"JD needs to convince Boras it is in his clients best interest to sign a long extension at a really good price for him and the Rangers."

Why would it be in his best interest? He only cares about money and a really good price for the Rangers will not be a good price for him.

@mmurph

Tell Boras absent the extension the Rangers deal him thus taking one more big bidder out of the bidding war Boras is going to try to incite when Elvis reaches FA in three years. Does Elvis need to be the new face of the franchise long term? Probably.

This is a pipe dream. Andrus and Boras have no reason to take anything less than market value. If Elvis is one of the 2-3 best shortstops in baseball, he should accept nothing less than being paid like one of the 2-3 best. Being that he hits FA after after his age-25 season, that deal will be expected to be 8-10 years and for $18M-$20M AAV, totaling between $144M-$200M. He is not the face of our franchise and will not be; his replacement is the future face.

@Fajita

I believe JD could make a trade using just Profar and a few other prospects to get a big name bat. I know Profar has more potential, but at this point I still believe Elvis is more valuable.

This is crazy. 6 years of Profar (costing league-minimum bucks in '13, '14 and '15 + arb-1, 2 and 3) is TONS more valuable than 2 years of Andrus. Not even close. You don't trade 6 years of Profar ahead of 2 years of Andrus. You just don't. If you trade Profar and get stiffed by Elvis in FA, you're left with one middle infielder in Ian Kinsler, and I'm not banking on Luis Sardinas/Leury Garcia to hold anything close to the same value as Profar.

You keep Profar. You keep Kinsler. You move Andrus. 3 players, 2 spots, and one of them is already locked up for the longterm. In the end, the years of Profar outweighs the years of Andrus, so this transition looks like pretty basic math.

@Eric I wasn't saying we should move Profar instead of Elvis, I'm saying that i believe that JD could get a similar deal using Elvis instead of Profar, and with Elvis it might even take a little less as he is more "Major League Ready" All of us here know Profar will be better than Andrus. You find the right team in a "win now" mode and they would want the proven all star SS.

I agree that we keep Profar and Kins, I'm just saying i think the Andrus plus one or two of our top 5 prospects for an Upton type IMO is over paying for him.

@fajita

I think thats kinda the point. To get a #3 type COF hitter whos 25 or younger, you're going to have to overpay. Upton may cost less than the other names out there, but they are all under control for a longer period of time than elvis is and thus will require some decent prospects as well. Upton may not require someone in the vein of olt or perez, but guys like bruce, heyward, cargo would. Either way, it wont be elvis for any of them straight up.

"By the time the end of the season came, Ron Washington had in his back pocket the excuse of "Well, we have the best record in the league, why change?" And I can't fault him for that logic. It's only in retrospect, now that the Rangers aren't even involved in the ALDS, that us as fans carry a gripe."

Um...I don't really understand this.

It is a 100% legitimate "gripe" to question why an obviously under-performing player is given consistent playing time at the cost of other obviously more productive players...and even unproven quality prospects. The fact the team had "the best record in the league" is not an excuse to not field your best team.

Go back to some of the July / August posts and see how many times a poster said "if this team misses the playoffs by one game how stupid will Wash look?". There were many, many of them. In essence, those posters were wise enough to understand the having the best record in the league in August is not the same as having the best record in the league at the end of the season. Washington seemed incapable of even considering this.

Second, Washington's slavish loyalty to his decision left him no flexibility when the roof caved in. Had Gentry / Olt / Profar / Martin been utilized more when the lead was bigger, there would have been an opportunity to see what they could contribute. Seems a lot more likely that one of them would have gotten hot...or contributed in ways other than hitting the ball (Gentry)....that when the roof starting falling apart, rather than trotting out the same tired, ineffective lineup, Wash could have mixed things up.

Doesn't mean it would have worked. What it does mean, is Wash would have had much greater options, and would have seen a higher number of players and seen what they could contribute. Essentially, Wash tied his own hands by being stubborn.

