The Officially Official Off Season Thread (2016)

[Bmurph]

I could see us making a play for upton.

JD loves that guy, but he strikes out a lot and he's not a ton better than Choo was in LF, I don't think? I could be wrong though

 

[Xx srs bsns xX]

Texas Rangers payroll situation for 2016

1 person's suggestion/wish list for the offseason. Obviously, there goes the farm.... but on the flip side, that rotation. O_O. (Yu, Stras, Gray, Hamels, Perez). That's World Series or bust status.

1) Trade Holland + Chi Chi + Josh Morgan for Strasburg
2) Trade Sweet Lew Brinson + Profar + Lulu + Brett Martin + Tepesch for Sonny Gray + Reddick
3) Trade Prince + $20M for Gausman
4) Trade Choo + Leonys + $10M for Cuddyer
5) Sign Heyward to 10/$230M

 

[scotsman1948]

It would be hitters from the free agency list that you posted yesterday. My favorites would be Davis and Cespedes.

if we were to find someone willing to take Prince or Choo we would have to send at least half of 100+ we owe so wouldn't that leave us financially strapped and unable to sign high quality FA's like Cespedes

 

[scotsman1948]

I could see us making a play for upton.

agreed

 

[donaldson79]

I expect 20+ homers from Choo for the next three seasons or so.

I really should have said 18+. I feel a year he might hit 18. But the next one he might hit 29.

Very much encouraged by Choo, and NOT just his 2nd half numbers. That was sheer baseball magic.

But his attitude is what lite me up. And yes, once his attitude improved, so did his numbers. Got it. He'll be fine in RF for years. Earmark it. I'll stand by it.

 

[Xx srs bsns xX]

It was also mentioned in the comments (from the link above)... to go after an extension for Darvish hard between now and the end of November. If Darvish doesnt extend -- go get Grienke (which would basically mean Darvish is a FA after 2017). Would give the team 2 years of Hamels, Darvish, Grienke.

Personally, I think Darvish leaves after 2017...not b/c he doesnt like it here....but b/c he'll chase the money. (what FA wouldnt?)

 

[Bmurph]

It was also mentioned in the comments (from the link above)... to go after an extension for Darvish hard between now and the end of November. If Darvish doesnt extend -- go get Grienke (which would basically mean Darvish is a FA after 2017). Would give the team 2 years of Hamels, Darvish, Grienke.

Personally, I think Darvish leaves after 2017...not b/c he doesnt like it here....but b/c he'll chase the money. (what FA wouldnt?)

Saw the comment and it probably makes a lot of sense, I think Darvish goes after the $ too and you are right who wouldn't? Gotta be proactive, if he won't agree to an extension. You could likely get a good haul for him too, if you moved him early

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

1) Trade Holland + Chi Chi + Josh Morgan for Strasburg

A bit tempting, but would need more coming to Rangers / less to Nats.

2) Trade Sweet Lew Brinson + Profar + Lulu + Brett Martin + Tepesch for Sonny Gray + Reddick

No way in hell.

3) Trade Prince + $20M for Gausman

Not worth it, IMHO.

4) Trade Choo + Leonys + $10M for Cuddyer

Not sure of the status of Leonys right now, but I don't see him having any trade value.

5) Sign Heyward to 10/$230M

That's either a very unfunny bit, or a cry for help.

 

[donaldson79]

It was also mentioned in the comments (from the link above)... to go after an extension for Darvish hard between now and the end of November.

Personally, I think Darvish leaves after 2017...not b/c he doesnt like it here....but b/c he'll chase the money. (what FA wouldnt?)

First, I don't think the Rangers can nor should attempt to sign Darvish, long term, until he gets healthy and is pitching like, or close to, the Yu we think we're negotiating with. Really don't think his agents would either. So this takes out the rest of 2015 IMO.

Second, I've never felt Darvish was going to be here beyond his current contract. His attitude has always reeked of NYC or LA. Doesn't make him a bad guy, but he is much more of a Hollywood type, at least attitude wise, again IMO.

Third, I will go to my death bed and not understand "chasing the money." If I liked the team/organization I was playing for, enjoyed the community this organization provided me, then a few million dollars wouldn't make me go to team B vs team A.

