Ken Rosenthal comes to grim conclusion on Rangers' trade deadline fate

A blistering six-game winning streak from the Texas Rangers has given way to a 1-3 skid as the team has leveled off yet again at the .500 mark, sitting at 45-45. The Rangers currently hold the final American League wild card spot and sit a game-and-a-half behind the Seattle Mariners for the division lead.

The mediocre nature of the AL has anyone within shouting distance of .500 believing that they can compete, which means that this second half is going to be a war of attrition. Some, like former MLB executive Jim Bowden, believe that Chris Young should attack the trade deadline with unusual aggression. Jeff Passan has linked Texas to some of the top trade candidates, including stars like Byron Buxton and Ryan Jeffers.

The Rangers are also lucky to play in such a wide-open division. The Mariners don't look nearly as formidable as they were last season, the Astros are a crumbling empire, the Athletics have the second-to-worst pitching staff in baseball by ERA and don't boast the financial resources to fix it, and the Angels are a doormat.

But just as we can see reasons to push all the chips to the middle of the table, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic makes some salient points in favor of restraint. Rosenthal points out that, on the heels of 2023's World Series title, Texas bought at the last two trade deadlines and had nothing to show for it.

The Rangers have spent a lot of prospect capital in recent years, including giving up three highly-rated prospects for Merrill Kelly at last year's deadline and another five prime youngsters for MacKenzie Gore over the winter. As a result, the farm system is barren and unanimously ranks as one of the bottom five pipelines in the league.

In addition to the implications that it has for the future, it also means that Texas doesn't have much ammunition to go out and fill holes to firm up the organization's status as a contender. Ideally, the Rangers would go out and get a right-handed bat for the outfield, another reliever or two, a starter, and potentially an upgrade at catcher. It's tough to see how they can afford all of that.

The next point has to do with health. Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford are both on the IL yet again, and the longer they're out, the harder it is to make the case that they can score enough runs to compete. The pair has only managed 25 games together, and the Rangers are no better with them than without, coming in with a 13-12 record with their two biggest offensive stars.

Chris Young and the Rangers might be facing a real trade deadline quagmire

Rosenthal makes a compelling case as to why the team shouldn't be buyers, but if they don't buy, does that mean that they sell? That's a tough pill to swallow when the Rangers are still in the thick of the race.

There's also another sobering fact Texas must consider. Acknowledging that the window has closed and it's time to pack it in and prepare for the future would be unpopular with the fans initially, but it could be the right call for the long run. If the Rangers do make the playoffs, it likely will be due to the weakness of the American League, and that makes it hard to envision them as a club that can make some noise in October.

Is it worth it to buy just to get bounced early on? Not really. Basically, you'd just be kicking the rebuild can down the road.

But selling also isn't easy. The Rangers don't have any players listed in ESPN's top 100 trade candidates. That doesn't mean that there aren't teams that would like to have guys like Brandon Nimmo, Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager, and Nathan Eovaldi, among others, on their rosters, but not at the inflated salaries those guys carry.

It's really hard to sell if there's no one who wants to bog themselves down with bloated, multi-year contracts. In reality, selling is basically impossible. That could cause Young to simply sit on his hands and stand pat, waiting for these big contracts to move closer to their expiration dates so the franchise can get adequate returns in the future.

Doing nothing feels wrong. It's the worst kind of no-man's land a team can find itself in. But for the Rangers, it might be a necessary step as they move toward a brighter future.

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