The chatter is insane right now about the Rangers and especially Yu Darvish. There are many teams interested in Darvish, including the Cubs, Dodgers, Astros, Brewers and others. In my opinion, the race for rhe West is already over, but the Wild Card race is still wide open. So the question remains, should the Rangers be buyers or sellers at the deadline?
If the Rangers were sellers, what do you think they could bring in for the following players?
Cole Hamels
Yu Darvish
Carlos Gomez
Jonathan Lucroy
Adrian Beltre
Mike Napoli
Shin-Soo Choo.
Teams are paying less and less for rentals these days, and almost all of the players I listed above would be rentals. No one would take Choo without the Rangers eating a huge portion of his salery. In my mind the question remains, who are you going to get in return for Hamels or Darvish that have more upside than either of them. Many teams would love to have those two pitchers at the top of their rotation. The Rangers have a good relationship with Yu and have a secent chance of re-signing him. That could change if the team trades him away.
My opinion is that the Rangers should be both. Mike Napoli, Lucroy and Gomez could help contenders, and although they would not bring a huge return, they would be worth moving for the right pieces. Robinson Chirinos and Brett Nicholas would be a fine tandem in my opinion. Drew Robinson, Delino Deshields and Jared Hoying could replace Gomez in the outfield. Joey Gallo is playing a great first base. Choo could move to DH. Who knows, it may even make the team better in the short term as well.
I may be way off base, but I believe that the Rangers need to keep Hamels and Darvish, and deal some of the vets they have as mentioned above. It could be the spark this team needs for a realistic run this season. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below!