 

[romeo212000]

I'll be honest. I don't see us making a play in FA for a big RF OF bat, and here's why.

1) I think the Rangers were very impressed by what they saw from both Mazara and Brinson. I think they view Hamilton as a place holder for one of those guys later in the season when Hamilton inevitably gets hurt.

2) Going after a big RH OF bat basically rips the rug out from under Hamilton. While I think we'd all agree Hamilton is not an every day player anymore, he does still have value and may be good enough to bridge the gap to get one of our prospects in there, and at next to nothing. The fact is, a happy Hamilton is a more productive Hamilton. That's the nature of the beast. And they did no acquire him to turn around and get rid of him. He's a ranger until his contract runs out or retires.

3) Rua could also be a nice platoon partner for LF.

4) acquiring a big RH of bat pretty much only leaves CF open potentially for the foreseeable future, and even that's no sure thing. Now granted, we could always look to trade Choo, but for at least the next two maybe three seasons I just don't see that happening.

I see them getting a Jeff Baker a la 2012 type guy if anything. Their other option is to upgrade with a RH bat at first base, but I most likely see them going with a Mitch/Napoli platoon.

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

His attitude has always reeked of NYC or LA. Doesn't make him a bad guy, but he is much more of a Hollywood type, at least attitude wise, again IMO.

Could you explain that a little more? I mean, when he got here at first he had the rockstar haircut and the swagger, but he seemed to tone all that shit down. I know that when I was at Surprise last year for 2 days, he was the only player that signed both days and he signed like a champ each day.

You see him now, he's in the dugout joking around, and he stayed in Texas this offseason if I remember correctly.

I guess my point is that Darvish seems to be more laid back and involved when it comes to being a member of the team now. Will that matter? Not sure, but I'm certainly not writing him off as a FA just yet.

 

[saddles]

It still doesn't really change the fact that we're already extremely left handed heavy and Davis doesn't help that. Fact is, we need a right handed power bat and I don't see us forking over to money for cespedes.

I don't either, but I still think we should.

Keeping Fielder doesn't help our lefthandedness either though. So that point is equal on both sides of the argument. Although Davis' OPS was 75 points higher against LHP than Fielder's was.

 

[saddles]

Will Davis perform here, he didnt before? Cespedes has been good down the stretch for NYM but he hasn't hit like that in some of his other stops. I see Cruz being an upgrade as a RH power bad that can provide production but he isn't available. Will they expand the budget for better offense? We still need pitching as far as Im concerned as well

The Rangers knew that Davis needed to play everyday when they traded him. That is why he didn't perform well here. Thad Levine is on record as saying "We had come to a point where it was going to be less likely for him to get everyday at-bats for us. We recognized when we traded him that we were giving him to a team that was going to be able to give him everyday at-bats. We always viewed him as a guy who you were going to need to let play for 500-plus plate appearances." Levine added, "Asking a guy like that to play infrequently doesn't put him in the best position."

We traded him knowing why he didn't succeed here and that he could succeed if given everyday playing time. So no, I would not worry about him being able to perform here.

 

[donaldson79]

Could you explain that a little more? I mean, when he got here at first he had the rockstar haircut and the swagger, but he seemed to tone all that shit down. It does, and point taken. I know that when I was at Surprise last year for 2 days, he was the only player that signed both days and he signed like a champ each day. Couldn't he do this regardless of what team he was with? Like I said, I don't think Yu is a bad guy if, BIG IF, he does indeed aspire to be on either coast.

You see him now, he's in the dugout joking around, and he stayed in Texas this off season if I remember correctly. Another good point. And this isn't anti your point, but I personally have not considered him a bad teammate. But he'll be a good teammate, again, regardless of what city he's in. I think he's a baseball player/competitor for sure.

I guess my point is that Darvish seems to be more laid back and involved when it comes to being a member of the team now. Will that matter? Not sure, but I'm certainly not writing him off as a FA just yet.

Eph......excellent points, one and all. Seriously. I just have no confidence in him being him beyond this contract. Some of it I just can't quantify, it's something I feel.......Good Lord, I'm sounding like that former manager of OUR TEAM. ha ha

 

[romeo212000]

I don't either, but I still think we should.

