You aren’t going to believe this. I’m going to write something extremely creative that no one has even thought to do yet. I’m going to write and offseason blueprint for your Texas Rangers. Oh and by the way, by creative I mean lazy, and by no one has even thought to do yet, I mean several other prominent writers have already done. Also for bookkeeping, by saying “other prominent writers” I am NOT implying that I am a prominent writer. I haven’t even written an article for Yahoo! Yet like some people I know around here… But I digress….
First off, we have to look at our own free agents, and there are several of prominence. Ryan
Dempster, Scott Feldman, Mark Lowe, Roy Oswalt, Yoshinori Tateyama, Geovanny Soto, and Josh Hamilton will be thanked for their service, but will be off to the next one. That basically leaves Koji Uehara, Mike Adams, and Mike Napoli. Koji is back, as long as he wants to be here I believe he’ll get a two year ten million dollar pact with a mutual option or a vesting option for a third year at similar money. The Mikes both depend on the market. There is mutual interest both ways, but the Rangers won’t want to sell the farm. I’ll get back to them.
Like most other Rangers fans here, I would love to have Greinke join Darvish as the top of our rotation, but how likely is it that no one else in baseball is willing to give Greinke the deal he wants at the price he wants? The Dodgers want and need pitching and the owners have shown they have no issues breaking the bank. The Angels really want him back as well, that is two big market clubs with a desire. Greinke has spent several months playing on the left coast so he knows the area enough to know if he likes it, he doesn’t have that feeling here. I want Greinke, but I don’t see it happening realistically so I’m not going to put him here. However there are other ways to address pitching, and that is through the trade market. The Miami Marlins were active last year in free agency and it blew up in their face. I would love to tell you there is a way we can get Giancarlo Stanton, but there’s not. We would have to deal Profar plus, and that’s just not going to happen. However, Josh Johnson has always been a favorite of mine and JD has inquired many times, including reportedly offering Neftali Feliz and Justin Smoak for Johnson during the 2009 offseason. Miami sends Josh Johnson and John Buck to Texas in exchange for David Murphy , Chris McGuiness, and Neil Ramirez. That helps the rotation some, but in baseball today you know that pitching is what makes all the difference now a days, look at what the Detroit Tigers have done through the American League Playoffs despite terrible defense and a
top heavy lineup. When you have guys like Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Doug Fister, and even Anibel Sanchez dealing you can make a solid lineup like the Yankees look terrible. In 4 games they scored two runs off of pitchers not named Valverde. Buck has one year left on his contract for $6.5 million, so this helps the Marlins salary dump, and also allows for the Rangers to have a backup catcher with a decent track record. This is where it gets fun (and/or painful) folks. Texas trades Elvis Andrus and Derek Holland to Tampa Bay for David Price and Mikie Mahtook. With the rotation pretty much set, there are some obvious holes in the lineup. First off, with Greinke not coming aboard and Hamilton departing, that leaves some money to play with and Texas a little more likely to overpay a bit on its own free agents. Mike Napoli stays to catch and platoon at first base with Mitch Moreland. He gets three years and thirty three million with a vesting option for an additional year at thirteen million. Mike Adams also resigns for three years and twelve million, with incentives based on games appeared in that could tack on an extra three million dollars. Texas also signs right handed reliever Joel Peralta to a two year ten million deal with a mutual option for 2015. This move is made to allow Alexi Ogando to move to the rotation to be the fifth starter for the duration of Colby Lewis’s rehab. Texas then sends 3B Mike Olt, SS prospect Leury Garcia, 2B prospect Rougned Odor, LHP Robbie Ross, LHP Martin Perez, and RHP 
Tanner Scheppers to Arizona for OF Justin Upton, RHP Trevor Bauer, and LHP Matt Albers. This leaves a few holes left to fill, a utility infielder and a versatile bench bat that can play corner outfield or infield if they absolutely have to. I’ll start at utility infielder. The past few seasons the Rangers have used AAAA players with slick gloves to fill this hole, knowing Elvis would play a majority of the games anyway. This year I think they’ll go for a player Ron Washington could actually trust, especially since he’ll be inserting a rookie into the everyday lineup at short who will need more rest than Elvis has. Jason Bartlett is coming off an injury plagued year, but has always been a slick fielder with speed. I would snatch him up on a one year deal with a vesting options and high on incentives based on games played. He could back up both middle infield positions and make
between one and three million dollars. At utility corner bat, I’d target Scott Hairston. He’s coming off a very solid year for the Mets and will want significant playing time, but I think Ron Washington learned from 2012 that he needs to rest his guys more. Hairston could also play first base so there’s less risk of Napoli having to move from first to catch in game and risk losing the DH in case of injury to his back up. Hairston would command a three year deal of around four or five million a year.
Starting Pitching
LHP David Price
RHP Yu Darvish
LHP Matt Harrison
RHP Josh Johnson
RHP Alexi Ogando
Bullpen
CL RHP Joe Nathan
SU RHP Mike Adams
SU RHP Koji Uehara
MRP RHP Joel Peralta
MRP LHP Matt Albers
MRP LHP Mike Kirkman
LRP RHP Justin Grimm
Lineup
2B Ian Kinsler
SS Jurickson Profar
LF Justin Upton
3B Adrian Beltre
RF Nelson Cruz
C Mike Napoli
DH Michael Young
1B Mitch Moreland
CF Leonys Martin
Bench
C John Buck
Util IF Jason Bartlett
Util Scott Hariston
OF Craig Gentry
RHP Trevor Bauer optioned to AAA Round Rock
