The Winter Meetings are over, and the Texas Rangers made only minor moves. John Daniels has made it clear that pitching is the priority, and in the fragile world that has become pitching that is always a solid plan.
In fact, most years a team must have 8 or so starters to sustain an entire season. Considering that Derek Holland has yet to pitch more than a handful of games in the past two seasons, and only two starters that began the season last year were still on the roster at year-end speaks volumes.
Clearly the team needs to resign Colby Lewis. They also need to mend fences with him for not letting him start a playoff game. Many still maintain that was a key reason for them not winning that series as they sent four left handers to face a heavy right-handed lineup. Yes, Colby had a knee scope in the off-season, his ERA was a bit high, but he is very consistent and eats innings. They need to sign him to a 2-year deal and just take care of the winningest pitcher in post-season franchise history. The team feels that they made their big splash by gaining Cole Hamels last season as the staff ace. Every true Ranger fan is heady with anticipation of having both Hamels and Yu Darvish in the rotation. With Martin Perez, Derek Holland, and the aged wily veteran of Colby Lewis rounding out the staff that would present as good a group as any other team in baseball. Especially with Chi Chi Gonzales, Nick Martinez and other young talent continuing to grow up.
However, everything you see or read talks about the $140 million budget for payroll this year. That payroll is loaded down with some very large contracts that many want to question. Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre, Prince Fielder, and Sin Soo Choo cumulatively represent almost half of the entire payroll. The criticism is that these guys lacked consistency and frankly did not completely deliver based on how they were paid last year. I disagree, respectfully, with all of those experts because the Rangers won their division. They overcame adversity, and turned a bad season into one of the most memorable in franchise history.
I could write a novel on club house chemistry, and the intangibles that make something like that happen. The reality is that the teams biggest remaining need is a consistent left fielder and a right-handed hitter. There were many times last season with serious match-up problems because they had too many left-handed hitters. Having a 2010 or 2011 Josh Hamilton in the lineup playing left field would seem on paper to answer that question, even though Josh bats left. The reality is that most likely we will never see the consistency from Josh as we did. At best we might get 80 good games from him, and his hitting, along with power numbers will never again return. He is simply to fragile, and cannot stay healthy enough to get into a groove to make that happen. He is still a very nice player to have, and because the Angels were in such a hurry to part ways with him, the price tag is still very appealing. Heck, the Rangers part of Hamilton’s salary is less than David Murphy’s option this year. Yet, the actual production value between those two are very similar.
That is why it might be time for the team to stretch the payroll and go out and get Yoenis Cespedes. This guy is a dominate right-handed bat, he has some speed, and by all accounts is a great club house guy who would work well with Beltre and Fielder. Adding him would upgrade every hitter on the team, create to many match-up problems for other teams, and give the team all kinds of depth, considering he can play the entire outfield including center. Yes, he would be expensive but probably not in the stupid money category of Jason Hayward’s $184 million. Cespedes is 31 years old, about the same age as Albert Puhols was when he got a monster contract. Yet, he has never been as dominate as Puhols, but make no mistake he can be very dominate.
It would probably take $20 million a year to get him, but that would be doable if the team worked a trade for Mitch Moreland. Moreland only costs about $7 million a year, and he is coming off a career season, although he was zero for whatever in the playoffs. Balancing the lineup by making those two moves, would help all involved. I have also seen Mike Napoli’s named tossed in the mix again, but other than another right-handed bat, and a fan favorite he doesn’t bring as much as Moreland does to the table during the regular season.
The problem that every good team faces is when signing big name, high-priced free agents is that it becomes a marriage and getting divorced is very expensive. That is the reality with this team having four guys eating half the salary, it just takes away too much flexibility. On the other hand, those are really nice assets, even if they don’t do everything we think they should do all of the time.
So if John Daniels gets bored some night, and wants this fans opinion, I say go all in, talk the owners into adding Cesepedes, create that lineup flexibility, depth in the outfield, force Hamilton to have to compete for playing time, and make this 2016 Rangers team the favorite from day one. There is one other advantage to doing this, and that is the fact that we have traded so much of the farm the past couple of years, it would be super to let those guys continue to grow up down there. Balancing win now vs. long-term planning, that is always hard, it is also hard to contemplate another long-term expensive contract. I think winning solves everything, and if the team can draw 3.5 million fans, plus with the new TV contract, they should be just fine.
Sure we can play the what if game. What if Darvish does not return to form? What if Holland cannot stay healthy? If that’s the case, then you have to make trades with the farm talent to go get those guys replacements.
I say let’s win now, let’s get the best players we can and put those guys in the best situation to win now. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
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