Rangers met with him the other day. I'm not sure what kinda salary he will command but he's killed LHP throughout his career (295/373/636 last year). Certainly cheaper than Swisher. If the Rangers are really interested it seems like they're looking at the post-Murphy/Cruz era. A Murphy/Ross platoon in 2013 would be great but Ross can probably do better than a part-time role. So unless they're itching to make a trade sooner than later, where is the fit for Ross?

I'm assuming Nelson Cruz's salary gets moved somewhere. I know the Phillies have a need for a corner outfielder, and they always have the payroll to add an extra $10.5 million for one year.

I also like the idea of dealing with them because their GM isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, and we might be able to rip off a better deal than with some other teams.

Assuming we don't acquire Swisher on the cheap or an Upton/Stanton-type, I've no problem with Ross coming in on a cheap 2-year, $12 million or so contract.

Are we down to journyman Cody Ross? Really? I'm mean come on JD you expect me to go out and buy season tickets again this year? For a third place team? I am trying to get excited for another Ranger and i've been a fan since 1972. But JD your making it tough. Franly, i could give a crap if Cody Ross is signed or not, where is he goint to play. For Murphy, i don't think so, he is one of the most underated players in MLB. Murphy is going to play everyday. So let me know when the Rangerts decide to actually do something this year. We need a catcher and a left handed bat with power. So I want to see atleast one of these three guys: Pierzinski, LaRoche or Swisher anything less will be disapointing!

@eric - why do you think the rangers would shed Cruz' salary? When the team was looking to sign Hamilton and/or Greinke, trading Cruz made sense. As it is, the rangers can add about 20 million according to their own budget projections. Cruz is a lot less of a commitment and a better player than those left on the market.

I haven't seen any indication or news source that suggests the rangers have thrown in the towel and are heading for a 'transition' year- though it is intriguing to consider (though I think a bad idea)

The strength of the Rangers is their infield: so signing LaRoche, who can bat third and approximate Hamilton's bat, also is in the top rated defensive first basemen. With Pierzynski soon to be added, focus on long shot/ or/ short term free agent pitchers: Kazmir, Liriano, Loshe. It appears Jackson is headed to Chicago on a 4/$52. Focus on top outfielder talent: Carlos Gonzalez, G. Stanton , J. Upton. Viable trade chips: Cruz, Kinsler, Andrus, Beltre. As the strength is the infield, the Rangers second line can be the first and future: Garcia - Profar - Olt around the horn. What does this say, forget Ross unless the Rangers wish to return to mediocrity.

The Rangers strategy of making a "second best" offer to free agents--hoping they will come here for slightly less money is making me crazy. The no state income tax angle ain't working.

I'm glad to hear that AG P and Ross went to dinner with Wash and JD.
And i'm getting real antsy.

As much as i can't believe im saying it---we need (36 yr old) Pierzynski.
Getting a plus catcher & a left handed bat in one player. Do it!
It's not like there's another option is there?

An "Babe" Ross is another player that i hate to play against--but i like the idea of him coming here on a 2 yr deal.
He seems to come up big in big games. And he sure knows how to wear his war paint.

Really.

Ross and Pierzynski are stopgaps...short-term solutions to help us stay competitive until the FO determines whether our up-and-comers can replace them. Same with pitching. The Rangers can make "second best" offers, because, IMO, they know they have guys who can provide similar performance at a significantly cheaper cost....it just may not be until 2014.

Right as rain, DDan.

Yes, j, the Rangers have become prudent. I don't believe they got to two WS by being anything different, and they certainly didn't get there by overspending on a bunch of FAs.

J, you know how I know you are a fair weather fan who doesn't know jack about baseball? You just lamented the rangers "losing" young.

You have no idea how to run all ball club or how the rangers got where they are or you wouldn't have made that post. Thanks for playing, and feel free not to buy tickets bandwagoner.

Jayson Stark, ESPN
3

Texas Rangers
This is still an awfully talented team, with a deep roster and deep system. But yikes! This club has had a nightmare of an offseason so far.

Gone, for starters, are Hamilton, Napoli, Mike Adams and Michael Young. Granted, much of that was by design, and there's plenty of time for other moves. But as one NL exec put it, "When you lose Josh Hamilton, how are you going to get better?"

What really pushed the Rangers to this lofty spot on this list, though, was all the impact players and arms they seemed poised to acquire -- and didn't: Shields, Greinke, Dickey, Hamilton, Justin Upton, etc.

