Texas Rangers: A tale of two trades on display in one weekend

No two trades are alike in baseball, and the Texas Rangers got to witness both ends of the spectrum over the weekend.

On one side, we had the triumph of the Joey Gallo trade, as the Rangers saw Glenn Otto start a game in this most series against the Mariners and Josh Smith and Ezequiel Duran make their anticipated big league debuts to much fanfare. And on the other side, a reminder of the 2017 Yu Darvish trade with the Dodgers that hasn’t gone nearly as well.

The Texas Rangers experienced a tale of two trades over the weekend

With the news Sunday that Willie Calhoun would be designated for assignment by the Texas Rangers after a stint with AAA Round Rock, the lone remaining piece the team received for ace Yu Darvish is pitcher A.J. Alexy, who is also stationed at Round Rock for the time being. Alexy was solid in his Rangers debut in 2021, but has yet to find consistency as a big leaguer in 2022. The book isn’t written on him yet, though.

The third piece acquired in that deal, Brendon Davis, never saw Arlington during his time in the Rangers organization.

Thus, the tale of two trades: one that has produced three MLB players in under a calendar year and the other that hasn’t really at all. It’s a blatant reminder of the fact that trades take time to unfold, especially when they involve prospects. A deal can never fully be evaluated until we see how the young players perform when (or if) they receive the call to the Show. And in the case of the Darvish and Gallo trades, we’ve seen opposite results.

It’s ironic that Calhoun was DFA’d the same weekend as prospects from the Gallo trade were being called up to the Rangers, only further illustrating the disparity between the two deals.

It’s also a shame that Calhoun could never find his footing with the Texas Rangers, as he was once among the most promising of the organization’s farmhands, the jewel in the crown of the return they got for Darvish. Hopefully, Josh Smith, Ezequiel Duran and Glenn Otto all have long and productive careers to make up for what the Rangers thought they were getting with Calhoun, Alexy and Davis back in 2017.