3 Texas Rangers trade proposals with the Tampa Bay Rays

The Texas Rangers and the Tampa Rays have a long history of making deals with each other. Since 2018 there have been five trades involving each other, the most notable (and recent) being Texas trading for Nathaniel Lowe in 2020.

Tampa Bay is notorious for fleecing teams and raking in pitching. Texas has yet to fall prey to them in a major deal, though (Pete Fairbanks for Nick Solak has worked out well for Tampa, but that’s no major deal). Do they dare test their luck and make an earth-shattering trade with the (Devil) Rays?

The South Florida team is always looking to move players and restock to keep payroll down. They don’t seem to keep their “Ace” pitchers around for long either (see Blake Snell). Savvy on their part as we’ve seen what happens to the likes of David Price, Chris Archer, and even Snell with San Diego in 2021.

Things will be different this time around, right? The Rangers have Jon Daniels AND Chris Young to help make fair deals all around. So let’s take a dive and see what we can come up with to help.

3 trades between the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays

Much has been discussed (a lot by me) about taking Hosmer off the Padres’ hands and landing Robert Hassell. That does seem a bit difficult, so we pivot to the Rays.

Kevin Kiermaier has a contract of $12 million due in 2022 and a $2.5 million buy-out after the season. That is a load for the cash strapped Rays to pay for an under-performing outfielder.

The Rangers would be all too happy to take that money off their hands to bring in Nathaniel Lowe’s younger brother, Josh. The younger Lowe had his best year yet in 2021, hitting .291 with 21 homers in AAA. He is an athletic center fielder who is defense first. He made adjustments to his swing and could develop into an everyday player.

In return, the Rays nab Adolis Garcia to pair with AL Rookie of the Year Randy Arozarena. It’s a steep price to pay to bring in Lowe, but the Rangers’ offense figures to be strong enough with new additions if his bat doesn’t improve.

Austin Meadows could be a solution to the Texas Rangers’ outfield issue

Kevin Kiermaier isn’t the only outfielder who could be on the move to free up room for the Rays. Manuel Margot is probably the next most likely to be traded, but Tampa would still get more from trading Austin Meadows.

Meadows has had back-to-back down years at the plate and his defense is average at best.  He did have a great 2019 where he hit .291 with 33 home runs so Tampa may feel they’re selling low. He also has two more years of team control to work things out.

In this trade, though, the Rays get two high ceiling prospects and a good reliever. Henriquez is one of the top pitching prospects in the Rangers organization for good reason. He has a 60-grade fastball that comes with a high spin rate. He could benefit from fine-tuning his secondary pitches to be a starter, but he’ll be just fine in whatever capacity.

Lora was the 3rd ranked J2 player in 2019. At only 19 years old, he has plenty of time to develop into the power hitter most project him to be.

King fits Tampa’s insatiable need for solid bullpen arms and he comes with five years of very affordable pay, also right in their wheelhouse.

There is never a shortage of trade options when dealing with the Tampa Bay Rays. The trick for the Texas Rangers will be to make sure they keep their heads level and feet planted. Tampa survives on making excellent trades but that doesn’t have to mean Texas should be afraid. After all, they do need to prepare for the upcoming playoff years!