Texas Rangers hold Lance Lynn, Joey Gallo after no teams offer major trade hauls
The buzz was steady most of Monday along with the anticipation, including up until the final minutes before the MLB trade deadline arrived at 3 p.m.
The Texas Rangers were said by some to be in control how the day would unfold across baseball, and certainly the final three hours by holding the two biggest final remaining trade pieces.
And, much like last year, nothing significant happened.
And, much like this season, nothing significant could happen on the field for a few more seasons.
The Rangers did not unload either right-hander Lance Lynn or right fielder Joey Gallo, choosing to keep the Cy Young candidate and 2019 All-Star rather than unload them for future help.
Despite the appearance that they will attempt to build a 2021 contender in the off-season that won’t be the case in all likelihood.
General manager Jon Daniels said that the Rangers will have a smaller payroll next season, stemming from the loss in revenue this season from having no fans at Globe Life Field, and that their window to contend for the postseason realistically has been pushed back.
The Rangers could have dealt Lynn and Gallo in the vain of rebuilding, but a deal for what the Rangers believe they are worth never developed.
“If there was an overwhelming deal out there, we probably would have made it,” Daniels said. “But I would not have been proud of some of those deals had we made them, and I don’t think our fans would have been happy about it either.”
The Rangers weren’t completely quiet. They traded left-hander Mike Minor just before lunchtime, shipping the 2019 All-Star to the Oakland A’s for two minor-leaguers, and traded catcher Robinson Chirinos and third baseman Todd Frazier to the New York Mets in separate deals at the deadline buzzer for players to be named.
Outfielder Marcus Smith or third baseman Dustin Harris, the expected return from the A’s, were both selected in the 2019 draft but were not part of the A’s 60-man player pool this season. Only Smith was considered one of the A’s top-30 prospects (21).
But the Rangers knew that Minor was headed toward free agency and risked losing him for nothing at the end of the season. The same goes for Chirinos and Frazier, who both have club options or 2021 with buyouts in excess of $1 million.
However, no team was willing to meet the Rangers’ demands for Lynn, one of the game’s best starting pitchers, or Gallo, one of the game’s elite power hitters.
Daniels said conversations Monday could lead to off-season deals, albeit with a return for Lynn likely less than it would have been Monday. By the off-season, the Rangers expect to have a better idea of the final budget and what areas on the team they won’t be able to address internally.
“I’m not certain what the overall budget will be. It will be down from where it was this year, but I’m not sure exactly where,” Daniels said. “Revenues are down significantly. As in a lot of businesses, that’s going to affect expenditures, and we’re no different.”
They will promote outfielder Eli White and infielder Anderson Tejeda from the alternate camp to see what they might provide in the future. The trade of Chirinos gives Jose Trevino the bulk of the catching duties, and the trade of Frazier benefits first baseman Ronald Guzman and infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
Without a minor-league season of development for the in-house prospects who were being counting on for the immediate future, and with payroll down for 2021, the Rangers are more of a rebuilding team than a contender.
“That’s fair, and I think that’s why we were open to the idea of acquiring younger players that fit more longer term,” Daniels said. “I think that is the more likely window for us. We didn’t want to force it to check the box and say we traded veterans for young players. We just didn’t think the value was there.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 3:20 PM.
