NEWSFLASH: Young Rescinds Trade Request, Agrees To Play Third Base

Michael Young (pictured) will play third base for the Texas Rangers in 2009. - no smorking/Flickr.comThe most significant storyline of the Texas Rangers' predominantly lethargic off-season has, by all indications, anticlimactically culminated in the ending that most astute observers foresaw from the outset of this major embroilment between employer and employee -- one that had been conceived nearly a month prior, but was only summoned to the forefront of the baseball world earlier this week.

And, fittingly enough, it's the ending that makes the most sense for all parties involved.

According to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan, Michael Young -- the central figure in this modern-day hardball drama -- has unilaterally rescinded his standing trade request and has "reluctantly" agreed to move to third base for the 2009 regular season and beyond, effectively clearing room at his former stead for the eventual (and possibly imminent) installation of presumptive franchise shortstop Elvis Andrus.

Although Young unquestionably remains frustrated with the organization's decision to transition him into a full-time role at the hot corner (and notably made no attempts to conceal his true feelings on the matter during a Thursday afternoon press gathering, bluntly stating that he "[doesn't] think this is the time for [him] to switch positions"), he emphatically cited his responsibility to his teammates and to a divided fan base as reasons why he felt he needed to embrace his new role and put the controversy to rest:

"After some careful consideration over the last month and in an effort not to let this thing drag out and move forward to the task at hand -- which is winning baseball games -- I decided to put an end to this and start bearing down and playing third base."

[...] "They wanted me to play third base and I didn't want this to drag on. I don't want my focus to be on anything but being ready for spring training. I'm focused on having a big year and the last thing I wanted to do was have anything take away from that."

While it seems relatively safe to surmise that Young and general manager Jon Daniels are not presently on speaking terms after the latter committed what the former perceived as an act of disrespect last month (that is, Daniels reportedly "requesting" that Young move to third base without affording him the option of staying put at shortstop), club president Nolan Ryan evidently played a pivotal role in assuaging Young's anger and reconciling a dispute that appeared to be hopelessly deadlocked just days before:

"I just visited with him about his role with our ballclub and how important he was to our ballclub," Ryan said. "He's obviously the leader of our team, and we didn't want to have a situation where it wasn't going to work out for the ballclub or for him. I felt like we needed to resolve it."

Conforming to the defensive subtleties of third base will require immense patience and diligent practice on Young's end, and Elvis Andrus's successful attainment of the starting shortstop job, though seemingly probable at this point, remains anything but guaranteed. To that end, Young has publicly vowed to do everything he can to facilitate the emergence of his 20-year-old protégé into a top-flight major league shortstop -- a process that even the most optimistic of Rangers fans agree will take time to complete, but also has the potential to be so incredibly rewarding.

One of the many excellent quotes culled by Richard Durrett of the Dallas Morning News (and also Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram) was a response to the question of whether or not Young felt the Rangers were poised to become legitimate playoff contenders soon, which consequently elicited the following reply: "I think as I go forward, I have to believe this team is ready to win. This is something we're committed to doing now. I'm going to go out there thinking we're ready to win."

Shameless pandering? Doubtful. Not from Young, who probably is just as confident in this ballclub's ability to win lots of games (and soon) as he is in his ability to play shortstop effectively. For both Young and the franchise at large, the goal is now ensuring that the on-field face of Texas Rangers baseball productively reroutes his frustration and taps into his enormous competitive drive en route to becoming the veteran stalwart and leader that this organization, in light of its present glaring deficiencies at the hot corner, so desperately needs at third base.

This is going to be one interesting season.

Comments

[Robert Bolyard]

Which is pretty much what I've figured would be the outcome. Hell, he might find he prefers to play that position. Now we can all get back to wanting Sheets, Guardado, ect.

[Michael Gleason]

And Freddy Garcia, Robert? Does anyone care to shape my opinion of him?

Is he a poor man's Sheets, or is he not necessarily EXCELLENT WHEN HEALTHY (as Sheets most definitely is!)?

Welcome home Michael Young, our good prodigal son!

Now let's celebrate!

[Robert Bolyard]

I thought Garcia's arm was d-e-a-d. I think it was just 2 years ago he wasn't coming close to hitting 90 anymore, but I could be thinking of someone else.

[t ball]

Not a surprise, even if he went grumbling.

[Jon Page]

Well, this is a relief, seeing this thing come to a swift end - I honestly thought MY might drag this out until the WBC or spring training, but it's good to see him come to his senses (or at least realize what he needed to do to preserve his public status).

Michael: on Freddy Garcia, about all I can find is that his shoulder is supposedly okay and he's apparently going to be ready to go in spring training. I don't really know much about his injury history (aside from his shoulder being the trouble spot), but he hasn't pitched a full season since 2006.

FWIW, Bill James projects him to pitch 168 innings with a 4.05 ERA and a 4.55 FIP - the CHONE and Marcel projections are similar, save for the fact that they have him at 80 innings or below.

We're apparently competing with the Yanks, Mets and White Sox for his serivces though, so I don't really see him choosing us over his alternatives unless we give him a ML contract at some kind of decent size - something I wouldn't want to do, considering his injury history and the fact that we need that money for Sheets. I'd love to see him here as an NRI, but I don't know that I'd want to guarantee him a 40 man spot.

