Will the Texas Rangers make a big move?

Overall it has been a very busy Hot Stove season for several teams such as the Oakland Athletics, and the Seattle Mariners, but not the Texas Rangers.   Some people expected the Rangers to be active before and during the MLB Winter Meetings during the end of November and the first week in December.

The Rangers have not been totally quiet this offseason.   They did make a trade to acquire Ross Detwiler from the Nationals for two minor league prospects 2B Chris Bostick and RHP Abel de Los Santos.  They also re-signed Colby Lewis and picked up free-agent Kyuji Fujikawa.  

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With those moves the Rangers did at least help solve some of the issues with the starting rotation and the bullpen.  Detwiler and Lewis will help fill out the rotation, but they’ll likely look to Nick Tepesch or Nick Martinez to fill out the rotation.  They’ll likely use Fujikawa as the setup man, which means Neal Cotts is unlikely to return next season.

For those who are waiting for the Rangers to make a big move can probably stop waiting.  The Rangers are not going to make any big blockbuster trades or acquisitions like they did last season.  Texas Rangers beat writer T.R. Sullivan talked to MLB.com a little about the offseason recently and what direction they are taking.  He mainly stated that the team isn’t looking to spend big money, mainly because the team is currently where they want to be at budget wise.  Also, they want to see where they are with the current roster.

Last season everyone had high expectation with Prince Fielder, Yu Darvish, Derek Holland and Shin-Shoo Choo.  But, they like most on the team spent time on the disabled list.  Overall the Rangers used the disabled list 26 times using a total of 64 different players for the 2014 season.  People can only guess how well the team would have performed if most of them were healthy last season.

Right now the Rangers don’t want to trade away more prospects to only acquire someone for just one season.  If they do make a trade using prospects it would need to be for someone that has at least 2 or 3 years left on for them to control on their contract.

Overall, the Rangers are still in a good position to be a playoff contender next season.  They still have their ace pitcher Yu Darvish, a solid number 2 in Derek Holland and Colby Lewis.  Hopefully Detwiler and one of the Nicks will be able to fill the void in the rotation.  And if Choo and Fielder are able to bounce back that should improve the lineup some.  The Rangers don’t need to make any huge signings right now, the main thing is to have a healthy roster next season and the players they do have perform to their expectations.