Texas Rangers Sign Ian Desmond

The Texas Rangers have signed shortstop, Ian Desmond, to a one-year contract.

According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, the Texas Rangers have signed shortstop Ian Desmond to a one year, $8 million dollar deal to play mainly left field. I’m actually in a bit of shock, because pretty much nobody saw this coming. Because Desmond rejected the Qualifying Offer from the Nationals, the Rangers now have to give up the #19 pick in this year’s draft. One thing to note is that the Rangers’ front office has stated multiple times this offseason that there wasn’t any more room in the budget, but here they are adding another $8 million to it. Let’s hope there’s good reason for it. Here are three thoughts on what this signing could mean:

 1. Josh Hamilton is badly injured

The report is that the Rangers will want Desmond to play left field, which may suggest that Josh Hamilton‘s knee injury is worse than originally thought. Because of this signing, there is speculation that Hamilton won’t play in 50 games this year.

 2. The Rangers have a trade in the works

This is the main reason I’m surprised about this deal. I feel like the Rangers may already have a deal in the works with another team that needs a shortstop. If I could guess, I would say this team is Arizona. Arizona and Texas were in trade talks earlier in the offseason with the Rangers’ bullpen arms and Arizona’s Archie Bradley being the primary pieces. Arizona’s shortstop is Jean Segura, who was an all-star in 2013, but has had a few bad years after that. I could potentially see a deal similar to the line of Shawn Tolleson and Ian Desmond for Archie Bradley and another prospect.

 3. The Rangers are thinking about trading Elvis

Although I’m not happy about the signing, if the Rangers choose to finally trade Elvis Andrus, this deal wouldn’t make me too upset. Elvis is owed $15 million per year until 2022 (!), and his production has been steadily bad the past few years. This move would say that Jurickson Profar is totally healed, and would start him playing shortstop, having Desmond back him up.

Why do you think the Rangers finalized this deal? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

More from Nolan Writin'

• Framework for a potential Max Fried trade to the Texas Rangers
• Early 2023 MLB mock draft has Texas Rangers selecting an Ohtani-lite
• 3 Texas Rangers outfield trade targets not named Bryan Reynolds
• Did Jacob deGrom really mean what he said at his Texas Rangers press conference?
• Where do Texas Rangers prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker stand after the DeGrom signing?