Friday on the Farm: Rangers’ system will look different after trade deadline

(Texas Rangers/Bailey Orr)

Anyone who has listened to the Rangers Today Baseball Podcast the past month or so has heard the following two statements:

A team builds a robust farm system, in part, to trade from it.

There are two kinds of currency in baseball — cash and prospects.

The Rangers are attempting to acquire players ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline to help the major-league team as it contends for the postseason for the first time since 2016. That was also the last time the Rangers finished above .500 and the last time they were buyers at the deadline.

They traded away former first-round picks Lewis Brinson, Luis Ortiz and Dillon Tate, among others, for catcher Jonathan Lucroy, reliever Jeremy Jeffress and designated hitter Carlos Beltran in 2016 and won the American League West.

By this time next week, some of the names fans have come to know during the past three seasons of rebuilding will be gone.

That’s part of being a contender.