"I'm really disappointed in Texas," said an AL exec. "It's unbelievable to me, how they allowed themselves to miss out on everything they had on their radar."

But another AL exec said there's a logical explanation for that -- and a moral to all that swinging and missing: "They had too many balls in the air. They had too many things going on. You have a chance to get shut out when you do that. And that's exactly what happened."

Translation, JD got in over his head! JD is a smart guy he will learn from his mistakes; Unfortunatley, that leaves us this year as a third place team. Unless we decide to overpay for freeagents, which i would be willing to do. Just for kicks if we could sign both Pierzinski and LaRoche for less than $24m it would cost an extra $7.4 per ticket based on 40k attendance average. that is what a beer each? i'd buy them a beer, would you?

Yes, let's all read into how terrible an offseason the Rangers had based on sensationalist local beats and drama-hungry national writers. Good call.

Listen, if you look at all the players the Rangers missed out on as a collective, then yeah, it looks like a bad offseason. But can someone please give me a reasonable argument as to why we should have gone 5/125 for Hamilton, 6/147 for Greinke, 3/39 for Napoli, the farm for Shields, the farm for Dickey, or any other move that's not been made in isolation.

I have no problem staying put with the ridiculous money being thrown out there. JD is smarter than that.

Yeah, I'm very disappointed so far. Here's my scorecard from trade deadline:

Rangers needs: starting pitcher / COF / Catcher...solve issue of too many players at 3B / SS or 2B
Rangers assets - currently not contributing to team: Profar / Olt / Perez / miscellaneous others
Rangers assets - contributing to team / most likely trade bait: Cruz / Kinsler / Andrus

Since that time, these players have moved/signed since trade deadline:

Pitchers: Grienke, Shields, Buerhle, Josh Johnson, Jeremy Guthrie, Joe Blanton, Iwakuma, Kuroda, Haren, Hudson, McCarthy, Peavy, Santana, Dempster, Vargas, Sanchez (off the top of my head)

OF: Hamilton, Upton, Pagan, Victorino, Cabrera, Hunter, Ludwick, Shierholz, Suzuki, Gomes, Bay, Wil Myers, Gardner, Revere

C: Arnaud, Napoli, Martin,

While many of those names are not that attractive, and others commanded salaries beyond what I would have been comfortable with.....the fact that all those players were out there, the Rangers acquired NONE of them AND still have a logjam preventing their two best young players from being utilized properly is simply a failure on the part of the front office.

I think Joey nailed in a previous post where he said the Rangers completely misjudged the inflation of this year's market. They wanted players only at a no-questions-asked beneficial deal to the Rangers and found out they couldn't get anyone under those terms.

Now we're stuck with a severely flawed lineup where the only way to get Profar / Olt on the field is to have two players playing out of position. We're stuck with an outfield that will be relying on average players and unproven youngsters. We're relying on completely unproven talent at the fifth SP spot and a bullpen that seems to have no room for error.

On the plus side the Rangers have yielded no young assets and have more financial flexibility than anyone could have possibly imagined two months ago. Further, there are still players out there:

P: Okay, there aren't any real pitchers available beyond Lohse and retreads like Liriano and Bedard
C: AJP (that's it unless you want to go retro with Gerald Laird or Rod Barajas)
OF: Michaeal Bourn, Swisher, Sizemore, Ross and a bunch of retreads like Fukudome, Delmon Young, etc.

Those are might slim pickings. I'm astounded the Rangers find themselves in this position.

I'm sure I got something wrong here or didn't account for someone.....but the overall process has left me more dispirited than before. Excuse me while I go put needles in my eyes.

@Eric

3/$39 for Napoli seems reasonable considering the alternatives. Who is going to play catcher for the Rangers in 2013 / 14 / 15 who is as good, and can be had for less cost moving forward?

@mrman Napoli's 3 for 39 is so reasonable that the team who offered it now won't give it to him.

@Eric

It seems like you and and some others here claim every single signing / trade doesn't make sense; it cost too much. This seems to imply the entire rest of the league is making bad decisions and only the Rangers are the smart guys here. It's hard to look at an off-season like the one so far and claim JD and brass have been proven the brightest.

Isn't it possible that with the huge regional television money pouring into the MLB coffers that Napoli's signing won't look too dumb? Don't prospects often turn out NOT to be that good...and thus sending an Olt to get someone like Buehrle or Josh Johnson would have made sense?

