This past offseason saw the Texas Rangers make three key trades that the organization felt was necessary to move on as the rebuild continued. Lance Lynn was traded to the White Sox in exchange for Dane Dunning. Elvis Andrus, who had lost his starting shortstop job to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, was dealt to Oakland for Khris Davis and catcher Jonah Heim. And finally Rougned Odor was sent to the Yankees. Odor had lost his second base job and failed to win an opening day roster spot at third base.
Fans of the Rangers hated to see Andrus go. They also scratched their heads at moving Texas’ ace in Lance Lynn. When it came to moving Odor the fans were split though it was obvious that his time here was up.
So the question now is do the Rangers miss Lynn, Odor and Andrus? Well looks compare their stats to the players who replaced them at their traditional positions. For that I will look at Kiner-Falefa versus Andrus at shortstop, Nick Solak against Odor at second base and finally I chose Dane Dunning’s performance compared to Lynn’s since iy was his roster spot that he took.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa vs. Elvis Andrus
Kiner-Falefa was coming of a strong 2020 season in which he was one of the best hitters in the Rangers lineup while also winning a gold glove award at third base. Elvis Andrus continued to decline both at the plate and in the field. A trade had to be made as Texas was going with the youth movement. So has a change of scenery helped Andrus in Oakland?
Elvis Andrus: .160 AVG, .206 OBP, .191 SLG along with just four RBI and a -0.6 fWAR in 28 games.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa: .277 AVG, .317 OBP, .454 SLG with 5 home runs and 12 RBI in 29 games and a 1.2 fWAR.
Nick Solak vs. Rougned Odor
Odor’s time had come to an end whether or not some fans wanted to admit it. NIck Solak was the heir apparent at second and better on both sides of the ball. The Yankees love the new energy he has brought to the club but history says he will regress again.
Rougned Odor: .169 AVG, .269 OBP, .373 SLG to go along with four home runs and 11 RBI in 18 games. His fWAR is currently 0.0.
Nick Solak: .290 AVG, .367 OBP, .514 SLG with seven home runs, 15 RBI and an fWAR of 1.2.
Dane Dunning vs. Lance Lynn
I could have chose any of the Texas starters to compare with Lynn but I went with Dunning because of the trade. This one is in favor of Lynn, however Dunning has done a good job and the Rangers starters overall have surprised people with the job they have done thus far.
Lance Lynn: 1.82 ERA, .97 WHIP with 29 K’s, four walks and a 0.9 fWAR.
Dane Dunning: 3.97 ERA, 1.28 WHIP to go with 24 K’s and 5 walks. He has a 0.7 fWAR.
So when you ultimately look at the numbers you can see that the above three moves were pretty much beneficial to the team, especially when it comes to offense. The season is still young but so far it looks as though the Rangers made the right moves.
Until next time, I’ll see you in the cheap seats!
