Texas Rangers in a familiar place. Would they part with Lance Lynn at trade deadline?
Here we go again.
The Texas Rangers are playing poorly and have put themselves in the position where contending teams will be calling ahead of the MLB trade deadline, which this year is Aug. 31.
The Rangers are playing poorly for many reasons, but Lance Lynn isn’t one of them.
As such, he’s the player who contenders would consider mortgaging their futures to acquire for a run at the World Series.
Lynn is scheduled to pitch Monday against the Oakland A’s and Saturday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are still trying to turn their massive payroll and deep pool of prospects into their first world championship since 1989.
So, here we go again.
It happened quickly. Only a week ago the Rangers were a .500 club and, despite their flaws, in the playoff hunt. They needed only a week to dismantle that.
Now, the roster could be dismantled.
“There’s a lot of internal conversations,” manager Chris Woodward said. “I’m not going to make excuses, but we have had a lot of injuries that put us in a different light. We’ve had a lot of struggle with certain guys that we were depending on to carry the load. All of those things being said, it puts us in the position we’re in right now.”
However, there is a case for holding onto Lynn. It’s the same case that was made for holding Mike Minor last year at the deadline.
The Rangers might feel like they are going to contend next year with a rotation of Lynn, Kyle Gibson and Corey Kluber, assuming the Rangers pick up the $18 million club option. They could also re-sign Minor, who is headed toward free agency.
From there, the Rangers could dive into free agency for an impact bat to go with Joey Gallo. Two of those would be even better.
However, Rangers ownership has shown that it won’t allow general manager Jon Daniels to make splashy free-agent additions. They wouldn’t go to seven years for Anthony Rendon over the winter, and they either didn’t offer enough for Josh Donaldson and Nicholas Castellanos or didn’t give Daniels the opportunity to get in too deep.
So, here we go again. A week out from potentially swapping teams, Lynn said he’s committed to making the Rangers the best he can until he hears otherwise.
“You have zero control over it unless you have a no-trade clause,” Lynn said. “Can’t worry about it. You have to do what you can each day for the team you are on and the guys around you to get ready to perform on the field. If you do that, everything else is going to happen whether you like it or not.
“If you get caught up in all the expert inside sources and all the other stuff nobody knows where it comes from, it will eat you up a little bit. If I find there is not a name behind that source, there is no point listening to it. “
Lynn has one year remaining on his contract for only $8 million. He is 3-0 with a 1.37 ERA in six starts, and he has struck out 42 in 39 1/3 innings.
He wouldn’t be a rental player, which adds to his value for the Rangers and the team trying to pry him away. The Rangers would expect a handsome haul, far better than what they received in 2017 from the Dodgers for impending free-agent Yu Darvish.
The Dodgers’ top prospect is infielder Gavin Lux, who is one of the best prospects in the game. Edwin Rios could be the potential answer to the Rangers’ woes at first base, and right-hander Tony Gonsolin would immediately join the Rangers’ rotation.
Any of them might be too much of an ask, but there are other teams that would likely be interested. The Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees are jousting in the American League East, and three teams are knotted atop the AL Central. The Atlanta Braves’ rotation has been ravaged by injuries, yet they are atop the National League East.
Teams will have to clear a high bar to get Lynn, assuming that the Rangers are intent on dealing him.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen before that final day of August,” Woodward said. “I know there will be some action to be talked about, a lot of different things and our record may or may not determine what we do or what we don’t do. Either way, I’m excited about the future.”