Keeping Fielder doesn't help our lefthandedness either though. So that point is equal on both sides of the argument. Although Davis' OPS was 75 points higher against LHP than Fielder's was.

And there's still the matter of the money tied up in fielder's contract.

 

[saddles]

if we were to find someone willing to take Prince or Choo we would have to send at least half of 100+ we owe so wouldn't that leave us financially strapped and unable to sign high quality FA's like Cespedes

Why do you say that? We would save some on both Choo and Prince if we traded them. We would have to pay a good portion of their salary, but it would save us some. It certainly would not cost us. We could probably save close to $20 million per year between the two of them. We also have other players coming off of the payroll including Gallardo, maybe Mitch, Leonys, Colby, and Feliz. Now we are going to have to replace one of the pitchers at some cost, but you would still have a good start. The rest of those guys could be replaced cheap or have already been replaced cheap.

Also, who says our payroll can't increase substantially since it hasn't much the past 2 seasons? Why can't we spend in the neighborhood of what the Giants and Tigers are spending?

 

[BULLPEN FAILURE]

Eph......excellent points, one and all. Seriously. I just have no confidence in him being him beyond this contract. Some of it I just can't quantify, it's something I feel.......Good Lord, I'm sounding like that former manager of OUR TEAM. ha ha

I get that. And I fully admit I look at the Yu situation with rose colored glasses. Been man-crushing on the guy since the first press conference.

 

[romeo212000]

Why do you say that? We would save some on both Choo and Prince if we traded them. We would have to pay a good portion of their salary, but it would save us some. It certainly would not cost us. We could probably save close to $20 million per year between the two of them. We also have other players coming off of the payroll including Gallardo, maybe Mitch, Leonys, Colby, and Feliz. Now we are going to have to replace one of the pitchers at some cost, but you would still have a good start. The rest of those guys could be replaced cheap or have already been replaced cheap.

Also, who says our payroll can't increase substantially since it hasn't much the past 2 seasons? Why can't we spend in the neighborhood of what the Giants and Tigers are spending?

That's not a question anyone here can answer. Only The owners can shed light on that one way or the other.

 

[saddles]

I'll be honest. I don't see us making a play in FA for a big RF OF bat, and here's why.

1) I think the Rangers were very impressed by what they saw from both Mazara and Brinson. I think they view Hamilton as a place holder for one of those guys later in the season when Hamilton inevitably gets hurt.

2) Going after a big RH OF bat basically rips the rug out from under Hamilton. While I think we'd all agree Hamilton is not an every day player anymore, he does still have value and may be good enough to bridge the gap to get one of our prospects in there, and at next to nothing. The fact is, a happy Hamilton is a more productive Hamilton. That's the nature of the beast. And they did no acquire him to turn around and get rid of him. He's a ranger until his contract runs out or retires.

3) Rua could also be a nice platoon partner for LF.

4) acquiring a big RH of bat pretty much only leaves CF open potentially for the foreseeable future, and even that's no sure thing. Now granted, we could always look to trade Choo, but for at least the next two maybe three seasons I just don't see that happening.

I see them getting a Jeff Baker a la 2012 type guy if anything. Their other option is to upgrade with a RH bat at first base, but I most likely see them going with a Mitch/Napoli platoon.

The problem I have in trying to decide what I want them to do this offseason is in making it mesh with what the future holds after 2016. I would like to see them upgrade for 2016 because I really think we were fortunate to make the postseason this year and I don't know that that happens in 2016 if we stand pat. I really can't see Choo here by 2017 unless we trade one or more of our young OFers. Of course that depends on where Gallo will play. If he does move to the OF then between him, Mazara and Brinson I don't see room for Hamilton, Choo or a free agent OFer. Of course Hamilton would be paid the right amount to be a bench player.

 

[saddles]

That's not a question anyone here can answer. Only The owners can shed light on that one way or the other.

There were plenty on here who thought it should increase last offseason. Why is that different now?

Didn't you say last offseason that they would spend when they found something worth spending on?

JD himself has said that he could always go to the owners to ask them to spend more if he thought someone was worth spending on. He just knew it wouldn't be the past 2 offseasons.