The Sunday Read: Trying to figure out a Rangers trade package for Bryan Reynolds
(AP photo/Rick Scuteri)
Attempting to put together a trade package is a job better left to the professionals.
Fronts offices have their own values for players, theirs and those they want to acquire. Each club’s situation is different.
Take the Texas Rangers, who clearly appear to be in go-for-it mode yet have managed to preserve all of their minor-league talent save for Rule 5 loss Mason Englert.
They’ve surrendered their second- and third-round picks for the second straight draft, so in a way they need to keep prospects.
But their 40-man roster is full, and it’s conceivable that six of the players don’t play in the majors in 2023. At the very least, there won’t be a lot of roster flexibility the rest of the offseason and early in the season.
Unless the Rangers make a significant trade.
No thanks. We simply don’t have to have Reynds. He doesn’t get us to the World Series. If we are going to trade prospects wait and aim high. Aim for a guy who can be under control for more than 3 years.
White > Leiter
You wrongly say the Pirates insulted him, but this trade offer is insulting beyond the point of no return. The Pirates would block your number right away. You are saying it was low because the 3 years of team control would come at 6.75 million and likely somewhere below 20 million the next two years. Say it’s 25 million total over his arb years. This is 3 years and 50 million for the free agent years, which would likely be a discount due to Reynolds getting a sure payment. This package you offer has no real pitching outside of Owen White. The other guys are no name prospects, and White is the only current or former top 100 prospect from this list. It would likely have to have Dunning and Winn in addition to White if the Pirates are foolish enough to not demand one of Leiter, Rocker, or Porter. White would be sold high, while the others would be sold low. I don’t get this fans’ obsession with last year’s stats only. White came out of nowhere and had decent numbers, while Leiter did have bad numbers, but he has multiple dominant pitches that made him the best in the draft. They got lucky the Pirates went under-slot that year. That part is in response to Bennie. However, the deal is incredibly cheap, and a realistic list, given their Soto-like demands would be White + Leiter/Rocker/Porter/Carter (1 of them) + Winn/Otto/Howard + Harris + some extra addons like Thompson/Tavares/Santos etc. They would not do this deal, and neither would you or any reasonable GM if in this position. Be realistic. If this were the cost, they would have gotten rid of Owen White a long time ago before his value expires. They don’t need to give out too many of their top guys, but some have to go. Owen White seems like Profar in that they should trade him before he busts. He’s kind of like Cole Winn last year.
I love the trade. I would absolutely say yes because no matter if Bednar is in the trade or not, Carter or White MUST be in the package. I believe Carter to be untouchable so White has to go.
Great proposal Jeff!
That’s a good baseline for negotiations. There’s likely some tweaking to be done but the team control Pittsburgh gains is very valuable. This is what a Pirates team in it’s current position needs to be doing, converting present day assets with diminishing value to when their actual contention window opens to assets with an ascending value to that window.
Here’s my tweaks, replace Smith with Foscue. replace Santos with Vanasco. Same effect to 40. Pirates get 2 top 100’s, 2 of Texas’ top 5, + 2 more in Rangers top 15-20 (depending on ranking service) + 2 young major leaguers with upside. Too much? Maybe. I feel it’s more, the cost of doing business.
Boy, I like Foscue. Six players seems pretty heavy unless the Rangers are getting the reliever.
I tend to agree that the package is light, although perhaps not as vehemently as dTR. Then again, I don’t think Pittsburgh is motivated to move Reynolds before the season unless the Rangers overpay. The price is different today than it will be at the deadline, and the adjustment could be substantial if Reynolds over/underperforms or prospects over/underperform. For now, my guess is that Pittsburgh holds fast on Evan Carter + White + Leiter as the top of the return. That’s completely unreasonable from the Rangers’ perspective, of course. Jeff’s suggestion is a good counter, but it won’t get the Pirates to move before the season IMO. If the Rangers were to bend on including TWO of Carter + White/Leiter, then maybe they think a little harder before saying no.
White+Leiter+Carter, or even two of those together isn’t realistic at all, it’s asinine. They can shit in one hand and wish in the other if they actually think they could get even two of those three, this isn’t a fantasy land. Jeff’s proposal is a good starting point and Otto is a pretty good piece to slide into the back of their rotation. This package is probably a little light but it’s pretty close, White and Harris are under rated.
If you wait until the deadline and he’s killing it, the price goes up and other teams will be involved. I wonder if either side will become more motivated as spring training nears.
Personally I wouldn’t trade White. I’d also rather trade Dunning instead of Otto who appeared to start figuring it out the last part of the year.
If you are saying they likely want not just White, but also Carter and Leiter, that is a huge difference. Even I don’t think they would want or get that much. I do think Leiter and White plus others or maybe replacing White with Winn + Otto + Duran/Foscue + Harris may work, though, if they want a Gallo-type quantity deal. The above one Wilson mentions just seems insulting because there is only 1 former or current top 100 guy there.
I like the idea but dont get rid of josh smith and give up someone who hasent made an impact yet
Not enough.
Foscue, Harris, Leiter, Duran, one of Otto/Dunning, one of Burke/Hearn/Church
You don’t make the deal now anyway. You wait till
July and see where you are and where Reynolds head
Is. If he starts the season the way he started last
Season then no doubt the price comes down. The
Pitching for me is off limits because we have been
So bad for so long that giving up on these guys this
Early would be idiotic. Pick one player and offer that to Pittsburgh. Hopefully Duran smokes out of the gate
And a straight swap is possible. And a 2nd tier pitcher
If absolutely necessary. A lot could happen in a couple months. It’s in Texas’ best interest to wait.