The newest rumor has the Marlins interested in The Face, but valuing him at $6-7 million per year (as do most other teams says the reports), so the Rangers would have to eat $30 million of MY's $48 million deal over the next 3 years. I've come around to thinking the Ranger's lineup is better with Murphy and Napoli platooning at DH so we might as well trade The Face, but I don't think we can eat that much of his salary. I think eating half of his salary is about as much as I'd eat, along with getting a useful player. Anyone else have any thoughts on these MY to Florida rumors?

Reposted from my comment on another thread, but I think it applies here just as well:

The money is not the issue. That is a sunk cost. You pay it if he's here, you pay much of it if he leaves. We're going to trade Young, and eat a buttload of that salary. Obviously, no one in baseball is going to eat the whole $48m, unless we are taking back an equally egregious contract.

The question at hand is not "how much salary do you have to pay to move him?"

The question is "how much salary do you SAVE by moving him (i.e. how much will the trading partner eat)? And with that amount of dollars over the next 3 years, can JD generate more wins than you lose by losing Michael Young?" The answer, fo me, is a resounding yes. I would be stunned if Young posted more than 1.5 WAR getting most of his ABs at DH, and would be unsurprised if he ended up at roughly replacement level or even below (given what replacement level is for the DH position). And JD id a wizard at generating WAR from wholecloth. Give JD $6-8m a year over 3 years, and he'll find one or more valuable pieces to add.

I agree with Scooby. It's not about eating MY's salary at this point. I pesonally think the Rangers are willing to eat his salary but trade partners are not budging on giving up better prospects or better major league players.

I would love to see MY play for the Rangers in 2011 b/c I still see that as the best option for the Rangers right now (maybe even for MY hiimself). But given the unmended sitatuion, you don't want to hurt the team's chemistry during the season. I thought the MY for Liriano trade idea is quite enticing. You save some $ and get Liriano for a couple of years. Like Scooby mentioned, you use the save $ on other players in FA to further improve the team.

The main value I think MY has is as an injury replacement in case Kinsler goes down again or if Beltre goes down. Having him fill in for either of those guys and utilizing Murphy, Napoli, etc. would be far better than having to rely on Blanco for an extended period. Like I said earlier, I think the statistically better DH is a Murphy/Napoli combo, but that will never happen unless Young is gone or he is playing a position because of injury.

I agree any money we can save would be helpful for JD to get another player or resign our current ones over the next 3 years, but knowing the injury history of our team, it's nice to know that Young could fill in and at least from an offensive standpoint the drop off wouldn't be too great.