The Rangers had assets to trade, money to spend, several big needs and a out-of-whack lineup needing adjustment. After the trade deadline and 90% of an off-season they still have the same situation. I know you see thing rosy, so I'd appreciate an explanation about how this show's the Rangers to be the smart guys?

Rangers will be what they are this year, the 3rd place Al West team, approx. .500 ballclub. Notning else to see here.

j
I first noticed Eric had unkind words with many others then became aware that he only values his opinion and smears others. I quit reading anything he posts and because the site is cumbersome have almost quit reading altogether.

@MrMan

I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same disappointment most of us are experiencing, but that disappointment is merely a product of the perception we were all led to believe was true before the offseason began. That being, we would get either of Greinke or Hamilton, and still go out and trade for Justin Upton. From a public relations perspective, I think this has thus far been an unsuccessful offseason.

That said, I don't see it as a failure. Not yet. To me, in retrospect, the failure would have been going through with an enormous Greinke/Hamilton contract, or making a stupid trade that sent away Jurickson Profar for a James Shields/R.A. Dickey-type. No, I'm not implying the Rangers are the only smart front office in baseball, but I have a hard time putting myself in the shoes of a Blue Jays or Royals fan and thinking those moves were worth it.

What have we learned in the last 4-5 years with JD at the helm?

We've learned that, across the board, just about every transaction that's materialized has made sense both from the standpoint of dollars spent and prospects lost. We can cite the Mark Teixeira trade, the Eric Gagne trade, the Josh Hamilton trade, the Cliff Lee trade, the Mike Napoli trade, the Adrian Beltre signing, et. al. In none of those moves was the loss (whether in $ or players) unjustified by the return we received.

Sure, you can attempt to debunk what I just wrote by mentioning the Jorge Cantu and Cristian Guzman trades in 2010, but that would be pretty severe nitpicking.

The point is, the Rangers front office has had a clear vision for quite a while, and they have not strayed away from it post the Michael Young contract, and Adrian Gonzalez/Alfonso Soriano trades. I trust that if they really wanted some players, they have the means to, as you mentioned.

@eric reining

Absolutely agree. The perception is failure because we were led to believe the Rangers would have made a monumental move by now. But I don't see failure yet. At all. All this complaining about the lineup being so weak is preposterous. Go back and look at the SF Giants lineups from their 2 WS wins in the last 3 years. You don't need 8 out of 9 guys in your lineup to be capable of hitting 30 bombs to be successful. Like has been said so many times by some very smart people on this site, small ball is the way to go. Magadan is going to have a significant impact on our hitters, particularly our young hitters. I would be comfortable running out a lineup with the guys we have right now.

I want someone to tell me this:
Which team that "won the winter" by public perception, went on the win the WS?

Well, the Angels won the AL offseason last year, and the Marlins won the NL. The Angels missed the playoffs by a few games, but the Marlins, they, uh....oh, wait...

As I see it, there are two primary factors driving prices up: (1) the TV deals being thrown around/kicking it, and (2) the unexpected success in 2012 of the A's and Orioles. As a result of those two things, you have teams jacking prices up on FAs (e.g., Dodgers and Angels) and teams who think they're just a few players away and will sacrifice prospects to make it happen in 2013 (e.g., Royals and Blue Jays). The sellers are the ones making the hauls right now, IMO, not the buyers. And it's the teams selling ML talent that are winning big on prospects. The Rangers don't have the money that the LA teams have, nor can they afford to sell their ML-level talent (they're prospect-rich already).

So, as some have suggested, their best value trade would be Adrian Beltre...but that's a death knell for the 2013 season.

The other reality at play here is that management and fans value players (and money) differently. We can't sit here and say the Rangers failed because they missed guys who were "on their radar" as Stark put it. When the Rangers see value, they go out and get it (e.g., Beltre and Darvish). There's a pretty good track record of success the past two offseasons, and those deals didn't happen in December. Is the FA pool smaller? Sure. But patience can bring you good talent late in the offseason, and particularly at the trade deadline. Calling this offseason a failure in December is just stupid.

Excellent summation, DDan.

Although I'd just like to say, Beltre is the Ranger I want traded least. Besides his all-star game, I can't tell you how many times watching Beltre do what he do has made an enjoyable evening out of an otherwise terrible game. If there were one player that could make me rethink my loyalty if he were traded (there isn't, but if there were) it would be him.