Pros and Cons of the Mackenzie Gore Trade
The Texas Rangers made a move to shake up the MLB world on Thursday afternoon.
They sent five prospects in exchange for Nationals pitcher MacKenzie Gore.
For Rangers fans, let’s look at the pros and cons of the trade.
Cons
The Rangers gave up a haul to get Gore as they parted with No.2 prospect Gavin Fien, No.6 prospect Alejandro Rosario, No.12 Devin Fitz-Gerald, No.16 Yeremy Cabrera, and No.18 Abimelec Ortiz.
Fien is the headliner as the Rangers drafted him in the 2025 draft at 12th overall. He is a shortstop with good bat-to-ball skills and could move over to third base at the MLB level. Another prospect that I am sad to see go is Devin Fitz-Gerald, who has a hot start to his professional career with a .302 batting average.
Rosario is a talented pitching prospect who missed all of last year due to Tommy John Surgery and won’t pitch until 2027 due to deciding to postpone the surgery.
Cabrera is a young outfielder with blazing speed, swiping over 40 bags. Ortiz is a first baseman with great power and could make his MLB debut this year.
The Rangers did give up a lot, and this took a lot from their farm system, but if they can win with Gore, then no one will remember.
Pros
Gore is a very talented pitcher and will make the Rangers better; that is non-negotiable. He earned an All-Star nod last season, posting a 4.17 ERA with 185 strikeouts against 64 walks and three WAR in 159.2 innings.
Those numbers don’t tell the full story, as he had a great first half before struggling in the second. His underlying metrics love him; he is well above average in chase percentage, whiff rate, and strikeout percentage. It is good to see Gore is getting hitters to chase and miss.
He also has great extension and gets five points of value from his breaking pitches. His curveball generated the most strikeouts out of any pitch, and his slider had the lowest batting average against.
These show that Gore could be poised for an even bigger breakout with the Rangers, and he doesn’t have the pressure on him to be the ace of the staff with deGrom and Eovaldi being the Rangers’ aces. Along with the Vandy Boys, these five can be one of the best rotations in all of baseball.
Finally, the Rangers didn’t part with any top-100 prospects to acquire Gore. They were able to retain their top two prospects, Walcott and Scarborough.
That is a huge win for the Rangers, and just cause the prospects that they gave up were ranked highly in their system might not mean much. They came in at 26 in the farm system rankings according to Bleacher Report.
Conclusion
This move shows the Rangers think they can win next year and are making a move to try to compete with the core of Seager, deGrom, and Eovaldi.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out, but at least the Rangers are trying to win.
Hopefully, they make another move to increase their chances.
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