think that the offers for Lynn were less valuable. Time will tell but that was a little bit of a bummer for Cleveland.
Unforgivable JD
Rangers should of tried to trade Odor for Stanton
This franchise has become an embarrassment. They need a complete overhaul from ownership to the field.
He obviously didn’t get the value he wanted. I am okay with keeping Lynn. Not too much of a pitching market this winter and could easily be traded then for the right price
Pretty hard to fathom the inaction. At the beginning of the season (granted, I don’t watch them much) I thought they were a .500 team with a chance to get in the expanded playoffs. But then I watched them for a couple of games….mercy, they’re terrible. Seems to me they would get max return at this point for either Gallo or Lynn.
definitely not Gallo, he is cold as a stone right now.
Ugh. Just ugh
No one viewed Lynn as worthy of giving up a top tier prospect with 6-7yrs of control. Pretty impressed with no club being desperate just b/c he was 2nd best out there in bad starter market.
Lynn is 33 having a career year. The time was now to unload him. He won’t be around when Texas is ready to do some serious winning again
Last year was a career year. He has been even better this year in 8 starts.
My biggest fear going into this trade deadline was that it would be the Dodgers that would try to get the Lynn the hardest, and lo and behold that’s how it unfolded.
This all comes down to JD and the Dodgers playing chicken again (remember the Yu Darvish trade). The Dodgers paid pennies on the dollar for Yu and strong armed JD until the last minute at the deadline and JD blinked first and only got Calhoun for Yu. Calhoun is a decent bat but you could make an argument they could of gotten more for Yu had they kept him and gave him a QO to get the draft pick compensation (although JD is the worst GM at drafting–and that’s not hyperbole).
JD was not going to let Dodgers pick his pocket again. He had a price for Lynn and wouldn’t budge. I actually am happy he didn’t get fleeced again by the Dodgers, but I really wish he had found another buyer to take advantage of Lynn’s peak value. He wasn’t going to trade him just to trade him, no, but I’m shocked he couldn’t get some real value for Lynn.
Why do people feel like the Darvish trade was such a failure? Willie looks like he can hit, for both power and contact, I’m fine with that guy on my team. Apparently we just need him to learn how to duck. They also got A.J. Alexy who could provide value in the bullpen or as a mid-rotation starter. Just how much did you want for 3 months of Darvish in a walk year?
Willie hasn’t shown he can hit MLB pitching and offers no other skills, that’s why the Yu trade was bad. That’s not the main piece you get for the top rental. JD messed that deadline up too, he waited til the last minute to decide his under .500 team wasn’t a contender and was cornered into making a deal with the dodgers.
He did do better than getting a comp pick (mostly because the Rangers draft worse than they trade) so I’ll give him that.
I think the jury is still out on that one. Willie has looked better in the field of late and Alexy might contribute. If Alexy is a mid/back rotation guy and Willie is a useful LF/DH next year are we declared the winners in that trade? The Dodgers held all the cards in that one I am not sure we could have hoped for a ton more.
That is my main gripe with JD’s regime, and why I ultimately agree with fire JD (just less emphatically I guess). The domestic drafts (we do better internationally) have been terrible for us. Good teams like the Dodgers, draft better than we do.
if you can get Clevinger with an affordable price, why you seek a trade for 3 years older lynn.
Clevinger plus a 4th OF netted 6 players including Naylor, Hedges, and Quantrill who are all MLB ready. its whether TX was asking for the boat or no one would give something decent up for him
Fairly Wild they couldnt have done a Lynn/Chirinos for Ruiz plus something else.
Idiots learned nothing from Minor last year.
Once again clueless Jon Daniels strikes again. Wow what a schmuck.
I wonder if posters who are slamming Daniel’s for not trading Lynn would also slam him if he didn’t get ENOUGH in return for Lynn?
Maybe what Daniel’s was offered just wasn’t going to move the Rangers future forward in any appreciable way and so he saw greater value in keeping Lynn. Maybe he decided it was more valuable to try for a playoff spot this year or a wild card next year? Maybe he felt the offers were low-ball efforts intended to just take advantage of the Rangers?
We just don’t know enough to make an informed decision about Daniel’s decision but that doesn’t stop hot takes like; “This franchise has become an embarrassment” and “unforgivable, JD”.
We don’t know enough to make judgements about other teams either because we don’t know what would have gotten Daniel’s to pull the trigger. What if he was asking for two or even three top prospects or maybe even talent that was close to major league ready that could help them in 2021 or even help them THIS year?
