Free agents from AL West rivals the Texas Rangers could steal this winter

The Texas Rangers will be looking far and wide for roster upgrades this winter, but perhaps they don’t have to stray too far from their own division to find those additions.

Chris Young and company know their AL West rivals quite well, considering they play each of the other four teams 19 times a year. The Houston Astros just won the 2022 World Series, and who better to poach from than the new champions of baseball? The Seattle Mariners just made the playoffs for the first time in two decades as well, so their roster could be privy for plundering.  Even the bottom-feeding Angels and Athletics have talent that the Rangers could stand to poach.

Free agents the Texas Rangers could steal from their AL West rivals

Let’s examine which free agents the Texas Rangers could steal from their AL West rivals, starting with the…

Houston Astros

They just captured their second World Series title in six seasons (although 2017 probably shouldn’t count…) and are the gold standard for building a consistent winner.

Houston has a number of names that could be useful to the Rangers in 2023. Among them? Justin Verlander, reliever Rafael Montero and outfielder Michael Brantley.

All three of those players could shore up major Texas weaknesses, specifically Verlander in the rotation, Montero in the bullpen and Brantley the outfield. Verlander and Brantley would be new Rangers, while Montero was with the club in 2019-2020.

Of these three names, Justin Verlander would probably make the most sense to pursue because of a glaring need for elite level starting pitching, but a reunion with Montero, given how good he was for the Astros, would greatly bolster a middle-of-the-pack Rangers bullpen while also weakening the champs.

Free agents the Texas Rangers could steal from their AL West rivals

Seattle Mariners

The Mariners made the playoffs in 2022, their first appearance since 2001. That’s a copious amount of suffering, and the drought is now over.

Seattle has tons of talent on their roster, and should remain in the conversation for the playoffs next year and in years to come. They also dominated the Rangers in their season series in 2022, so Texas could stand to benefit from having players that beat them… join them.

The one name I’m eyeing? Outfielder Mitch Haniger.

Though injury prone, Haniger is the kind of outfielder the Rangers need right now: someone who can produce, because the Rangers got almost no production from their outfielders in 2022 besides Adolis Garcia and the occasional bursts from Leody Taveras, Eli White and Bubba Thompson.

Haniger shouldn’t be too expensive coming off a down 2022 in which he had just 11 homers and a .737 OPS, but he had 39 long balls in 2021 and 26 in 2018, so the talent is there. And a change of scenery could be perfect for Haniger, who is being overshadowed by Julio Rodriguez in the Mariners’ outfield.

Free agents the Texas Rangers could steal from their AL West rivals

Los Angeles Angels

For a team that employs two of the most transcendent talents in baseball, you’d expect the Angels to do a lot more winning than they have in recent years. Wasting prime Mike Trout and a unicorn in Shohei Ohtani while now occupying baseball’s longest playoff drought? The Angels are a bona fide laughingstock. But even they have a player that could help the Texas Rangers.

That would be right-hander Michael Lorenzen.

On the surface, his 4.24 ERA and 85 strikeouts in 97.2 innings pitched/18 starts isn’t that impressive, but he had stretches where he was absolute money for the Angels in 2022. Lorenzen has plus stuff, including a heater that can reach the upper 90s in MPH, and new Rangers skipper Bruce Bochy knows a thing or two about how to get the most out of his pitchers.

Lorenzen is 30, so he should theoretically be hitting his prime as a pitcher. Not to mention, Texas has had recent success with veteran pitchers, turning them into quality starters. There’s no reason Lorenzen couldn’t be that for the Rangers in 2023, at a very affordable price tag.