Offseason Simulation: Third Base Difficult to Fill for Texas Rangers

Delving into the Trade Market

When the faux free agent market didn’t materialize as we’d hoped, we looked towards a trade to try and find a third base solution. Kris Bryant was target number one but in the meantime we reached out to the Yankees about Andujar but no dice. Instead of asking if Arenado was available in Colorado, we just drew up a lucrative offer and sent it. Again it was a no go. We thought we might be able to get something done on the cheap for Matt Carpenter from the Cardinals but in the end they opted to keep the lefty slugger. We circle back to Bryant and Cubs which we discussed heavily throughout the simulation.

After a couple days of offers and deliberation, we reached an agreement with Chicago that would see Josh Jung, Leody Taveras, Brock Burke and Jonathan Hernandez go to the Cubs in exchange for Kris Bryant. A big price to pay but it rode the stipulation that we had to agree an extension with Bryant and his mock agent prior to the trade going through. After agreeing the trade parameters, we were unable to get the faux agent to engage in meaningful extension discussions which is understandable giving Bryant being set for a massive payday in two years when he hits free agency. Yet again, we left the market empty-handed.