All that boiled down into one statement would be; we don’t have enough information to make an informed decision.
I get that, but look at the Minor trade. You know what the Rangers were being offered last year at the deadline for Minor far eclipsed his return during a down year. Minor’s value was never going to be higher than it was last year. Lynn is in the same boat. He’s a free agent after the next season, he had a career year last year and was putting up basically the same numbers this year. Daniel’s isn’t going to get more for Lynn next summer, or during the offseason. What teams were offering for Lynn right now was the best the Rangers were going to get. Letting him walk in a year for a draft pick just doesn’t fly with me. With the return Clevinger got, there’s no doubt in my mind that the offers for Lynn were perfectly adequate. Not blockbuster worthy, but good enough and better than what you’ll get with a draft pick in a year, assuming Lynn doesn’t go into the tank next year like Minor did.
TL;DR – Unless teams were literally offering only lotto ticket prospects, which they undoubtedly were not, this was the time to trade Lynn.
Yes, he is a free agent next year, which I said maybe he values that year and this one more than what he was offered. Your objection doesn’t address that. Do you really think Daniel’s should have excepted the best offer even if it was a low-ball? Maybe he WAS being offered a few lottery tickets. You don’t know.
Also, your not adding the values correctly. If they keep Lynn, they wouldn’t just get a comp pick. They would get a comp pick plus his services this year and next.
You have no firm reason to make a statement like “the offers for Lynn were adequate”. If he gets low-ball offers he almost had to turn them down or else he sets the precedent and sets himself up for that sort of thing in the future. You are making to many assumptions.
All these people complaining. At least you got something. Royals GM is too stubborn to trade Merrifield and the team is never gonna win with their current farm system.
Yeah but you at least got to win a world series. Nothing can take that away. Rangers fans are stuck watching this team roll around in the mud of mediocrity on top of vividly remembering them choking away the 2011 world series.
Dude, the JD hate is real in Texas right now. Complete inability to look for silver linings or the successes that JD has had, the Tampa trade for Solak comes to mind. There are a number of GMs that I am glad I do not have… like the Mets, thank God I am not a Pirates fan lol. The World Series sucked… But JD put together a good team there, that wasen’t his fault.
Obviously I don’t know what offers he Rangers got for either of them, but this seems like a huge mistake.
There were a number of extra buyers at this trade deadline who considered Lynn a huge value for this specific October in addition to next year.
The Rangers just lost probably more than 1/3 of his value and almost half of his potential suitors.
EG: the White Sox, Blue Jays, Padres, Mets, Yankees, and Atlanta were all interested in Lynn and potentially willing to give up quality prospects to get him this weekend, and none of those teams will feel compelled to offer better than a 45 FV prospect to get him as a 2021 rental.
Just look at the Betts and Machado returns to see that 1 year rentals don’t bring back huge hauls.
And while the Miller and Chapman deals aren’t likely to happen again, they are still instructive in trying to understand the premium teams will put on boosting an already playoff bound team into an October powerhouse. Lynn’s contribution in October for any of those teams would have been much bigger than even the best of relievers could provide *and* he came with another year of control.
——-
Side note: Rangers fans, would you have been ok with a Lynn and Gallo trade to the White Sox in exchange for Vaughn, Lopez, and Adolfo?
I would have been absolutely floored if Chicago had given Vaughn up in a package for Lynn + Gallo, remember you would be selling pretty low on Joey right now.
Daniels and the Ranger FO are under the delusion that they can field a competitive team next year and that Lynn and Gallo will be a part of that. They’re wrong of course. I’ve heard the, “We plan to be competitive by next year,” shtick for the past three years. Repeating the phrase and trotting out mostly the same team they trotted out a year before isn’t going to win the division. It’s not going to win a wildcard. It’s probably not even going to earn you a .500 record. I do understand not trading Gallo, but they needed to deal Lynn while his value is at its peak and just start the rebuild. This team isn’t winning anything. Daniels is just delusional if he thinks this team can compete when the only well above average contributors are Gallo and Lynn.
I’m glad they didn’t trade Lynn, but I hope people vote with their wallet and don’t show up next year. Screw this team. A bunch of cheap asses and a gm who is incompetent. You get a brand new pretty stadium and a loser team to play in it. I’m just done with this team until they get owners who will spend and a gm that is decent.
Next year??!! I am not showing up this year with my vote! Who’s with me?!
Mistake. Gallo I understand because there’s still time, but not Lynn. JD is risking him imploding ROS and lowering his value, or worse, injury. His value is at an all time high now. Just bad.