Unless Wins Keep Coming, Texas Rangers Likely Major Sellers At Trade Deadline

If the Texas Rangers continue to scuffle, they have a ton of pitchers contenders will covet as the July 30 trade deadline nears.

Stefan Stevenson/Inside the Rangers

The Texas Rangers had every intention of contending to become the first team since the 2000 New York Yankees to win back-to-back World Series titles.

Now, as they enter the final week before the All-Star Break, the Rangers’ season could go either way. And if it goes south, a sale at the trade deadline could be significant, per The Athletic.

The site reported the Rangers might not limit their discussions to trading players who are on expiring contacts. Discussions could also involve players who still have years of team control or years left on a current contract.

Why go that route? The idea, per the reporting, would be to surround what the team considers its core with more young, controllable talent. The story listed that core as Josh Jung, Wyatt Langford, Evan Carter, Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Jonah Heim.

That would put more players on the market than one might have expected at the start of the season.

Many of the players on expiring deals could be attractive to other teams, including pitchers Michael Lorenzen, Andrew Heaney, José Ureña, David Robertson and Kirby Yates. Max Scherzer’s deal is set to expire but unlike the other pitchers he has a no-trade clause he must waive.

Nathan Eovaldi is technically on an expiring deal, but he has a limited no-trade and a vesting player option for 2025 worth $20 million if he pitches 69 more innings. A trade partner would have to accept that option.

Perhaps more notably, position players Nathaniel Lowe, Leody Taveras and Adolis García are players the Rangers might “listen” about in trade discussions, even though they were key pieces of last year’s team. Why? The Athletic cites the weakness of the trade market at their positions and their rising cost in arbitration, though García is in the first year of a two-year, $14 million deal.

Even pitcher Jon Gray could be made available with one year left on his deal worth $13 million.

It feels like a fire sale, perhaps a step back before taking a step forward. The Rangers can change all of that if they can turn it around in the next few weeks.

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