Rangers’ answer at third base might be player who’s heard plenty of boos from their fans
The position where the Texas Rangers need the most help this off-season is third base, which was manned last by a number of players who showed they’re no Adrian Beltre.
Few in the history of baseball are, and no player as good as Beltre was is available. But the best position player in the free-agent market is a third baseman, native Texan Anthony Rendon.
He was offered a reported $215 million by the Washington Nationals before they won the World Series ... and he turned it down. Even with general manager Jon Daniels saying the Rangers have the money to compete at the top of the market, Rendon might go beyond Daniels’ comfort zone.
Rendon isn’t the only third baseman on the market. The Rangers have interest in another right-handed hitter at the position, which might make some Rangers fans a tad uneasy.
It’s Josh Donaldson, the former Toronto Blue Jays star who twice helped beat the Rangers in the American League Division Series and got under some fans’ skin in 2015 and 2016.
Daniels, though, said Tuesday he wouldn’t consider a player’s lack of popularity in the past.
“There might be a specific instance where there is something more to it, but competitive people in the heat of the moment, things happen,” Daniels said. “For the most part, I doubt it would factor in.”
While Daniels might not sign Jose Bautista, Donaldson’s former Toronto teammate and Rougned Odor’s former punching bag, it seems he would add Donaldson.
He’s a former AL MVP coming off a season in which he hit 37 home runs and posted a .900 OPS for the Atlanta Braves. His MVP season came in 2015, when the Rangers and Blue Jays met in the ALDS.
That’s when he first became an object of Rangers fans’ disdain. He wasn’t happy that rookie reliever Keone Kela attempted to quick-pitch him, and he started jawing at Kela. The benches cleared as Kela had to be held back by teammates.
Donaldson also spouted off rather loudly in 2016 after Odor punched Bautista in a May game at Globe Life Park. Donaldson got the last laugh, though, has he scored the ALDS-clinching run in a Blue Jays sweep.
The catch with signing Donaldson is that he was given a qualifying offer by the Braves and would cost the Rangers their second-highest draft choice in June and $500,000 from their international bonus pool.
The Rangers would lose their third-highest pick and another $500,000 if they were to sign a second player who was given a qualifying offer.
“It’s not an appealing side of it,” Daniels said. “But getting good players, that part is appealing.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