[Robert Bolyard]

Jon,
I absolutely agree. I'm not sooooo sure it would hurt my feelings to go into next season with what we've got. If you have Millwood and Padilla slated to be the top 2 guys (again). Then you have Feldman who had a good season last year, plus Harrison or Gabbard as lefty options (especially if we get Guardado), Hurley, McCarthy, and wildcards like Diamond or Rupe. I think we have guys we can throw out there for right now and see who breaks through and who sinks.

[Joey Matschulat]

Texas flirted with Garcia last winter, but walked away due to concerns over his medical records. He reportedly topped out at 86-87 mph during an MLB showcase on Aug. 5, and his average fastball velocity of 88.9 mph -- per Baseball Info Solutions -- in his 15 innings with the Tigers last season (small sample, but hey) was his highest since 2006, but I haven't heard about any velocity readings on Garcia since.

[Michael Gleason]

For Garcia (who sounds like he's headed to the White Sox) maybe we could offer a Minors deal, too, but with higher incentives than anyone else, and with most chance for $ conditional upon his making the team, with an even more lucrative team option for '10, so that, if he does prove healthy we can decide on him after we know about Sheets, and if we choose to keep him, and he keeps proving good when healthy, we've got our relatively young #2 guy.

[Joey Matschulat]

Miscellaneous stuff out there on the Young situation:

Gil LeBreton writes that Nolan and JD have never been tighter, bucking the Galloway/Reeves sentiment from the FWST...

JJT says that JD needs to apologize to MY for his handling of the situation (which, for obvious reasons, probably isn't going to happen)...

Tons of quotes from Richard Durrett and Jeff Wilson are available, including this rather interesting exchange:

"Coming up through the minor leagues … everything I heard every day was, ‘When you get to the big leagues, you get a job and you hold onto it. You don’t let anybody take it away from you. It’s yours.’ That really resonated with me because I knew that when I got to the big leagues, this is my job. When I got to second base and I got my job questioned the first couple years, I’m holding on harder and harder and harder to the point where, ‘This is mine. I’m not letting go.’ I get to shortstop, and I’m squeezing this thing now. ‘This is mine. This is nobody else’s. You can’t take this from me, and I’m going to go out and show you on the field that I deserve this job. This is mine.’ And I still feel that way. To that end, I’m not going to be apologetic, but at the end of this day I feel like this is going to happen at the beginning of spring training. The team said, ‘You’re playing third. There’s no wiggle room.’ So my best thing now is to throw this upon putting myself and my team in the best chance of being successful.

"This is not going to be an easy move. Third base, just because you’re going 40 feet to your right, it isn’t a slam-dunk move. It isn’t a piece of cake. I was telling my wife I might as well be moving to left field. This is a different position. Granted, some of the balls still come on the ground and my throws still go to first base, but I’m no longer up the middle of the field. That was one of things that I was initially angry about. I’m not in the middle of the field anymore. You’re putting me in a corner now, and you’re asking me to learn it right away. That was something that I feel like I really have to go to work on it."

We'll get into more of this stuff early this afternoon.

[UTBlair]

Being told that no other teams were interested in trading for him also probably helped Young make the "right" decision. It's pretty easy to make the right decision when it's your only option. I wish Texas could have moved the albatross contract...but oh well.

[John Vittas]

I don't think this is over....not at all. I just get that feeling. Not for MY, not for Daniels, not for anybody involved. You have to give him lots of credit for sucking it up and agreeing to the move, but he obviously sounds way less than stoked about this.

Let me play devil's advocate and wonder what you do when Elvis Andrus stumbles out of the gate and struggles through the first two months of the season? Who plays SS then? Do you just let Andrus play and get experience under his belt because we're playing for 2010 anyway?

And then even further down the road, what happens to Justin Smoak when he's ready? Where does Chris Davis go? There's just way too many questions still floating around in my head for me to be content with Young just agreeing to go play third.

[Robert Bolyard]

Eh, it will be hard for Andrus to struggle that much I think. He'll obviously start the season in the 9th hole. As long as he can get the bat on the ball it will fall into play enough times. I'm more concerned with his defense. Everyone loves his defense, but what if he struggles early in the season, and makes a couple careless errors. Remember Metcalf was supposed to be our best defensive option at 3rd last season... but he had way too many errors and if HAD shown the ability to better handle that spot defensively, there's a good chance he would be had been given a chance to start the season at third.

[Michael Gleason]

If it's an Andrus/Arias platoon (EA vs RHP,JA vs LHP) from the outset, it should take some pressure off, and their combined numbers should approach MY's OPS and avg of last year, so I don't worry about that. If one of the 2 struggles with errors (as EA has lately), fans will tend to want mgmnt to make the other full-time. If both struggle with errors, that could get ugly.

But if MY struggles in the field,I think he's got everyone's understanding and patience on his side. On the other hand, if he's hot with the bat (like it's 2005), but having trouble at 3B, and some contender's SS isn't working out (Jose Reyes gets hurt, for example, and Castillo and Cora aren't helping matters...) I could see MY being open to the Rangers listening)... but that's a lot of "ifs".

As for Davis next year (when Smoak rises), he's DH, and we trade one of our C's for pitching (which
is why we need to trade Hank by May if we ever want to see & show Max, Tea and Salty as MLB-
ready!)