Texas Rangers: Calling the Rockies about Trevor Story not a bad idea

As the baseball world continues to reel from the effects of a global pandemic, the Texas Rangers and 27 other clubs could only watch as the St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies orchestrated a blockbuster trade on Friday night.

The exchange, which will send superstar third baseman Nolan Arenado and $50 million to St. Louis for a host of prospects, is the latest domino to fall in a seemingly new era of baseball where financial flexibility triumphs over fielding a competitive roster.

BREAKING: Cardinals have agreed to acquire Nolan Arenado from Rockies, sources tell @TheAthletic. Deal pending approval from both MLB and players’ union; Rockies sending Cardinals significant cash, believed to be in $50M range, and Arenado will be deferring money.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 30, 2021

It’s worth noting that, in addition to taking on most of Arenado’s salary, the Cardinals won’t be surrendering any of their top five organizational prospects in this deal, a total surprise given the type of player we’re talking about in the superstar third baseman.

The #STLCards are not giving up any of their top 5 prospects in the trade. Their top prospect likely would be OF Jhon Torres, their No. 9 prospect.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) January 30, 2021

This trade is truly the epitome of the state of baseball right now, and that’s not anything to be raving about.

In fact, it’s quite depressing to watch unfold.

With all this being said, though, it would seem as if the Texas Rangers now have an opportunity to strike on potential shortstop target Trevor Story.

Story is highly likely to depart Denver via free agency in 2021, even after reports that the Rockies would like to retain their star shortstop on an extension (kind of ironic, we think).

The Rockies will now likely try to lock up Trevor Story to a long-term deal. Would he sign one, though? One one hand, he could be turned off by the Arenado saga and want a fresh start. On the other, there's going to be A LOT of competition at SS in next winter's FA market.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) January 30, 2021

The Texas Rangers should call the Colorado Rockies about a Trevor Story trade.

However, seeing as the cost to acquire Nolan Arenado was far from prohibitive, perhaps it makes some degree of sense to at least inquire about the price to acquire Story for 2021.

The 28 year-old shortstop is a superstar player in his own right, but not on the same level of Nolan Arenado’s stardom.

Of course, the risk the Rangers would be taking should they acquire Story in 2021 is that he would only be in their uniform for one season, unless the team is intent on giving him an extension.

That scenario isn’t out of the question since Story is from the DFW area, and would probably enjoy the thought of playing in front of friends and family.

Additionally, the Rockies seem more interested in cutting payroll than receiving anything of value based on the way they handled Arenado.

If the Texas Rangers only had to surrender a few mid-tier prospects while holding onto their most valuable (and closest to big league ready) assets to get Trevor Story in red, white and blue, surely Jon Daniels and Chris Young should place a call to Jeff Bridich and the rest of Colorado’s brass.

It can’t hurt.

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