Rangers partake in pre-meetings trade talk
The most popular chatter a few days ahead of the annual winter meetings, this year in one of the country’s best downtown areas that most reporters won’t experience, is that Trademaggedon is coming.
Club officials are telling various outlets that trade talks have moved to a deeper level and scores of deals will be consummated over the next four days at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.
Twitter feeds will be filled with lobby talk from officials and scouts who are caught trying to escape their team’s war room for a breath of fresh air or trying to scurry to another part of the hotel for a clandestine meeting.
That seldom happens with Texas Rangers personnel, at least during normal business hours. Aside from former manager Ron Washington taking leave to get a nicotine fix, it has been hard to spot a Rangers official anytime before midnight at past meetings.
General manager Jon Daniels and his crew of trusty lieutenants hunker down in the war room, which doubles as Daniels’ hotel suite, and spend their days considering the possibilities, taking meetings with player agents or officials from other clubs and charging their cellphones.
The trade-talk talk isn’t just talk. The Rangers are in the middle of some of it.
Daniels’ preferred method for acquiring the missing piece to the Rangers’ rotation continues to be via a trade. Though the Rangers have been largely idle to date this offseason, Daniels believes they have a better idea of who is available, what clubs will want from the Rangers in return and what free agents are seeking.
“We’re starting to move the ball a bit,” Daniels said. “We have a lot more information as far as what other clubs are looking to do. We’ve had internal discussions about which players we’re willing to move. We’re a lot more prepared based on the conversations we’ve had.”
The Rangers aren’t just looking for a starter, though that will almost certainly be their biggest offseason splash. They want young pitchers who are under club control for multiple years. All teams want that.
Those pitchers typically belong to teams that are rebuilding, but Daniels has had trouble finding one.
San Diego was thought to be one, and with former Daniels aide A.J. Preller as GM, the Padres and Rangers look like natural trade partners. San Diego, though, made serious plays for free agents Pablo Sandoval and Yasmany Tomas.
Those aren’t typically the actions of a team trying to rebuild or willing to unload quality young arms for top-tier prospects. If the Padres keep running into dead ends, though, perhaps they will decide to deal right-hander Tyson Ross or right-hander Andrew Cashner or catcher Yasmani Grandal.
“As you look at the 30 teams, there really are teams that appear to be lining up and punting the 2015 season,” Daniels said. “The last handful of years you could identify a team or two in the winter that were open with their expectations. Right now, there’s nobody that’s clearly in that boat, and I think that’s part of the reason why there’s been a slower trade market. I think that will break here at some point.”
Daniels is also considering if the Rangers should make a play for the kind of player who would be considered a finishing piece. Their biggest offseason goal is to make certain that their core players are healthy, and Daniels is weighing whether it would be more prudent to see how that group performs together before making a move.
In that scenario, the Rangers would add pieces to complement the core.
“Is the prudent move to be a little conservative right now?” Daniels said. “When you have young players, you’re always going to have the ability to make moves. It might be this winter, but it doesn’t have to be.”
The Rangers have enough in the minors to deal away some of their top prospects, though slugging third baseman Joey Gallo is likely the most untouchable. Right-handers Alex Gonzalez and Jake Thompson, outfielders Nomar Mazara and Nick Williams and catcher Jorge Alfaro won’t come cheap, but Daniels often says that no player is untouchable for the right deal.
The Rangers have depth in the middle infield, and have been asked about it. But the uncertain health status of infielder Jurickson Profar might make it too difficult for the Rangers to deal away Elvis Andrus, whose eight-year, $120 million contract might be too difficult to trade away.
Daniels said that he is still considering pitchers who can be free agents after the 2015 season, like Washington’s Jordan Zimmermann or Cincinnati’s Mat Latos. Atlanta left fielder Justin Upton is also an attractive player who has one year left on his current deal, but Daniels insisted that adding a bat has become a lower priority.
There is no interest in bringing back C.J. Wilson, who has two expensive years left on the five-year pact he signed in 2011 to play with the Angels.
Maybe the Rangers will have answers by Thursday afternoon, when the winter meetings come to an end. There will be no shortage of talking this week.
Jeff Wilson, 817-390-7760
This story was originally published December 7, 2014 at 9:46 PM with the headline "Rangers partake in pre-meetings trade talk."