Juan Soto is tempting, but Texas Rangers GM Chris Young must not repeat team’s mistake
The GM of the Texas Rangers expects his team to contend in the final two months of the season with a pitching staff that needs pitchers and an offense that needs at least one more big bat.
This is after the Rangers spent $500 million in the offseason on free agent contracts, investments that improved the state of the team.
On July 31, 2021, the Rangers were 37-67.
On July 31, 2022 the Rangers are 45-55.
The improvement has made Rangers GM Chris Young vulnerable into making the same type of move his boss made in 2006, when Jon Daniels pulled a deal that he said was his biggest mistake. Because the “logic was flawed.”
The Washington Nationals have made All-Star outfielder Juan Soto available via trade, and the Rangers are reportedly in on the discussions.
The MLB trade deadline is Tuesday, Aug. 2.
The Rangers’ pursuit of Soto is flawed logic in two directions.
Soto is 23, and has every toy in his belt. He is the closest thing baseball has seen since Bryce Harper, or Alex Rodriguez, broke into the major leagues.
All three reached the big leagues as teenagers, and all three are represented by Texas Rangers “assistant” GM, Scott Boras.
Juan Soto as a Texas Rangers is a plate of fried chicken, fries, with a Shiner Bock followed by sundae. You say yes, but eventually regret it.
If anyone should know the Rangers can’t fall for Juan Soto, it’s Jon Daniels and Chris Young.
He was involved in the deal that JD eventually regretted.
In January 2006, JD was a first-year GM and the club was coming off a 79-win season. He thought his team was close.
He traded first baseman Adrian Gonzalez with outfielder Terrmel Sledge and pitcher Chris Young to the San Diego Padres in exchange for pitchers Adam Eaton and Akinori Otsuka.
JD thought a front-line starter like Eaton would push the Rangers into the playoffs.
Eaton was a No. 4 starter masquerading as a No. 1.
Eaton didn’t even make an appearance for the Padres in their 2005 playoff series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
In his one season with the Rangers, in 2006, Eaton was 7-4 with a 5.12 ERA in 13 starts and 65 innings. He left the Rangers after one season to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Otsuka was a two-year reliever for the Rangers.
Meanwhile, Adrian Gonzalez went to play 13 more seasons in the majors, was a five-time All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove winner.
Chris Young was an All-Star in 2007 for the Padres, and his big-league career ended in 2017 with an ERA of 3.95.
JD, for forever, said the flaw in the logic of the trade was believing the Rangers were close enough to take this type of a gamble.
He forgot to add he gave up quality major league players in return for a stiff.
The Rangers did not have a winning record until 2009.
Juan Soto is not a stiff. He will be a top major league player for 10 years, and he will reset the contract market, just like A-Rod and Bryce Harper.
Soto will not be a free agent until 2025.
To obtain Soto, the Rangers will have to give up at least five quality prospects.
To keep Soto the Rangers will have to offer a contract that will make shortstop Corey Seager look broke.
The Rangers signed Seager in the offseason to a 10-year, $325 million deal.
He’s 28.
Soto is 24. And Soto is better than Seager.
With Soto, think 15 years and ... $500 million? He reportedly turned down a $440 million offer from the Nationals.
Boras will find an owner or two dumb enough to go higher than $440.
It should not be Rangers owner Ray Davis.
Ray Ray wanted his team to spend some money in the offseason, and they did in adding Seager, infielder Marcus Semien and pitcher Jon Gray.
The Rangers’ player payroll ranks 15th in MLB, which is right about where the team should rank.
Ray Ray doesn’t want to make the same mistake his predecessor made when it comes to payroll.
Former Rangers owner Tom Hicks once famously miscalculated that when he signed A-Rod to the biggest contract in baseball history, the seats would be full and the revenues would jump.
None of that happened, and he had to trade A-Rod only a few years after signing him.
Despite the Rangers’ offseason additions, a new stadium with air conditioning, and improvement on the field, the club ranks 17th in MLB attendance.
Rangers fans go not when they are cool, but when their team contends.
Despite Chris Young’s publicly expressed expectations that his team should contend in the second half of 2022 and all of 2023, they’re not that close.
And they don’t have the money to spend like the LA Dodgers or New York Yankees.
The Rangers have spent their big money.
Now they need to see through the young players they have in their system.
Going after a player like Juan Soto is tempting, but for the Rangers to pursue him is flawed logic.
Chris Young should just ask Jon Daniels.
He knows.
