Winter is Upon Us

The winter meetings are under way in Las Vegas and not a lot is happening with the Rangers. But there have been a few moves and lots of rumors. For the nerd like me, I can’t keep my electronics close enough. I am continually waiting to see what happens. Not just with the Rangers, but around all of baseball. One transaction can cause other things to happen that might effect the Rangers. So let’s rundown what has happen.

The Rangers claimed Carlos Asuaje off of waivers from the Padres. Asuaje has been a utility player with San Diego for for the last three years. He came up a second baseman but played both 2nd and 3rd during his time in the major leagues. With the news Isiah Kiner-Falefa will be primarily a catcher, the need for a utility player was apparent.

Word then came out that the Rangers had made a trade. The Rangers sent Drew Robinson to the St Louis Cardinals for third baseman Patrick Wisdom. Robinson has been caught behind a log jam of left handed hitting outfielders. Wisdom has the best arm in the Cardinals organization as an everyday player. He hit .288 with Memphis this year and hit 15 HR’s. He also played in the big leagues and hit .260 with 4 HR’s over 32 games. In 2017 he hit .243 in Memphis but hit 32 dingers. Over his minor league career he has a total of 100 long balls. With this move it opens up the possibility of moving Jurickson Profar.  Which leads us to the trade rumors.

The Rangers have been mentioned over the last couple of days in a lot of different trade scenarios. One thing that keeps coming up is that both Mazara and Profar are available. The Cubs have shown interest in Profar. Mazara has been mentioned as a possibility for the Braves who need an outfielder. Right now Atlanta has 8 pitchers in the MLB top 100 prospects of baseball. If the Rangers could pry away a couple of them, it would be huge. It would not only bolster the farm but add some much needed pitching depth in the organization. My guess is that there is nobody that is completely untouchable as far as trades go. But Nomar and Jurickson seem to be the names being thrown around.

Free agency  and Thursdays Rule 5 draft are the last place the Rangers can look to add players. There have been rumblings that Texas might be looking at Charlie Morton or Lance Lynn for the rotation. Both would be cheaper and have had some success. The big names are still out there, but there is no indication that the Rangers are kicking the tires. I have seen that maybe a Machado or Harper would be of some interest. But nobody actually thinks they are destined for Arlington. Yusei Kukichi is now in talks with all teams who posted the 20 million to talk with him. The Rangers are in on that for sure. Nobody believes he is as good as Darvish or Ohtani. He is however a very successful left hander out of Japan.

The meeting will wrap up Thursday and hopefully this team will have some sort of direction. Free agency and trades will go on past Thursday. But the groundwork is under way now. It is interesting to keep an eye out for what is happening in the desert.

I will be doing a Podcast after the winter meetings with all the moves made. Not only for the Rangers, but any big moves around the league. Until then – Nerd Out!

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