Texas Rangers’ Jon Daniels has a Teixeira trade problem with Joey Gallo | Opinion
We are at the time of the year when the Texas Rangers must contemplate trading the face of their franchise ... who can hit a baseball to Pluto, and is batting .233 — but it’s OK, because batting averages no longer matter.
At least according to one club official, All-Star outfielder Joey Gallo is as available as All-Star pitcher Kyle Gibson.
After the Rangers dropped two of three to the Oakland A’s at Globe Life Mall over the weekend, the team fell to 35-55. Other than air conditioning, there just isn’t much to sell.
Trading Gibson and or Gallo will be the main stories to follow on this team between now and the MLB trade deadline on July 30.
After that, there will be interest on whether they promote Josh Jung from Double A Frisco. (They shouldn’t.) And, if they will be no-hit for a third time this season.
Considering how far away this team is from contending, keeping Gibson is a fireable offense while retaining Gallo has some appeal. Arlington is the perfect place for Gallo.
Dealing Gallo will not be up to GM Chris Young, but rather Rangers czar Jon Daniels, who is going to want to a Mark Teixeira type of return for his home run king.
The Rangers desperately need to do something significant. They can’t trade Gallo for the type of return they landed in the Yu Darvish deal in 2017 that yielded basically nothing on the big league level for the Rangers.
JD’s problem will be his desire to land several top prospects, and perhaps one major leaguer for Gallo, which will force him to keep an asset that he may hold on to for too long.
There are plenty of comparisons between Gallo and Teixeira, with one large exception. Gallo is not the sure thing that Teixeira was when JD traded him in 2007.
On July 31, 2007, the Rangers were 13 games under .500 and sent Teixeira to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for pitchers Beau Jones, Matt Harrison, and Neftali Feliz, shortstop Elvis Andrus, and catcher/first baseman Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
Harrison, Feliz and Andrus all became All-Stars. JD made good moves since then, like trading for Cliff Lee and signing Adrian Beltre, but the Teixeira trade is the best deal of his long career.
Teixeira was 27, had one full season remaining on his contract before he became a free agent, and was represented by agent Scott Boras.
The Braves kept Teixeira for one calendar year before they traded him to Anaheim, where he was a rent-a-player for two months before signing as a free agent with the New York Yankees.
Now it’s 2021, and the Rangers are sitting at 20 games under .500. JD is no longer GM, but president of baseball operations, which basically means ... he’s the GM-ish.
Gallo is 27, eligible for arbitration in 2022, and the earliest he can be a free agent is 2023.
Teams would rather eat left over kitty litter than go through salary arbitration with a player. The Rangers are more apt to either deal Gallo, or give him a long-term contract before he can go through that process.
Because his agent is Boras, his preference typically has been to allow his high-end clients to become free agents and command the type of contracts players love, and teams eventually hate.
We are talking eight years, $200 million plus. Easy.
This assumes Gallo continues to put up the type of power numbers he’s currently posting.
The strikeouts (108) and batting average (.239) aren’t ideal, but since MLB commissioner Rob Manfred made it a point to crack down on pitchers who were cheating, Gallo’s performance at the plate has spiked. That’s not a coincidence.
Gallo can play multiple positions, and he will be attractive to National League teams, too.
If he continues to hit well over the next two plus weeks, Daniels is going to expect more in return to trade him.
He will find plenty of teams who want Joey Gallo, but he’s not going to find a Mark Teixeira-caliber haul in return, which is why, ultimately, Gallo won’t be going anywhere this season.
This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 10:37 PM.