Posters on here could see all of that and that's a legit criticism. So I'm not for a second buying the "they led the league" excuse for shitty managing.

"All of us here know Profar will be better than Andrus."

Statements like these leave me shaking my head. Really? We "know" this as a fact? Because I don't.

I expect Profar to be, at minimum, a productive major league shortstop. I think there is a good possibility he'll be as good as Andrus. I think there's a substantial possibility (but less than 50%) that he'll be better. And I think there's a notable, but not major (say 15 to 20%) he'll be a superduperstar.

But to say "we all know" something that is unknowable is just.....weird to me. Outstanding prospects come and go and some realize it and some don't and some come close but not quite.

These kinds of expectations being put on Profar worry me that when he's "only" a good shortstop his first season the fans will be outraged because they "know" he's supposed to be better.

I completely agree. Regardless of how inevitable something seems, until it happens, we don't know it.

Mr. Man and Eric,

I could not have made a better defense of my original argument than what Mr. Man said.

Washington had a philosophy of "we have won and we are winning and, therefore, lets keep doing what we are doing." While I understand why Wash fell into that it is a flawed way of looking at things. Your goal should always be to field the best possible team, and to make adjustments to that end. I understand Wash's loyalty when a player is struggling but he took that way to far in riding MY for way too long. In the end it became clear that Wash should have been infusing more youth into the team all along even though MY made a mild rebound. Michael was the obvious guy to lose playing time for the young guys since he was doing extremely poorly. Baseball requires constant vigilance, a relentless dedication to fielding the best possible team. When you start thinking about winning in the present the way you have already won you make yourself vulnerable to failing to make the necessary adjustments to win NOW. You lose momentum that shifts to other younger, more flexible, winning teams.

As Wash has said a million times, "its not the best team that wins the game, its the team that plays the best." Playing the best requires a relentless forward thinking mentality concerning fielding your best possible team day in and day out. The playoff entitlement mentality was thick around Ranger land, and lets face it, most of us fell into it. Everyone was thinking that we had it made simply because we were in first and we had the "best" team that had won before. Let this be a lesson to everyone in Ranger land. The most toxic possible thing you can do is pretend like you have already won or that winning is inevitable or that your team is the "best" team regardless of record. This game humbles you when you fail to do what it requires, when you ride high you get cut down.

If Wash is wiling to realize his mistakes and make the required adjustments I think JD should bring him back, he is a good leader. But if Wash is determined to play MY next year no matter how poorly he plays then Wash needs to move on. A shift needs to be made to a different mentality, one of relentless vigilance rather than entitlement. Isn't that the sort of attitude that the FO attempts to promote, one of constant vigilance about the myriad possibilities concerning improving the team? The problem is that we forgot to translate that mentality to the baseball field.

I want Wash back and I want Josh back, as long as they will take responsibility for their mess ups. If they won't they need to go their merry way. If Josh sings his "poor me" song even though it is obvious to everyone that he cracked under the contact year pressure, and if Wash hold his stubborn line on MY and the young guys, they need to move on.

If they will change and realize what they did wrong I want them both back because lets face it Wash is a good leader despite his flaws and Josh is a great hitter despite his flaws. No one is perfect, and I believe these two guys give us the best chance of winning next year.

If you aren't going to bring them back you might as well go into full rebuild mode because the rebuild is just going to be delayed otherwise. A couple of mediocre years and we will be back to square one.

As much as I like to see Profar be an elite MLB player, he still hasn't proven it yet. Yes, I agree he has tremendous potential. When Elvis fist came up, were we all really confident he would become the player he is today? I just don't think we should trade Elvis until we know what Profar can do. So, I would push to move Kinsler to LF (or trade him). And start Profar at 2B. If Profar does do well, then we are set with this arrangement or we could trade Elvis before he becomes a FA. The worst case is we trade Elvis and Profar doesn't work out....we got mitigate the risk.

I doubt seriously Kins could beat out Murphy for a LF spot.