Rangers Rumors: Rays trade candidates emerge with Texas potentially in buy mode

Eric Cole

Tampa Bay Rays v Texas Rangers / Tim Heitman/GettyImages

It has been a very tumultuous season for the Texas Rangers, and until recently it looked like they were on course to even sell at the trade deadline. With so many injuries throughout the first half of 2024 on both sides of the ball, Texas simply had never been able to put together a sustained run of success and found themselves well out of a playoff spot for a long time.

However, things have changed for the better. The team still has a bunch of guys hurt, but the defending World Series champs have slowly made progress in getting healthier and now find themselves winners of seven of their last 10 games. With the Mariners crashing and burning lately and the Astros treading water, the AL West looks like a very winnable division right now.

The Rangers don't appear to be willing to waste the opportunity and have shifted to being buyers at the deadline. While they are certainly checking in on a number of trade targets right now, a pair of Rays bats currently have their attention.

Texas Rangers Rumors: Yandy Diaz and Isaac Paredes among team's top trade targets for the moment

With Evan Carter's back continuing to give him trouble and Josh Jung rehabbing his broken wrist, the Rangers seem to be prioritizing offense for the moment. Tampa has emerged as one of the early aggressive sellers at the deadline after making a pair of deals on Friday, and Texas has been in contact on a couple interesting names on the Rays' roster.

Isaac Paredes is on many teams' wish lists right now given his offensive track record and defensive versatility, but Texas seemingly wants Paredes mostly for his bat to potentially DH while providing them with some positional depth. Yandy Diaz is also in play for the Rangers as a platoon bat that absolutely mashes lefties now that he has been activated from the restricted list.

Both players have multiple years of team control, so acquiring either would require a real investment in terms of prospects. However, Tampa is clearly open for business and appears to be strangely reasonable in their demands in this seller's market. While both Paredes and Diaz have their warts as players, either one should give the Rangers a much-needed offensive boost for the stretch run.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.