Texas Rangers: Arlington is becoming a place of bounce-backs

Add recently-signed righty Mike Foltynewicz to the list of Texas Rangers players they didn’t have the privilege of drafting or signing originally, but were able to acquire at their lowest value point.

Such is the state of the franchise right now, unfortunately.

Coming off a 22-38 season and in the midst of a full-scale rebuild, the Texas Rangers weren’t in any position to be a landing spot for top free agents this winter.

That seemed obvious enough.

Though they’ve had a decent off-season, dumping veterans off for prospects, taking in cost-effective and controllable players and signing reclamation projects, the latter is the reality which the Rangers find themselves immersed in, whether they know it or not.

They’re a prime destination for players like David Dahl and Foltynewicz, former All-Stars who need to rehabilitate their values by taking one-year deals in places where they can be guaranteed extensive playing time assuming health.

The Texas Rangers are becoming a team for players who want to re-establish themselves.

The above tweet puts it succinctly.

Typically, teams in the Rangers’ current position likely couldn’t even approach players like Dahl and Folty at their best.

And at their respective bests, Dahl and Folty are quite good. All-Star caliber good. Even borderline best player on the team good.

Injuries have derailed both players over the last few years, though, and now the Texas Rangers, expected once again to be the cellar-dwellers of the AL West in 2021, have a chance to make their moves.

To their credit, they have.

David Dahl and Folty are the textbook definitions of risk/reward plays. On one-year deals and with not much to lose, they both saw Arlington and its spiffy new ballpark as a place to breathe life back into their major league careers.

Even if one, both or neither of these two veterans pan out for Texas in 2021, it can be as simple as bidding the player(s) adieu at the conclusion of this season.

Look, this is far from the identity that the Texas Rangers would like to establish for themselves. They’d much prefer to be in the running for the big fish like Trevor Bauer or George Springer or Marcell Ozuna.

Alas, that’s not the situation Jon Daniels and Chris Young find themselves in. Instead, they find themselves with a barren talent reserve at the big league level, limited financial resources and a lot of questions.

All of those factors add up to being an attractive destination for players who hope to use the Rangers as a springboard back to relevancy.

Perhaps that’s not such a bad role to embrace.

For now, though, it’s not really their choice either way.